My crew and I rescued three beautiful souls yesterday.
They were on inexpensive pool rafts that were being pushed out to sea with ease, given the strong westerly gales.
Several boaters had passed them and didn’t offer assistance, despite their distress signal (arm/hand waving). They estimated they spent ~2 hours trying to get help.
Their arms waving signal was my cue to check things out, and I’m glad I did. They were about 1 mile offshore.
One was experiencing, what I believed to be, a mild panic attack. Another had an expression of sadness, gratitude, and fear. Stepping onto my swim platform is going to be the highlight of their summers, I suspect.
This was no doubt traumatizing for them, and after we brought them back safely to the beach, our crew talked about the experience for 20 minutes thereafter, reminding me how things can go wrong so quickly on the big lake.
I was extremely happy to see these three people had life jackets on and an air horn (which they used up trying to get others’ attention). I complimented them on their responsibility in that regard.
Moral of the story: keep an eye out for those hand and arm signals from any kind of “craft.” You never know when your time and place could mean saving lives.
(Pic is of the rescuees back at the beach; we were able to drop them in shallow enough water so they could stand and walk into shore. I’m sure land never felt so good to their feet!)