I don't post much on the site but follow and enjoy many of the discussions here. On this subject I was recently on the sour end. I hit a sand bar last Sunday and ended up outside the boat with my life jacket on. I have boated my entire life and love the water and pulled people in many times, karama must exsist in my situation. This was supposed to be last trip of the season ( as North Texas lakes are getting too low, as I found out the hard way) I wanted to make a couple good runs by myself low on fuel, cool water, and go home. Well on the last run I hit a sand bar at 70+ pretty scary in it's self then slowed down and notice the temp gauge creeping up and I knew I sucked up a bunch of silt. When I turned to see if water was coming from the exhaust I hit something else some how knocked my laynard off and rolled off the sun deck with the boat in gear idling now. It was one of the worst feelings ever, watching my pride and enjoy slowly idle away from you, then relize there is not another sole in site. Its 60 degrees and fully clothed in the middle of the lake and the water is just as cold. Luckily someone at a marina nearby heard me, knew I was in trouble and directed some bass fisherman to assist they wrangled the boat and shut it off and then picked me up. It feels like eternity when your in water by yourself (maybe only a 10 min ordeal total). This could have played out so much worse and my greatest fear was to never see my two young daughters or wife again. Or have the boat hit someone else. I thank god I used my head and put the Life Jacket on that day and I can't be more thankful enough for the guys that came to my rescue. The answer in my book will always be help a fellow man in need you never know when it is going to be you. Our sport gets a bad stigma sometimes due to the type of boats but most of the boaters I meet are great people and will assist whenever needed. Just wanted to share as this is still very fresh on my mind and still think how much worse it could have turned out. Like many have said before our toys can be replace but lives can't be.

Be safe out there,
Michael

I've towed/been towed when safety wasn't an issue......just a day that sucked!

However, about 6 years ago we went to the local hangout on the first warm day in April. Warm air, kids could swim but the adults wanted no part of the cold water. Noticed a couple 1 boat over from us walking back and forth on the beach. Looking around the tree line and between boats for what seemed like 20 minutes. Told my wife I thought they were looking for a ball or dog but I was getting concerned. As they passed by again I asked what they were looking for......."a 11 year old girl".

There were 2 guys in a boat between mine and theirs. They heard her answer me (apparently they had been noticing the same thing I saw) and walked into 4 ft deep water behind the boats as I got off to do the same.......they found her in 15-20 seconds. Only problem was she had been missing for at least 20 minutes and had been on the bottom. We started CPR while rescue was called. 25-30 min later they showed up on a tug boat as it was the closest place rescue knew to come to where we were.

My oldest was 10 and all 3 of my boys were with us at the time. The girl was BLUE and we never got a sign of life from her. I read in the paper a few days later that she died.



fast forward ONE WEEKEND:
I'm on a camping trip with my boys and it's cold while were fishing on a dock at a lake. A young couple comes down, puts a 14 ft jon boat in the lake and loads a 3 yr old and an infant in the boat. I stop the lady and tell her to PLEASE put life jackets on the kids as I saw a girl die the weekend before. Her husband didn't seem pleased as I was insistant. Within 50 feet of leaving the dock the infant is screaming about the jacket so the mother takes if off to shut the kid up.........I was pissed.

25+ years ago on a warm summer night, me and a girl I was dating at the time were having a night-time ride up the hudson river. Just as we passed Indian point where the river bends to the right, the engine died and I realized we were out of gas. For some unknown reason, the anchor was not in the boat and after trying 30+ minutes to raise someone on the radio, we were still alone in the dark, shouting as loud as we could. I figured eventually we'd drift onto one of the river banks and just tie off until we could get some help. At this point, it was pitch black, had no gas, we're drifting and it got much worse. Since we were just ahead of the bend in the river, we were unable to see the freighter coming up river until it was about 100 yards away. We were square in the middle of the channel, we got our life jackets on were just about to start swimming when we heard a little outboard come up with a guy and his son and he pulled us into the shore out of harms way; gave me a few gallons of gas to get back to my marina and wouldn't take a nickel for the gas. That was a VERY long time ago and since then, any time I've ever come across anyone where there was even the slightest hint they might need help, I've stopped. Doing the right thing... it's a good way to live.

