Bushed...

Breakfast on Elk Island this morning, then I changed into my blue shirt. Got some work done on a couple of our boats, then the wind kicked up... I went out on the rescue boat to check on a family that was out in two canoes. They were fine, paddling around in a protected cove. I visited with them for a few minutes and could see that they were handling the canoes with no issues. I radioed in that they would be out for a while, yet.

The response on the radio: "Can you go to the north end of the lake and tow in a boat that has had a complete electrical failure?" (Like the Coast Guard, the NPS does not do towing, except in dire circumstances.)

I ran back to the marina to get my grab bag, some water, and a dock hand on the boat to help with the tow. The manager gave me the boat description, a cell phone #, and the general location of "somewhere up north, drifted ashore."

"Well, that narrows it down... not."

When I got out in cell range, I called the people... crappy connection. No surprise. I called them back... and found out that they didn't know exactly where they were. Everyone was safe; their cell phone battery was about to die.

The waves were stacked up, moving with us. Not a great ride, since we were trying to hurry north... and knowing that we were going to take a real pounding on the way back south. I drove the boat all the way to the north, where the Snake River comes into the lake... where the water is REALLY shallow and there are stumps just under the water. Ugly. No sign of the boat. I assumed we must have missed them somehow and turned around. Within 10 minutes, I saw some movement on shore... their boat was mostly in some weeds and they were waving a red flag... they were tucked back in a little cove that we couldn't see while heading north and they didn't have enough phone battery to call us to say that they could see us.

We got them off the shore and turned around. Four adults and one infant onboard. Enough PFDs for everyone. I let them know it was going to be a long, bumpy ride back and asked if anyone wanted to transfer to our boat. Nope. "OK, hold on and we'll get going... and we'll keep a constant watch on you. We'll check every couple of minutes to make sure you are all OK."

The waves were 1 1/2 to 2 feet and closely spaced. Yep, it was a back-bustin' ride... for 2 hours.


The seats in the rescue boat are well sprung, but you have to brace your feet and push into the seat with your back to not get bounced out of the seat in these conditions. For two hours. When we got them back to the marina, I put them at the courtesy dock, while two dock hands brought our small jonboat around so we could put them on their trailer.

Yeah, I'm bushed.