Not your typical day on Owasco Lake

It was a warm July day in 2020 and as we were all adjusting to dealing with everyday life during the COVID-19 pandemic. My wife and I decided that a typical day on the lake would probably be a great way to forget about COVID for a while. So we decided to take our pontoon boat down the lake to Seb’s Green Shutters for dinner and asked another couple to join us.

Now, we live about 7 miles south of Emerson Park, and we all met at our beach in the early afternoon to have a nice relaxing trip to the park. We were all set to shove off when we noticed a storm at the very south end of the lake and even though it was heading away from us to the southeast, we decided to wait a bit for the storm to move further away. After about 10 minutes we headed out.

As we slowly headed down the lake, which was relatively calm when we left the dock, we noticed that the wind had suddenly picked up and the lake had gotten pretty rough. Our boat is pretty good-sized, and we were going with the waves, so we weren't too concerned about the change in conditions. We would find out later that this change in conditions would lead to an event that would forever change all our lives.

We were about halfway to the park when we decided to stop for a few minutes in the middle of the lake so the girls could cool off in the water. We shut the boat off and after the girls got wet they got back on board. Now, normally we have the radio on, but for some strange reason we didn’t that day. This ended up being a critical decision after what happened next.

As the girls were drying off and we were all visiting with one another, one of the girls yelled, “Quiet, I think I heard someone yelling!” With that, we all stopped talking and started looking all around. That’s when we all heard the cries for help and noticed a person in the middle of the lake waving his arm at us. We then noticed another individual as well and with that, we sprang into action.

Immediately, we all instinctively started loudly communicating what we were all planning to do to save these two people. I drove the boat swiftly yet safely toward the people, who were probably 200 yards from our location. They were sometimes difficult to see due to the approximately 2-foot waves. What made matters worse was the fact that the two people had drifted about 100 yards apart from one another. The others on our boat were collecting various floatation devices and life jackets that we could immediately throw to the gentlemen once we got close enough to them.

Both of these people had been in the water for some time, and it was quite apparent that they were out of energy and were in serious danger of drowning, so we decided that the first thing we needed to do was to get both of them some sort of flotation device immediately. As we came up on the first person, we threw him a life jacket and yelled to him, “We’ll be back to get you, we’ve got to get to your pal."

As we arrived at the second person, I carefully maneuvered the boat close enough so that the others could perform the rescue. Once the gentleman was on the boat we headed back over to the first guy and we were able to get him on the boat as well. I cannot say enough about how impressed and proud I was at how the three of them worked together to get both men on board safely. We then asked if they were all right and if they needed medical assistance, but they both declined, saying they just needed to lie there and rest a while.

After giving them some time to recover, we then decided to head down the lake to catch up with their pontoon boat, which by now had drifted about a mile down the lake. Once we got to it, we tied it to our boat and headed to a cove out of the wind to regroup.

It took a while for the two gentlemen to regain their energy, since when we arrived they were pretty much spent. In fact, one of them told us that he had already said his goodbyes to his wife and kids. They then told us that they had both jumped off the boat for a swim, and when the wind suddenly picked up it caused their boat to drift away from them, so much so that they couldn’t catch it. They both thanked us over and over for saving them and soon they boarded their boat and went back home.

We continued our journey down the lake to have dinner, all the while reflecting on what had just happened — how we just happened to stop in that area for the girls to swim and how for some reason we didn’t have the radio playing, which allowed us to hear the calls for help. We were all feeling uplifted, energized and proud of what we had all just experienced and were able to accomplish working as a team to save the lives of two individuals. It sure wasn’t your typical day on the lake!

Carl Weber is a member of the board of directors of the Owasco Watershed Lake Association.