Never leave a man (or women) behind has been written in my DNA since I was a little kid.
Started boating off the coast of Maine. The way the current and wind works is if you break down and cant hook up and anchor you are on your way to England so no matter what if something don’t look right you go and investigate. Even as a little kid in a flat bottom plywood row boat with a 3hp motor I remember towing someone in.
Then there was the time a lobster boat caught fire and burst into flames about 100 yards off our dock when I was 10. My 70 year old grandmother did the rowing while I pulled the father and daughter crew on the boat burning my eyebrows off. Well, I pulled the father aboard, the daughter was a healthy Maine girl with coveralls full of water, I just held on.
The last time, I went past these folks in a river (I live in Maryland now) about 3pm on a late fall day last year. Stopped by (because things didn’t look right) and asked if they needed help (3 adults and 3 kids onboard). They told me they were broke down and waiting on a friend and they would be OK. So I went further down the river and played around for an hour or so and then started heading back to the public ramp I was using about 10 miles away. Going back up the river the boat is still there so I stop again and basically convince the guy to at least let me give them a tow until their buddy showed up because it was going to be dark and cold soon. So we hook him up and my little 19’ boat set up for top end speed is trying to tow this 24’ cuddy cabin and there is no one else on the water anywhere. I’m dragging him along and watching my gas gage get closer and closer the that dreaded “E” and really didn’t think we were going to make it. As we finally pull up to the pier and I start to slow down the nose of the boat drops and the motor starts to stumble but stayed running until we both got to the ramp. As we pull up the guy on the boat I’m towing yells over at the pier, “were in the hell have you been” to a guy on the pier. Pointing to a boat on the next pier he says, “been trying to get the boat started for hours and thinks he may have dropped his cell phone in the water”. Being it was twilight when we got to the ramp it would have been a long cold night for those folks if I didn’t insist that I couldn’t just leave them there.

Great Job.

Never saved any lives before but I think I saved some sanity once, I like everyone else that has commented has & will help if needed and have done so many times. This time we were in Okoboji visiting my brother & went to dinner, we were sat at a table overlooking west lake & looking over the menu when I heard a couple of guys trying to start their boat at the dock. It wouldn't even fire so I went down to see if it was something goofy like a landyard switch or something. These guys were pretty soused but things looked ok, I found a screwdriver in the bilge & removed the cap, the points set screw was missing so I dug around in the bilge & found the screw back by the drain plug. Reset the points with a matchbook, had the guy hit the key and the boat fired right up. As they were leaving & I was walking up the dock everyone at the place stood up & gave a standing ovation. I was told by the waitress that the guys were very disruptive & had been asked to leave and had been there for about an hour before we showed up. Got a free steak dinner for that. Randy

I think it has to do with being in Maine for those first years. We go up about once a year for family and vacations. It seems like every time I pull over on some not so traveled road when up there to put something in GPS or yell at a kid some one will always stop and ask if we are OK?
Where I live, Maryland you pull over on a not so traveled road and then some one pulls over to "check" on you, you better be prepared anything. Not that happens all the time but you first thought is, I wonder what their intentions are?

This reminds me of my first poker run. It was the ohio river poker run in 2006. It was our first year out with the boat and our first run we were so excited to be out there with everybody. We decided to follow the bigger boats so we could see some good action we were the slowest boat in the class. As we go through the first card stop we are getting back up to speed and we come around a bend to find two of my customers one in a 36 skater and the other in a 32 skater pulled off to the side with the guy in the 36 waving to us. We pulled over to find the 32 owner in the water. Now jeff is a big guy and I didn't think it was time to stop and swim. Barry on the 36 yelled to us his boat is running and his son is hurt. We got tied to the 32 shut it down and got Jeff loaded into the boat and proceeded to tow the 32 back to the dock while Barry took Jeff's son to the waiting ambulance at the dock. What we had found out was that he had come off of a wake wrong and was thrown from the boat. As we were towing boat back my brother sat in the skater talked to jeff gave him water and kept awake. As we got back to the waiting ambulance at the dock Jeff went into some sort of shock and passed out. I believe he was diabetic. It was very scary situation. We got everything settled up and went back to the run. We kinda lost interest in the rest of the run,but I felt we had done a good thing and That was more satisfying to me than finishing a stupid poker run. A couple of days later I got a call from Jeff at work thanking me and my brother for helping him out when a lot of people had just gone by. In this situation I helped a customer out and gained a good friend on the boating community.

Been on both ends, helped pull someone from the water before, towed many broken down boaters in, but only once have I been the one to be towed. We were out in my neighbors Baja when the boat just quit, (come to find out later it was a loose fuel pump wire). After waving our hands at several passing boaters, one finally stopped and started towing us to the marina. About 5 minutes into the tow, the boat pulling us stops, releases the line and said they had someplace else to be and that they called a tow boat for us that should be there in an hour. I kept my composure, but after going out of my way on many occasions to help out a stranded boater, I was amazed that these people that had started helping us, would suddenly stop. I'm glad to hear all the good stories on here, but I think there is a bit of a shift in the boating world and not everybody is as helpful as many of the members on this board.

My hats off to those that help when help is needed.

I stopped labor day weekend to tow a sailboat off the bar. People REALLY didn't know what they were doing.

Luckily about 2 minutes into the tow the Boat US guy just happened to be driving by and insisted on finishing the job. He's a friend of the family and I rand into him the following week where he mentioned that he had pulled over becaues he didn't want me to damage anything. Then we had a laugh because about 6 hours later he got a call from the same people who were stuck on ANOTHER sand bar about 10 miles away. Poor people.

It's like a funeral - you better go to other people's otherwise noone will come to yours!