Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
Got to the lake this morning about 7 AM - later than I wanted, but I
had to help a neighbor out by watching their kids until the school bus
came.

Launched and started out to my favorite early morning spots when I
spied a boat in trouble - as in the process of swamping. It was a 14
footer with five people on board. They were waving and hollering -
why somebody on the lake didn't call, I don't know, but I went over to
assist - get this - one PFD for five of them. Smart.

Got 'em on board my boat, then called the local PD to come get the
swamped boat. PD says to stay with the boat, they'll be right out.

I started looking at the swamped boat and figured out what happened -
the drain plug fell out. They installed it from the outside in, not
from the inside out which was confirmed by the boats operator - it
wasn't his boat, he ran out of gas, the boat starting filling up -
etc. So, I grabbed one of my spare rubber plugs from the battery
storage compartment, plugged it in, took out the portable bilge pump I
have for just this kind of situation and started pumping the boat out.
By the time the PD got there (along with the FD with their brand new
hovercraft "rescue" boat - anything to try out the new toy), the bilge
pump gave it's last slurp - I handed the boat over to the PD and took
the passengers back to the ramp.

Post Incident: From what I gathered, this was just a fun ride for the
morning. The operator had never run a boat and according to one of
the shore fishermen, had a hard time starting the boat and generally
looked like a newbie even launching. He was thinking of buying the
boat from his friend.


Yet more evidence for the need to require a solid boating education
course for new boaters, and a licensing requirement for all boaters,
including a "junior" license for younger boaters.