VERMILION, Ohio — For the third time in the last month, the Vermilion Police Department's Marine Patrol Unit (VPD MPU) was dispatched to search for boaters in the waters of Lake Erie. And for the third time, all of those in the lake were rescued.
On Sunday afternoon, the VPD MPU was dispatched to Lake Erie to handle the call of a capsized boat with four people in the water. According to the captain of the boat, the 22-foot Sea Ox was anchored approximately 1.5 miles offshore and about a mile west of the Vermilion River for some perch fishing.
Two large boats passed nearby at high speed and the combined wakes "swamped the back of his boat." The captain told police he attempted to pull the anchor and get underway, but the boat capsized. The captain and three passengers went into the water and held on to the overturned hull as they waited for help to arrive. Three of the four were wearing life vests.
Several people on a small fishing boat saw the overturned hull and people in the water and arrived to assist. Two female passengers clung to that boat, while a 51-foot Sea Ray cruiser showed up and pulled all four people out of the water and on to the vessel.
There were no reported injuries.
A Lorain County Sheriff's Office patrol boat and the VPD MPU arrived at the scene. The capsized boat was righted and then towed to the Tow Boat US yard in Lorain.
"This is the third incident in the past month involving the VPD MPU responding for search and rescue missions involving people in the water. This is also a reminder that poor weather conditions or rough lake conditions are not required to have a life and death emergency out on our beautiful Lake Erie or the Vermilion River," Vermilion police added in a post on its Facebook page.
On July 11, two people were rescued from a capsized fishing boat on Lake Erie about a mile offshore from the Vermilion Shores Condos. Their small boat began taking on water from the sudden increase in wave height along with a non-functioning bilge pump.
More recently on August 7, two people were rescued after their jet ski overturned in Lake Erie a half-mile from shore in Vermilion. Police determined that the waters of Lake Erie had changed from 1-2 foot waves to 3-5 feet, catching the riders off guard.