Officials: The Water is Cold

OK, that might seem obvious, but apparently some people don't know that the water they're boating on is cold.

So some people are encouraging boaters to take precautions or maybe even just stay home.

According to an Associated Press story, the water temperature in some lakes and rivers is in the 40 degree to 50 degree range, a temperature that saps the life from a body in as little as a half an hour.

It takes even less than that for the cold water to have an affect on you.

A few years back I was tossed from the drift boat from which I was fishing into 42-degree river water. The immediate impact was stunning. My breath was ripped from my lungs as I gasped for air. After 30 seconds, I was able to breath more normally, but almost instantly the cold began to sap my strength.

It was all I could do to swim the 30 yards or so to the shore of the river, which was flowing at about 5,000 cubic feet per second. When I finally reached the shore several minutes later and hundreds of yards downstream, I was so weak I couldn't stand up for several more minutes, crawling from the water on my hands and knees and laying in the sun to regain my strength.

Two fishing partners were in the same shape as I was and we all agreed the PFDs were likely the difference in making it to shore or not. I'm not sure how much more time I could have spent in the water and still had the strength to make it to shore.

Please folks, wear your PFDs no matter how strong a swimmer you are.