Marking the first time local media was privileged to tag along on a Sault Search and Rescue training mission, SooToday watched as trained and dedicated Sault Search and Rescue volunteers pulled a mannequin (known as ‘Buddy’) from the St. Marys River Wednesday evening.
Two vessels, an Argonaut loaned from the Canadian Coast Guard, the other purchased by Sault Search and Rescue through fundraising and donations, set out from the Bellevue Marina, the crew of one boat tossing Buddy into the water.
Each boat crew took turns hauling the mannequin from the fairly choppy waves.
Sault Search and Rescue crews, in real life situations, have often pulled people from much choppier, colder waters in pouring rain during the dark, early hours of the morning, said volunteer Scott Walker.
In another maneuver Wednesday, the larger vessel shut off its motor and pretended to be disabled as the smaller Argonaut vessel approached and rigged it up to be towed.
During a pre-mission briefing held at the Sault Search and Rescue building at 246 Industrial Park Crescent, the importance of safety and wearing a life jacket was underscored by volunteer Mike Walz, recalling an incident a decade ago in which he, as a boater passing by, rescued two men.
“At Ninemile Point (on the St. Marys River in U.S. waters) two men (intoxicated and without life jackets) were fishing in the channel and the bow of a freighter rolled their boat, fortunately they were conscious with no injuries. By the time I got to them they were probably 70 feet apart, swimming to beat the band, so I was trying to rescue two different people.”
“If someone’s in the water, we have a response time, and if they’re not wearing a lifejacket...generally it’s not a good situation by the time we get there. We have been out looking for guys and unfortunately a lot of them haven’t been wearing life jackets, we’ve looked for them for four or five hours and it’s not a good result,” said volunteer Randall Roy.
“It pushes the point that wearing that life jacket will help,” Roy said, despite the especially cold water of Lake Superior.
“If someone’s wearing a life jacket they’ve got a better chance of surviving. If you have hypothermia, you have one minute to get your breath, 10 minutes to figure out what you’re going to do to save yourself, and one hour to live. So in that cold water that 10 minutes is important and if you’re wasting it trying to put a life jacket on, you’re never going to get it on, so it’s best to have it on at the start.”
“It’s not like people are going to be there right away. Even with the OPP they need time to respond, get their boat and get out there,” Roy said, adding “alcohol is a big problem” in many rescue situations.
A wealth of safety information is available from the volunteers at the Sault Search and Rescue building.
“Saturday mornings, there’s always someone there. The public’s welcome to come up and walk around, we’ll show them our equipment and show them what we do,” Roy said.
Sault Search and Rescue is unique in Canada, if not all of North America, because the organization, composed entirely of volunteers, has capability for air, water and ground search, while other search and rescue groups have ground search only, or a combination of two of the three.
Sault Search and Rescue, it is estimated, needs $50,000 annually to operate (including equipment, training, maintenance and insurance costs), receiving no funding from any of the three levels of government.
Support comes through fundraising events and donations from the public.
Anyone wishing to donate may mail a cheque to Sault Search and Rescue at 246 Industrial Park Crescent or drop by the building.
More information is available online or by calling (705 759-5878.