While it is great to cool off in Lake Superior in this hot weather, maybe jumping off the lighthouse breakwall is not the place to do it.
In the past and spending time talking to U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard SCUBA divers along with recreational divers, I was told there is a severe undertow in the Grand Marais harbor. It is not always present but the direction and depth of it depends on wind direction, wave action and water flow, whether into or out of the harbor.
The ladders on the breakwall were not always there. When they were first put up (by the Rec Park maintenance crew) they had chains and signs on them stating, “Emergency use only.” A lot of the ladders are gone or in bad shape, the chains and signs long gone due to wave and ice action. Whose responsibility are the ladders? Should they be removed? When there were no ladders there, no one jumped off the breakwall in my recollection. Should the park board or city council address the matter of liability here?
Enough people have drowned in the harbor. Let’s use some common sense here.
Ray Nagy
Ex-Coast Guard
Grand Marais summer resident
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