A 42-year old Alexandria, Virginia man was rescued by a Canadian freighter through the efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard and Cook County Sheriff ’s Office after he got lost in the fog on his attempt to ride a jet ski from Grand Portage to Isle Royale.
The jet skier was about 25 miles south of Isle Royale in the middle of Lake Superior, pretty much out of gas and hopelessly lost in thick fog when he cell phoned his friend who lives in Florida, and told him of his plight.
The Florida man contacted the Cook County Sheriff ’s Office at 8:19 p.m. on July 7 and asked for help for his friend, whom he had loaned his black Kawasaki Jet Ski to, so the ill-advised attempt to jet ski to Isle Royale from Grand Portage could be made. Authorities discovered a Gray Toyota Camry with VA license plates and pulling a trailer in the parking lot of the Grand Portage marina that was registered to the jet skier.
Once the call came in from Florida the Cook County Sheriff ’s Office contacted the Grand Marais Coast Guard who in turn contacted Michigan Dispatch notifying them of the jet skier’s predicament.
In an attempt to find the exact location of the floundered jet skier the United States Coast Guard called requesting a ping be done on the man’s cell phone. At 8:44 p.m. the Cook County Sheriff ’s Office asked Verizon for ping information and six minutes later the Grand Marais Coast Guard launched a boat to see if they could help locate the lost man.
Verizon called back and said the last information from the phone was from 6:37 p.m. and it was hitting (pinging) off of the cell tower near the Old Ski Hill Road and it was showing 56 miles to the north east sector from the tower. Verizon informed the authorities that because the distance was so great they surmised that the Virginia man’s cell phone was between north and east. They were unable to ping anything more recent, which indicated to them that his cell phone was turned off.
At 9:05 p.m. the Coast Guard called for a helicopter from the Traverse City airbase. At 9:28 p.m. the jet skier and his Florida friend were texting in an attempt to get an exact GPS reading to give to rescuers.
The Cook County Sheriff ’s Office was contacted by the lost in the fog jet skier at 10:01 p.m. who said he could hear the foghorn of a ship sounding. He said he was doing well but he and the ship were not connecting up. The Cook County sheriff ’s dispatcher advised him to call 911 and stay on the phone as long as possible so the agency could get his exact location.
Through email Cook County Sheriff ’s Office was able to text with the jet skier and he sent an image of his compass. That information was relayed to the Coast Guard dispatch and the relieved Virginia man was informed that a ship, the 689- foot Canadian freighter Michipicoten, was 15 miles from his location and on its way to pick him up. The coordinates put the lost man south/southeast of Isle Royale, about halfway between Isle Royale and Ontonagon, Michigan.
At 11:57 p.m. the Canada freighter, which was helped by a spotlight from the Coast Guard helicopter sent from Traverse City, Michigan, picked up their lost, cold, wet passenger and also pulled his friend’s jet ski from the water and took their extra passenger to Sault St. Marie.
Leave a Reply