Aug. 01--Chicago firefighters rescued a boater who was knocked from his sailboat by a wave more than 10 miles out on Lake Michigan Friday morning.
The boater was rescued around 11 a.m. by one of the Fire Department's "fast boats" after another person on board called 911, according to the Chicago Fire Department.
The man had been treading water for about an 30 minutes, Deputy District Chief Ron Dorneker said from the lakefront Friday.
The boater had been knocked overboard by a wave and the second person did know how to operate the sailboat, which began drifting away, fire officials said.
The person who remained on the boat called 911.
"They gave us off of Monroe Street Harbor, 4-5 miles offshore," Dorneker said. "It actually turned out to be 10-11 miles off shore."
After a "full scale air and water search," the boater was found treading in deep water and rescued about 10 miles off shore, the fire department said.
The man rescued wasn't wearing a life jacket.
After finding the boat, fire department boats started search patterns "based on the winds and waves out there, (and) found the vicitm over one mile away from the sailboat," Dorneker said.
"He was obviously somewhat distressed," Dorneker said. "In the end there, he was really struggling to stay afloat in the water when we found him."
The man didn't need to be taken to a hospital.
Dorneker attributed the positive outcome to a number of factors: the water temperature was above 70 degrees, the fire department had a helicopter available to help with the search, and the fast boat was able to get out to the drifting sail boat quickly.
Radar on the fast boat spotted the man -- only his head was above water -- and the boat continued to the area where they found the man.
