It looked like the scene of a Halloween horror movie on November 3, when the Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) released photos from the rescue attempt of a missing canoeist in Patapsco State Park. The pond was so small, you could throw a football across it to the other side. Two men had been out in a canoe when suddenly the vessel began taking on water faster than they could bail it. A nearby fisherman rescued one of the men, but his partner went underwater and did not emerge. Park rangers, police, firemen, divers, helicopters, and even cadaver dogs combed the area to no avail. The body of Billy Jones was recovered a week later.
Drowning in a small pond seems like an impossibility. But so does drowning in only 10 feet of water. That’s what happened to Ronald Gressitt of Pasadena. He and his family were out crabbing in Cornfield Creek when he fell into water, only 100 feet from shore. Despite the fact that the water was so shallow, it was so murky and dark that the rescue operation involved a side-scanning sonar system to locate the body, not far from where he fell off the boat.
The two men have several things in common. Both men were experienced boaters. They were both operating their vessels safely; they were both adults. When they went in the water, they encountered a problem, and couldn’t get back to the surface. Neither man was wearing a lifejacket.
During the recovery operation of Jones, the NRP decided to make a point of the significance of lifejackets, posting an eerie picture of an orange, Type 2 life jacket entangled in the trees at the pond’s shoreline. “A lifejacket doesn’t work unless you wear it,” the NRP said. But as a boater, looking at the image, how could you blame them for not wearing those bulky PFDs? No one wears those unless it’s absolutely necessary, right? Or maybe you wear one if you’re imitating a scene in the movie “What About Bob,” but really, those are meant to be used only in the case of an emergency. Right?
Boating is supposed to be safe. But it’s also supposed to be fun. So at PropTalk, we are asking our readers to take an extra step for 2016, making the new year an opportunity to change the ways we look at lifejackets and safety. If you love a boater or angler, invest in his or her safety by buying a lifejacket they will wear. Take them shopping; try on several models; let him or her decorate it; make it something that they will love, appreciate, and (most importantly) wear. It doesn’t have to be fancy; it does have to be comfortable. It’s meant to get dirty, and sun-bleached, and have plenty of little boat bites and scuffs to show how much it’s loved.
And if you have your own boat, decide to lead your crew by example and purchase your own lifejacket. Make it something that you won’t leave home without; something that rides along in the back of your car for spontaneous cocktail cruises and early rows out to check on the boat at its mooring. Decide that if you are on your boat and you can see it, you’ll wear it. Change your attitude by changing your accessories, and maybe you’ll end up changing your life.
It’s hard to say whether a lifejacket would have saved Billy’s or Robert’s life. But the most you can hope for, as a boater, is to never have to ask that question of yourself, or of anyone you love. If you wear a lifejacket, you’ll never know if your life could have been cut short in a minor boating accident. The only thing you’ll know is that you like your lifejacket; that it is comfortable, and fun to wear, and you’ve never had an accident where you might have wanted it.
Monday, December 21, 2015 - 09:00
It looked like the scene of a Halloween horror movie on November 3, when the Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) released photos from the rescue attempt of a missing canoeist in Patapsco State Park. The pond was so small, you could throw a football across it to the other side. Two men had been out in a canoe when suddenly the vessel began taking on water faster than they could bail it. A nearby fisherman rescued one of the men, but his partner went underwater and did not emerge. Park rangers, police, firemen, divers, helicopters, and even cadaver dogs combed the area to no avail. The body of Billy Jones was recovered a week later.
Drowning in a small pond seems like an impossibility. But so does drowning in only 10 feet of water. That’s what happened to Ronald Gressitt of Pasadena. He and his family were out crabbing in Cornfield Creek when he fell into water, only 100 feet from shore. Despite the fact that the water was so shallow, it was so murky and dark that the rescue operation involved a side-scanning sonar system to locate the body, not far from where he fell off the boat.
The two men have several things in common. Both men were experienced boaters. They were both operating their vessels safely; they were both adults. When they went in the water, they encountered a problem, and couldn’t get back to the surface. Neither man was wearing a lifejacket.
During the recovery operation of Jones, the NRP decided to make a point of the significance of lifejackets, posting an eerie picture of an orange, Type 2 life jacket entangled in the trees at the pond’s shoreline. “A lifejacket doesn’t work unless you wear it,” the NRP said. But as a boater, looking at the image, how could you blame them for not wearing those bulky PFDs? No one wears those unless it’s absolutely necessary, right? Or maybe you wear one if you’re imitating a scene in the movie “What About Bob,” but really, those are meant to be used only in the case of an emergency. Right?
Boating is supposed to be safe. But it’s also supposed to be fun. So at PropTalk, we are asking our readers to take an extra step for 2016, making the new year an opportunity to change the ways we look at lifejackets and safety. If you love a boater or angler, invest in his or her safety by buying a lifejacket they will wear. Take them shopping; try on several models; let him or her decorate it; make it something that they will love, appreciate, and (most importantly) wear. It doesn’t have to be fancy; it does have to be comfortable. It’s meant to get dirty, and sun-bleached, and have plenty of little boat bites and scuffs to show how much it’s loved.
And if you have your own boat, decide to lead your crew by example and purchase your own lifejacket. Make it something that you won’t leave home without; something that rides along in the back of your car for spontaneous cocktail cruises and early rows out to check on the boat at its mooring. Decide that if you are on your boat and you can see it, you’ll wear it. Change your attitude by changing your accessories, and maybe you’ll end up changing your life.
It’s hard to say whether a lifejacket would have saved Billy’s or Robert’s life. But the most you can hope for, as a boater, is to never have to ask that question of yourself, or of anyone you love. If you wear a lifejacket, you’ll never know if your life could have been cut short in a minor boating accident. The only thing you’ll know is that you like your lifejacket; that it is comfortable, and fun to wear, and you’ve never had an accident where you might have wanted it.