Huron County deputies rescue a distressed kayaker
The kayaker trying to set a world record of traveling around the Great Lakes has found Lake Huron in the Spring to be quite an obstacle. For a second time in three days, Huron County Sheriffs deputies were called out when residents reported she was in trouble about a mile offshore of Sleeper State Park in Lake Township. Sheriff Kelly Hanson said he and his responding deputies were first on the scene. They learned from her crew on shore that it was the same person deputies brought to shore last Friday when they had lost sight of her in the fog.
According to an Ipad that was tracking her, she has been stopped in ice for some time, and had again started moving east bound. She had set out from Grindstone about 8am, with Tawas as her final destination. Difficulties apparently arose in her navigational equipment and reluctant to give up, she headed back toward Grindstone, which was about 15 miles away.
Finally she reported to the crew she was cold and exhausted. THe sheriffs department used their airboat from Oak Beach going through 2 miles of broken ice and slush. At 7pm, cold and hypothermic, she and her 19 foot kayak were retrieved and brought back to shore to a waiting Elkton Ambulance.
Hanson said With the amount of daylight left and the distance she would have had to travel before she could have came ashore herself, her chance of survival was virtually nil. She was treated and refused further treatment. The Sheriff added that with all due respect to the seasoned kayaker who had the courage and ambition to attempt such an accomplished goal, she was respectfully told that his office will resort to confiscating her kayak or abandoning it in the water if another incident occurs under similar circumstances offshore of our county.
Hanson said he had also been in contact with Coast Guard officials who are also considering deterrent options as well.
