Drowning near Iceberg Canyon

[B Douglas Jensen]

We just returned from our one week voyage out of Bullfrog and can't say enough good things about it. We rented a decent houseboat from Lake Powell Marina (by this time of the year these boats suffer from lack of maintenance but we did expect that) and worked our way north to three different coves. The weather was near perfect and outside of some yahoos in Hansen Creek Canyon who partied until 4 a.m., we had wonderful nights.

But on Saturday the 22nd we were listening to maydays on channel 16 between another rental houseboat and the NPS - man overboard near Iceberg Canyon. The NPS was on it and the woman at the mic was doing a great job trying to keep everything together for the caller.

Sadly when we arrived back to the docks on Sunday we found out that indeed someone, somehow, went overboard and the body had yet to be found at the time. Law enforcement was interviewing all the passengers from that boat and the sadness was palpable. I've yet to see anything in the news about it but our hearts go out to that group as they lost a good friend.

 

[bw56]

Makes my heart ache.

 

[Red Rock Paradise]

https://fox13now.com/2018/09/25/man-presumed-dead-after-jumping-from-a-houseboat-on-lake-powell/

 

[TightLines]

My son saw the tail end of this unfold -- prior to NPS coming two houseboats and a few smaller boats were making a zig-zag pattern in Iceberg obviously looking for someone

Very sad --

 

[Waterbaby]

https://kutv.com/news/local/man-presumed-dead-after-jumping-from-lake-powell-houseboat-disappearing
Man presumed dead after jumping from Lake Powell houseboat, disappearing
by Alyssa Roberts
Tuesday, September 25th 2018

Lake Powell is part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. (Photo courtesy of the National Parks Service)



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(KUTV) — Searchers were unable to located a 41-year-old man who jumped off a house boat on Lake Powell on Saturday.

He is presumed dead, according to a press release from Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
Daniel Patrick McGuckin, of Avon, Colorado, was part of a group of nine friends on a houseboat traveling to Bullfrog from the Escalante arm of Lake Powell.

Friends told searchers McGuckin had jumped off the side of the boat and could not be located. He reportedly was not wearing a life jacket.

The group searched for McGuckin for about 25 minutes, at which point a distress call was sent out to Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Dispatch at 1:55 p.m.

The National Park Service, Kane County Sheriff's Office and Utah State Parks responded. A "hasty" search effort was conducted, but McGuckin was not located, the press release states.

Ongoing recovery operations were being conducted by the NPS dive boat and the Utah Highway Patrol Dive Team, and the incident remained under investigation.

Lake Powell is part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. (Photo: MGN)

 

[TheMarinator]

Wow , thats wild .

I wonder what happened ? I mean he just jumped off a the side of a housboat , not a 90 foot cliff and its in warm water ......Could he swim ? something doesnt add up . need more details cuz that is scary .

 

[Waterbaby]

Wow , thats wild .

I wonder what happened ? I mean he just jumped off a the side of a housboat , not a 90 foot cliff and its in warm water ......Could he swim ? something doesnt add up . need more details cuz that is scary .

It isn't surprising at all. This is why I always stress - a lake isn't a swimming pool, if you plan to jump in to cool off put on a life vest first, it doesn't matter if you are a good swimmer or not, we worked with a man who was out here [Havasu] boating with their daughter. They stopped to cool off and the daughter went back on the swim step to get wet, as soon as she hit the water something happened and she drowned - I don't know if she had a reaction to the cool water while she was overheated or what, but it was sudden and she died as a result. They searched for a week before her body surfaced. Since then I have lost count of the number of people who went in for a swim - including people jumping in Lake Powell off houseboats - only to drown where if they'd been wearing a vest they could have been saved.

 

[Ryan]

Wow , thats wild .

I wonder what happened ? I mean he just jumped off a the side of a housboat , not a 90 foot cliff and its in warm water ......Could he swim ? something doesnt add up . need more details cuz that is scary .

I agree that there is likely more to the story. Often when this happens there is some sort of underlying health issue at play.

And yes a life jacket would likely have saved him. But if there was a health issue involved he could have drowned in a pool as well.

I don’t personally wear a life jacket in a pool. And I often get in a lake without one as well.

 

[Kidfree]

When I was 15 I was at Rainbow Bridge marina when three small children drown in the main channel during a storm. It made a lasting impression on me, that was almost 50 years ago. My policy on my boat Is 12 and under life jackets full time, everyone that gets in the water puts on a life jacket. I don’t want any family to have this happen and I don’t want to lose a loved one doing something we enjoy so much.

 

[Cliff]

Watch swimming around the boat with the engines idling or the genny on. Most boats have been fixed of this problem but many have not. Calm days concentrate the carbon monoxide around the boat and you stop breathing. Has killed many here on the lake.