National Center for Cold Water Safety
Rule 2 / Case 1
Always Dress For The Water Temperature
Looking out from Peaks Island on a calm, sunny day.
Irina McEntee and Carissa Ireland
May 16th, 2010 - Casco Bay, Maine
The water was calm and the weather was gorgeous and unseasonably warm when two young women, Irina McEntee, 18, and her best friend Carissa Ireland, 20, launched their kayaks for a short, round-trip paddle between Peaks Island and Ram Island in Casco Bay, Maine – a trip that Irena had made many times before. Irena’s parents actually had a view of the paddling route from their house on Peaks Island and saw both girls land safely.
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Ram Island is only a mile across the water from Peaks, but the location is exposed - to the East, South, and Southeast, there's nothing but open ocean, and neither Irena’s parents nor the girls were aware that the National Weather Service had issued a Small Craft Advisory for that afternoon. Video of Ram Island lighthouse on a windy day.
A very exposed location.
Unable to make headway against the wind, Irena and Carissa were blown out to sea and into much rougher conditions where, dressed only in shorts and light shirts, they capsized in brutally cold 48F (9C) water.
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When the girls failed to return home on schedule, Irena’s parents could look out the window and see much rougher conditions had become - and that there were no kayaks in sight. By then it was 2.5 hours before sunset.
Heartsick with worry, they called the Coast Guard, which responded by promptly dispatching the 207-foot US Coast Guard cutter Campbell, launching a Jayhawk helicopter and Falcon jet from Air Station Cape Cod, sending out an emergency broadcast on Channel 16, and contacting their “local partners” - civilians with SAR capabilities in the Casco Bay area - setting in motion what was to become a massive search operation.
As any pilot can attest, it's not easy to spot small objects from the air. At best, a person wearing a PFD will have only their head and upper shoulders exposed - not an easy target, even when the light is favorable and the water flat calm. The same goes for twelve foot blue-green kayaks.
USCG Jayhawk Helicopter
When the sun set at 8;00 p.m., searchers were left with roughly 90 minutes of gradually diminishing twilight before darkness fell. Nevertheless, by 8:30 p.m., both kayaks had been located, floating in the open ocean roughly seven miles South of Ram Island, and about a mile SSE of Cape Elizabeth. One kayak was upright and contained a jacket and T-shirt; the other was upside-down. Irena and Carissa were nowhere in sight.
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Search teams on the ground had initially concentrated their efforts on Ram and nearby Cushing Island, but found no sign of the missing women. With the discovery of the kayaks, the ground search moved South to probable landing areas on Richmond Island and Cape Elizabeth. When twilight faded into night, searchers began using aerial flares for illumination.
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After a grueling all-night search involving the U.S. Coast Guard, multiple local agencies, and more than 150 people, they were found by the Coast Guard at 9:00 am the following morning, floating lifeless in their PFD’s, three miles offshore and seven miles south of their original destination.
Clarissa Ireland
Irena McEntee
Case Note:
Even strong and experienced paddlers can be overwhelmed by the wind, which is why they pay particular attention to Marine Weather Forecasts. This information is broadcast by the National Weather Service and you can access it with an inexpensive weather radio – the kind you find at Radio Shack. Information is also available online.
Inexpensive, reliable, waterproof cases that are available for cell phones allow you to operate the phone without removing it from the case. You can program your phone with the number of the closest Coast Guard sector.
High quality, waterproof, hand-held VHF radios can be purchased for under $150. The US Coast Guard continuously monitors emergency Channel 16 (the one you’d use on your VHF radio to call for help) as do many commercial and private boats. Most VHF radios also have an automatic weather alert feature that activates whenever an adverse weather broadcast is detected.