Everyone Please Read

[Ed]

I don't want to preach about boating safety but I thought I would tell this story in the event that it may save some lives.

This past Saturday after work, around 6:00pm or so, I fired up the Mako and headed down the Merrimack River toward the ocean to do a little bit of fishing. I had just passed the toothpick (daymarker) at the east end of the mooring field and opened up the boat to cruising speed when I saw a large cabin cruiser heading up river throwing up an enormous wake. The guy wasn't minding his wake and if you know the Merrimack River at all, there are a ton of small boats around. Anyway, I throttled back and went over the wake and slammed down the back side temporarily knocking out power to my GPS & fishfinder. I then got back on the throttle and proceeded to continue heading out the channel when I saw what I thought was a seal in the water (not uncommon) off my port bow. So, i slowed down and as I got closer I realized that it was a person who was in the channel. At first I thought this guy was going for a swim in a bad spot but then i finally realized that he had fallen overboard. So, I radioed the coast guard and told them that there was a person in the water and then i swung over toward him, killed the motor and fished him out. he was cold and obviously shaken up. He was not wearing a life jacket or a kill-switch tether and said that the weight of his sweatshirt had hindered his ability to stay afloat and he was forced to take it off. He also said he had been yelling for help, but I was the first person to see him.

I guess he was heading down river in his 20' center console when the wake caught him by surprise and threw him out of the boat. Luckily, he inadvertantly pushed the throttle in neutral so he was in no danger of running himself over or losing his boat.

The moral of the story is to always wear a lifejacket and a tether cord and pay attention to your surroundings.

I never used to wear a lifejacket because they were too bulky to fish with, but this year I have been wearing a Mustang Survival auto-inflating life jacket. The thing was not cheap, but it is comfortable and provides great flotation.

As a result of this incident, i will also start to wear my kill switch tether and encourage everyone else to do the same.

Thanks for reading this story.

Sincerely,