Sa-tur-day in Stearn's Park, I Think it was the 27th of August

[XLFD]

I finally made it out to Stearn's Park this Saturday toting a camera and a kid wanting to go swimming.  I couldn't resist doing a little snooping on Dick and Wally's Recovery (Park) Rangers that Aquaman has documented beforehand in pictures and posts.

 

But first off, I must comment on the life rings out at Stearn's Park.  I took a picture of the rings we had down there at the beach, so I could compare it to ones on the web.  Here it is:

 

Eve and I first reviewed the topic of cost in this thread   Life Rings/FOIA Costs  With today's picture, I saw on the net a ring that was $44 that was a dead ringer for it   Life Ring w/tape   With City Hall's spokesmen saying that it costs $250 to replace them, you almost have to wonder where the extra $200 is going. 

Be that as it may, a group of kids throwing a frisbee around nearby, made me also think of these rings.  There was a strong northwest wind today, and those kids throwing into the north or west would frequently get the frisbee coming back their way, sometimes with the frisbee falling behind where they threw it. 

Our prevailing winds come from the west, SW, and NW, and the waves and rip currents are the worst under such winds.  Thus, the most likely time you would be needing to use a life ring would be when there is a strong wind blowing in across the lake.  This would effectively neutralize a thrown life ring as you could not throw it very far or accurately.  Such maneuvers might actually waste some precious seconds to save a life. 

They could still be useful as a flotation device for the rescuer and/or rescuee and the rope could be used for towing someone.  But someone is still going to have to go out to rescue another at close range. 

 

We arrived slightly before 1 PM, and doffed our gear near where the sign is posted that warns you are within 150 ft. of the breakwall.  On our way down to the water we saw the beach ranger on his golf cart tool along just east of the parked cars and go to the north side of the beach's concession stand area.  The waves were coming in 1-3 ft. high from the northwest, potentially dangerous as it would be pushing swimmers in our area towards the breakwall, the winds were gusting around 20 mph from the northwest  Conditions  

I would yell out to my charge when she was getting beyond the sign and into the danger area established as within 150 feet of the breakwall.  But others were also being pushed that way, including this group   Too Close 1   You will notice three buoys, the first is about 25 ft away, the second is about 50 ft. away, and the third is about 100 ft. away from the breakwall-- and four swimmers between 60-90 ft. away. 

About ten minutes after they were past the danger line, the golf cart had started coming back across the top of the beach, and to the ranger's credit, he did come down, walked on the breakwater and shouted to this group to move back when they were as close as 40 ft. away.  After they began complying he walked back to his vehicle and left shortly thereafter, driving up and out beyond the playground area. 

This was at 1:08 PM, and a minute after he left another group entered the water   Too Close 2   between the 50- 80 ft. away mark.  I kept looking around, and 15 minutes later, the ranger came back and chided these folks from the water's edge, they reluctantly complied and came back in, and then the ranger headed back near the cars and parked towards the center.

Around this time, we headed out to the lighthouse for a walk.  The waves were lapping across the breakwall, splashing everyone walking thereon with spray.  A few areas some people were getting hit with more than spray.  We went in the lighthouse, it is open during the day and you can climb it for donations of $2 if you are over 12, $1 otherwise. 

On our way back around 2 PM, we saw more of the same of what we saw earlier.  The two kids in the water are about 60 ft. away from the breakwall   Too Close 3   If you zoom in on the top left corner to that vehicle on the beach, that's where the ranger was.  Ten minutes after this picture was took, he came down that way once again to warn them.

 

Some observations.  It was fairly easy to keep my girl from drifting too far into the danger zone; I just had to pay attention frequently and gesture and/or make noise.  It was quite common for the swimmers to drift into the unsafe zone, as there is not a clear marker among the buoys and only the sign on the beach declares it, which most probably don't even know the significance of until they are told.  That being the case, I can see why that area is very unsafe when there are strong currents and winds coming from the NW.  An alert lifeguard in that area would almost seem a 'must' in such conditions, if we don't want a replay of the Anthony Goldsmith tragedy.

If I recall correctly the two park rangers were to work five days a week, doubling up on weekends, but I only seen the one this Saturday.  From his jaunts, he seemed not to have an assigned area to patrol, and even though the only activity I seen was him telling swimmers the dangers of swimming near the breakwall, he only visited that area three times during the 1.5 hours I was there and promptly left for other areas.  Ninety percent of the time I was there, if someone had gotten into distress at that area, he would have been more than half a beach away sitting in his golf cart.  And do we really want our city beach looking like a Silver Lake dune buggy course?

[Marty Redman]

Bit by bit, their ruining that park.  And thats too bad.

[Willy]

Good job of reporting X.

[AQUAMAN]

Here's another tragedy on our Lake, very sad.

[Robert]

Is that an average crowd for a Summer Saturday afternoon? It has been a couple of years since I have been there but it looks like people are staying away.

[XLFD]

It did seem a small crowd for a summer Saturday afternoon to me as well.  The wind wasn't bad enough to toss sand and the temperatures were fine.  The Ludington State Park Beach where I usually swim has been active the whole summer, but I'll check Stearn's out again this weekend.

[Robert]

Curious...don't you have to pay to park at the South end of the beach?

[AQUAMAN]

Shay's working on that Robert, probably next season we'll have parking meters all over town again.....lol.

[Willy]

Things have really died down this week. It seems that a lot of folks are spending the last week of summer at home getting the kids ready for school.