It looks like we lost another friend to the lake

A Coast Guard helicopter and boat searched all day with no results. His dingy turned up 15 miles away across Grand Traverse Bay, but so far no body. We seem to lose one a year from our little community.

Tom

 

Jay Farr. Jay is not a PriusChat friend, but a friend from my village. He remains missing:

http://www.upnorthlive.com/news/story.aspx?list=~\home\lists\search&id=675118

Tom

 

Now we start wondering whether a body will ever be recovered. It's not unusual for the lake to keep them.

Tom

 

The latest theory, based on the physical evidence, is the following:

1) The victim had moved his boat to the marina in anticipation of high winds. This left his dingy on the mooring.

2) After a couple of days of high winds and rain, the victim decided to bail the water out of his dingy, using his canoe to paddle out to the mooring, despite strong offshore winds.

3) Something went wrong. Perhaps the dingy painter parted, allowing the dingy to blow free.

4) Both the dingy and canoe were found on the far shore of Grand Traverse Bay. High winds and waves probably capsized one or both, sending the victim into the water.

Tom

 

Update: He is still missing. After the first day all efforts switched from a rescue effort to a body recovery. Several days of side scan sonar sweeps, divers, and helicopter searches have come up empty. The Great Lakes often keep bodies, sometimes forever, and sometimes popping them up after a few years. Likewise currents can carry a body for hundreds of miles, so only time will tell.

Tom