bad news, sux...



Sad to hear that. A lot of folks don't understand how a river works. There is always a current and turbulence in the water as it makes its way to the Bay; The bottom of the Potomac is mud which normally makes it impossible to see anything below the surface of the Potomac.

It is really easy to become disoriented if you find yourself under water since the sunlight disappears and for most people they can't tell up from down.

I have been boating on this river for 25 years and almost every year there is another set of tragedies where people think it is a swimming pool.

I like being in the river but we always tend to be near shore and have floats out that are attached with lines to the boat. Even then.......I would be really nervous to have kids in the water without a life vest. Even my Lab wears a vest and she is a great swimmer.
 
Please correct if wrong but isn’t it illegal to swim in most of the Potomac?
Cant recall where I read that.
No. There is an area above Key bridge but not where this happened.
 
What a tragedy. Would think jumping from a boat being held (even just back in this situation) at anchor would be a common sense thing?
 
A mushroom anchor?
 
No. There is an area above Key bridge but not where this happened.


Generally you can be in the water from the 14th Street Bridge to a mile north of Key Bridge (the bottom goes shallow with rocks north of that). On decent days you will see boats at anchor or at Harbor Place in Georgetown which is north of Memorial Bridge. It is no wake north of Memorial Bridge.

https://charts.noaa.gov/PDFs/12289.pdf

DC Health department still does not allow most fish extracted from the northern Potomac to be eaten and recommends that you not swim if you have any cuts or open sores.

A good friend was a diver for the DC Water Police. They mandated the use of dry suits to minimize the diver's contact with the water.

You want to avoid being in the water between south of the 14th Street Bridge to Wilson Bridge. The Sewage treatment plants frequently dump raw sewage in the river during heavy rains.:eek:
 
Sounds like my area, next river over, thin peninsula, is the famous Back River Shat Plant. Frequently overflows. Separates Dundalk from Essex/Middle River. Old local joke. “My girlfriend told me to kiss her where it stinks, so I drove her to Dundalk”.

frequently overflows or rarely doesn’t overflow? Back River plant is taking the attention off the Patapsco River plant which is equally as bad.

Haven’t seen the plant affecting waterfront home prices on the Back River, though. Have you? If you were a gambling man and believe people the state will fix this issue, maybe buy a few back River waterfront residences and flip them once progress is made?
 
latest
 
And this is why we tied a line off the stern cleat and held on to it when we first jumped in the water, especially somewhere new.
 
Your point? I spent 10 days in St Joes with massive infection, tubes in all limbs pumping anti biotics in all 4 limbs. Then a month in home recovery. That was last time I went in water at HM island. The place is a septic tank.

wow. Calm down. I wasn’t making a point. I was just chatting. Observing that hone values haven’t changed much. That’s it. Sorry for your illness. HM isn’t one of my stops either.
 
Your point? I spent 10 days in St Joes with massive infection, tubes in all limbs pumping anti biotics in all 4 limbs. Then a month in home recovery. That was last time I went in water at HM island. The place is a septic tank.

How's the water quality in Middle River, just off the end of the runway at the mouth of Frog Mortar Creek? Seems like a popular swimming spot.
 
You guys need to come over to the Eastern Shore where it is a lot better. Fairlee Creek, Chester river and Swan Creek and a few more.

But yeah, that is tragic what happened, even out in the ocean you need to throw a line in while you swim. The boat can disappear pretty quickly.
 
And this is why we tied a line off the stern cleat and held on to it when we first jumped in the water, especially somewhere new.

We do the same. As a matter of fact most of the boaters we go out with do the same. It’s not uncommon to see floats 25 to 50 feet behind most of our boats. Still this is a very sad story
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,950
Messages
1,422,869
Members
60,932
Latest member
juliediane
Back
Top