Rescue team saves group of boaters on Utah Lake

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A state park rescue team saved a crew of local boaters from the choppy waters of Utah Lake Friday night after their boat took on water and sank.

"This one turned out very fortunate," said Utah County Sheriff's Lt. Yvette Rice. "Especially considering how raucous Utah Lake can be in the wind."

The eight boaters, which were four women and four girls ages 3 to 11, were wearing life vests when their boat started taking on water from cresting waves at about 4 p.m.

High winds had kicked up waves that were reaching more than five feet high and splashing over the side of the boat, park officials said.

"But they just couldn't bail the water out fast enough," Rice said. "And their engine had become waterlogged and stopped working … (while) they were attempting to make it to shore."

That's when one of the women called 911, at about 4:20 p.m. Dispatchers found the crew's global coordinate on the lake using software that triangulated their cell phone signal, Utah County Sheriffs Lt. Dave Bennett said. "That was a huge help for us."

Emergency dispatchers contacted the Utah State Parks and Recreation office on Provo's shoreline and within three minutes a team of rescuers had assembled and launched, Rice said.

Within 25 minutes, they had made visual contact with several members of the distressed party.

Getting to the distraught boaters, though, took 10 more minutes due to the choppy water. By then, the boat had sank, leaving its passengers to tread water while floating in their life vests. The surface turbulence caused them to spread among the waves into "several groups," Bennett said.

The team pulled the children and one woman directly onto their boat but had to toss out ropes or flotation devices to pull in the remaining three women, Rice said.

The women and girls were transported to Pelican Bay marina on Saratoga Springs' shoreline, where paramedics examined them for injuries. There were no injuries, just a "close call, a very fortunate circumstance," Rice said.

e-mail: jhancock@desnews.com