connect20.salliemae.comOn Mon, 31 Jul 2006 07:29:01 -0500, Emily
wrote:
People do it all the time. I had students up there who thought there
was NOTHING wrong with being outside of gliding range from shore.
"What's the big deal? I can land in water and just swim back..."

Then they were a better swimmer than I am... In the main body of Lake
Michigan, it's 50 nm at the closest point... That's 25 nms of
swimming... Maybe a bit less if the person heads directly towards the
closest shore upon initial detection of engine problem... I'm a good
enough swimmer that I might be able to eventually make it to shore, if
hypothermia doesn't get me first... When I crossed it after an Oshkosh
trip a few years back, I had two life vests in addition to an
inflatable air mattress that could have probably been used as a raft
in an emergency... I'm not sure which would have been worse though --
swimming back to shore of trying to blow up the air mattress with just
my lungs...