Two men rescued after 7 hours adrift

5/15/2006




WILSON - Two Lockport-area men ran out of gasoline on stormy Lake Ontario early Sunday while returning by boat from a baseball excursion to Toronto and drifted for about seven hours before they were rescued, Niagara County sheriff's deputies report.

Several police and rescue agencies searched a wide area of the lake for more than four hours before locating the disabled craft and towing it ashore around 11:30 a.m. Neither Jeremy VanCleve, 24, nor Brian Michalak, 22, suffered any ill effects from their ordeal, deputies reported.

VanCleve's parents called 911 just after 7 a.m. after receiving a cell phone call from their son. Bill and Dorothy VanCleve of Lockport reported that the men had been adrift for hours in VanCleve's 21-foot fiberglass boat and had no idea of their location.

Numerous attempts to reach the stranded boaters via cell phone were unsuccessful, but rescuers got a break when the VanCleves received another call from Jeremy, reporting that his boat was near a pair of freighters and most likely in Canadian waters.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents finally located the boat. Deputy Dave Gombert and Coast Guard crews were able to secure it and tow it to Wilson harbor. Rescuers termed the two "very fortunate" to have escaped unscathed from eight- to 10-foot waves overnight.

- Hey there's a damn good reason your boat is supposed to be equipped with a ship to shore radio (among other safety equipment).  Think they'll get one now?