‘I know I did everything wrong’

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This article was published 23/05/2024 (642 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Harry Nott Jr. thought he was going to die just because he had neglected to do one, simple thing.

He failed to put on a life-jacket.

As he fought to stay afloat in chilly water hundreds of metres from shore, in the Winnipeg River system near Minaki, Ont., and tried to keep his five-year-old son’s head above water, he was losing strength. Nott suddenly had a sobering realization: “I’m going to become a long weekend statistic.”

“My son is panicking and he tried to climb over my head. I was treading water with one arm and I started realizing the gravity of the situation. I was about to give up: I was so cold I was ready to go under water. Then I saw them coming.”

Nott and his son were rescued by his dad, Harry Nott Sr., and two neighbours, Matt Meyer and Trent Lamirande.

Nott Sr. had spotted them in the water only because he wondered why their boat was doing doughnuts in the water.

The three men paddled out in kayaks to rescue the two.

Neighbour Carol Turner spurred everyone into action by screaming for help.

The rescuers scooped the child out of the water while Nott held onto a kayak as they paddled back to shore.

“I owe my life to them,” Nott said on Wednesday, recalling the events of Sunday afternoon.

“I know I did everything wrong. I should have had a life-jacket on, but you get complacent. I’ve been on the water my whole life and thought if I get in trouble, I can put on the life-jacket. But you can’t, everything happened so fast.

Nott’s near tragedy occurred on the second day of national Safe Boating Awareness week.

Winnipeg police sent out a statement on Wednesday urging everyone to “practise safe boating” and reminding the public “life-jackets save lives,” while the RCMP advised people to “be cold water safe.”

“Cold water can severely impact your ability to swim and stay afloat. No matter your swimming ability, the best chance of surviving an accidental cold-water immersion is to wear your life-jacket.”

Earlier this month, a 63-year-old Winnipeg man died while canoeing with his wife in Whiteshell Provincial Park. RCMP said the canoe capsized because of high wind.

A 58-year-old woman was able to make it to shore, but her husband’s body was later found in the water. Both were wearing life-jackets.

Christopher Love of Lifesaving Society Manitoba, said its drowning report, released Wednesday, shows 25 people died in water-related incidents in Manitoba in 2021, the most recent statistics available. That’s up from 24 in 2020 and 19 in 2019.

The report also found that between 2017 to 2021, 80 per cent of drowning victims were male, 21 per cent were adults between 35 and 49, 72 per cent of drownings occurred from May to September, and 44 per cent were while swimming.

The biggest risk factor for drowning while boating, at 74 per cent, was failure to wear a life-jacket, followed by alcohol consumption at 42 per cent and being alone at 25 per cent.

Love said many drownings in Manitoba involve a man, who is in cold water, who neglected to wear a life-jacket.

“If you fall out or end up in the lake, you have that extra buoyancy. We can never say how much a life-jacket would have helped (in Nott Jr.’s case), but if you are floating, you can think of rescuing yourself, and it makes you far more visible.”

Nott said the incident occurred after he had loaded up his outboard boat to take his son out for an afternoon of fishing.

He said the bow of the boat suddenly hit a wave and went up in the air at the same time a strong gust of wind caught it and pushed the craft sideways.

Nott said that’s when the pair ended up in the water, with the boat doing circles around them, and he began fighting for their lives.

He said he hopes others learn from his story.

“I know it will help my friends and cottagers in the area,” Nott said. “My life-jacket was on the boat but it was stowed away. I would have been able to get (my son) to shore if I had a life-jacket on.

“That’s never going to happen again. I’m always going to wear it when I’m on the water.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca