News: Air rescue lifts three from breakwall

http://www.pointbuzz.com/news.htm?id=1005

That's a bummer of a way to start the holiday weekend. Sure glad no one was hurt.

It was last week, cpguru was talking about taking a boat from Detroit to Sandusky this weekend.

Yeah, I do remember that discussion. Although, I know of quite a few people who do the same trip, though admittedly less with marina gas prices being what they are.

I was at the marina down here in Tennessee on Norris Lake and their gas was 3.59 a gallon.

One good thing about the lakes down here,the mountains keep the wind blocked off pretty good.If the lake has 2 foot waves they are talking about how rough it is.

By no means do I mean to disbarage the family after a tough experience, but who takes a 20 foot boat across lake Erie during 6 foot waves at night? Seems almost like a comedy of rookie errors.

I am very happy they made it out alive. It just goes to show how dangerous boating is and how lucky we are to have the coast guard looking out for us.

*Edit* Typo
*** Edited 9/1/2006 12:24:46 PM UTC by RTurb0***

Six foot waves are very manageable in a 20' boot. Night is also not a problem for an able navigator, and they were on course, so that was not a problem for them. The waves didn't get them into trouble, poor fuel management did. Plus, they apparently didn't have proper anchoring equipment.

This is a case where the sea conditions caused them to burn more fuel than they expected, and they lost the boat because they couldn't anchor to keep it away from the rocks. The skipper also failed to keep enough reserve fuel over what he thought he would need.

Just out of curiosity, how many marinas are there between the Detroit area and CP?

The first thing that came to mind for me when I read that was "I'd rather be in my boat with a drink on the rocks, than in the drink with a boat on the rocks" :)

It sucks, but Pete, your signature has never been more appropriate.

I personally wouldn't do it, and everyone I know that goes on Erie has a 25' boat or larger and tells me not to go out in 6 foot waves unless I buy a bigger boat (mostly because it is uncomfortable and you can sink an open bow boat pretty easily if you aren't experienced, which I am not)

Either way, I am just happy they got out alive and have a chance to learn from their mistakes (I hope)

Five or six foot waves aren't real bad,as far as navigating at night,you can use a gps and do just as good as you would during the daytime.Like Pete said though it is real easy to miss judge your fuel consumption in rough water.

I fished a bass tournament on Kentucky Lake,that morning I ran about 50 miles up the lake,the area I was fishing was out of the direct wind.When I started back down the lake I had a strong head wind with four and five foot rollers,and used twice as much gas coming back as I did going.

I like the drive to the point, then if your staying more then one day you can drive places. But im happy to hear that they all made it out of the water safe.

Going to CP by boat is really fun, especially at night. The views are amazing.

djDaemon said:
Just out of curiosity, how many marinas are there between the Detroit area and CP?

There are a bunch around marblehead, port clinton, catawba, and the Islands which would be directly in his the path. There are prolly 10 or so around Marblehead. If he took the route between the islands and the mainland he prolly made that phonecall, as Marblehead is where it opens up and you can see CP. Kinda baffeling if he was so low on fuel he would risk it when there were a a bunch of marinas he probably passed despite being on fumes.

The issue might have been finding one with 24 hour services, and since they were so close anyway he thought they could make it. Still thats a lousy excuse. *** Edited 9/2/2006 7:41:03 AM UTC by Joe E***

Follow-up: http://www.pointbuzz.com/news.htm?id=1016