'ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE': Beach attendant saves two in runaway raft
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While working to keep beachgoers at The Dunes of Seagrove comfortable last Friday, Jake Fannin noticed something out of the ordinary.
“I was trying to open up the umbrellas and some lady was crying … standing out there, just hysterical,” the Freeport grad said.
That woman was the mother of two 15-year-old boys from Georgia who had taken an orange inflatable Explorer 200 boat into the ocean. She wasn’t upset because they didn’t take her along. She was upset because they had gone so far out, they were almost out of view, and couldn’t seem to make it back in.
“I don’t think anyone in their right mind would want to go from Sugar Dunes to Seclusion Dunes and a mile-and-a-half out,” said Fannin. But when a broken paddle came into play, they didn’t have much of a choice.
Source: Walton Sun
Second World War German Mine With 680 Kilograms of Explosives Detonated By ...
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The remnants of past wars keep surfacing around the world. The latest is that Royal Navy divers recently destroyed a Second World War German mine in the Thames Estuary off the Kent coast.
More from the UK Ministry of Defence press release:
The German GC mines contained some 1,500lb (680kg) of high explosive and were usually dropped by parachute during the war. This particular mine was caught in the nets of a fishing vessel last week and then placed on the sea bed off Sheerness to be dealt with by the Royal Navy’s bomb disposal experts.
In an operation coordinated with Kent police, Coastguard and Medway Port Control officers, the divers brought the mine to the surface using a mine-lifting air-bag on Saturday 7 April and towed it, using a rigid inflatable boat, to a location some six miles (9.66km) east of Sheerness and two miles (3.22km) off Warden Point, Isle of Sheppey. A one-mile (1,609m) safety zone was established around the operation for other boat traffic.
Source: Ottawa Citizen (blog)
Free boat inspections, vessel safety checks offered
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RACINE — The City of Racine Parks Recreation and Cultural Services Department and Racine Power Squadron are offering free boat inspections or vessel safety checks from 10 a.m. to noon April 21 in the Tyler-Domer Community Center parking lot, 2301 12th St.
This event is for trailerable vessels: Power, sail, inflatables with three separate air chambers and boats powered by paddles.
Each boat that passes the inspection will receive a vessel safety check (VSC) decal to be displayed on the port side of the boat on the windshield or other appropriate location as advised by the examiner. Each owner will be given a copy of the VSC form whether the vessel passes or fails. If the boat does fail, arrangements can be made for a re-exam once the boat has met the requirements. Arrangements can also be made for vessel safety checks of boats that are in a slip at a marina or yacht club.
Source: Journal Times
"If the two divers had a dive plan, they didn't share it with the driver of the boat," Gatti said. Some divers also don't do enough to make themselves visible on the surface. Gatti recommends brightly colored, inflatable safety tubes to make a diver
