CLEVELAND — The Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary assisted 16 boaters in upper New York and Detroit area during a busy Friday night and Saturday morning.
At about 9:30 p.m., Friday, a boat crew aboard a 45-foot response boat from Coast Guard Station Belle Isle in Detroit responded to a boat taking on water in the vicinity of Harbor Hill Marina on the Detroit River.
Upon arriving on scene the rescue boat crew found a 23-foot pleasure craft mostly submerged with four people aboard. Two Coast Guard crewmembers went ashore to assist getting the people off the boat and then helped trailer the boat and pull it safely out of the water.
Boat crews from Coast Guard Station Sodus Point and Coast Guard Station Rochester, New York, as well as a Coast Guard Auxiliary boat crew, assisted 12 people aboard three separate boats in the Rochester and Pultneyville, New York, area. All three boats were beset by weather and could not make it to shore safely.
A squall, which is a localized storm with strong winds usually accompanied by rain, passed through the Rochester area and caused 4 to 6 foot swells and 15 to 20 miles-per-hour winds. All three boats were between 19 and 23 feet long. Two of the boats had two people aboard and the other boat had eight people aboard. All boats and boaters were safely brought to shore.
The Coast Guard reminds boaters to check current and future weather conditions prior to getting underway. We also recommend listening to regular weather broadcast on your VHF-FM radio, which is another great reason to have a radio aboard your boat.
The Coast Guard also issued four citations for boating under the influence Friday night and Saturday morning.
