Lake Superior tragedy that left 4 dead spurs safety plea

AP ^ | 2 Sept

[DUMBGRUNT]

The family from Loyal, Wisconsin, set out from Madeline Island in an open-top tandem kayak Thursday for a 4-mile (6-kilometer) paddle across open water to Michigan Island. But their 13½-foot (4-meter) kayak capsized after the wind picked up. Eric Fryman, 39, and his three children, Kyra, 9, Annaliese, 5, and Jansen, 3, were found dead in the frigid water. Only his wife, the children’s mother, Cari Mews-Fryman, 29, survived. All of them wore life jackets. Coast Guard officials said hypothermia was probably a major factor in the deaths, especially of the children.

[sima_yi]

I spent my whole life around the Great Lakes, and in my opinion, the only body of water in the world more dangerous than Lake Superior is the North Atlantic Ocean, in winter.

[Slyfox]

Me and my better half honeymooned in the UP. We thought we'd go for a nice swim since we were camped at Muskellunge and Superior was right across the road. We ran into the water and that water hit us like we had just stepped inside a freezer.

Only one time was I ever able to swim in Superior as a kid when there was some weird weather inversion where the wind came from the south for about a week. The water was reasonably warm. But I hear that doesn't happen very often.

[jonascord]

Back when I was an Explorer, in say, 1967, my post went on a summer bike trip along the north shore of the UP.

There is a place called 7 Mile Hill, and it was a long, hot trudge to get to the crest and coast down. At the bottom was a small beach, with inviting blue water. We hopped off and raced into the water to cool off.

The fastest made it knee deep before he screamed and tried to walk on water to get out. I thought my heart was going to stop, and I was only calf deep...

This family was Darwin Award material. Only Liberals could be that blandly unaware of local conditions. And, children, in a kayak? THERE? They should charge the mother with murder. The PFDs only made it worse. The children froze to death.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Jeeze, maybe use this on a float trip or farm pond. If they were trout fishing on the Brule’ I would understand it.

About 35 years ago my wife and I took a trip to Northern Wisconsin. It was 90 degrees in the middle of summer.

We stopped in Cornupica Wisconsin, not far from the Madeline islands on the southern shore of Lake Superior. There was a park with an enclosed bay and a sand beach and we wanted to cool off.

The only other vehicle was a camper. Some people were walking up from the beach in wet bathing suits. We asked them how the water was. They were Brits and were wet. “The water is great you’ll enjoy it!” We got to the shore, she took off her shoes, took one step in the water and immediately jumped out. It was freezing cold. I tried it and got out immediately.

We did go and take a ferry to Madeline Island. There was really not much to see. A few houses, dirt roads, forests. We went back to the Ferry side of the island and stopped to look north across Lake Superior toward Canada. We watched a squall the blew up and within 5 minutes it was raining and the waves picked up. Heck, I was uncomfortable on the ferry back to the mainland.

[Jacquerie]

Plastic toy boatlets.

I’ll never forget a similar nearby example of male stupidity.

I live near the northern Gulf of Mexico Coast. Some twenty-five years ago tragedy visited a tourist family renting a gulf-front home.

A tropical storm wasn’t close, but approaching. The winds were 20+ kts, but blowing from the land to offshore, making for flat water at the beach.

The airline pilot husband took his six year old daughter in a plastic nothing toy boat out into the gulf.

Gone.