Jack to the Rescue
Published on 3/4/2020
It was about 3:30 in the morning and the fire department was at the gate near my house. As we opened up the front door the fire fighter from Modoc told me there was a person in the water just off the club grounds. Nancy and I got dressed as fast as we could and as they made their way down to West Point Dock I questioned the firemen as to where the rescue boat was. He had no rescue boat. So, I said to him let’s go over to East point I have two boats in the water and we all go searching for the person in the water. He and I hopped in the skiff and the boat started right away thank goodness, so we headed out in a westerly direction off F dock and started searching for someone in the water, the problem was there was nobody in the water he was actually taking on water in his bass boat. Columbia County rescue was at Lake Springs by the volleyball courts, and they told us to start looking for a flashlight since he obviously had a phone and was in contact with them, so we started looking for the flashlight and I had just seen a glimmer over by the old Shawandasee sailing club and sure enough he was over holding onto a tree standing in his boat and it was evident that his boat was filling with water. He had said that he had just gotten his bilge pump working but clearly he was in shock from the cold. I asked him how long he had been out there and he said what time is it? I said it’s about 4 AM. He mumbled something like five hours I think and was really having a hard time talking because hypothermia had said in. We got him in the boat and came back to West Point Dock where are the ambulance had finally showed up. After warming him up for approximately an hour and a half he actually drove home with his family. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it :-)