Not sure what category to put this under, but I need to get this off my chest... On the morning of July 3rd, my husband and I set out to sail on Lake Champlain. My husband's boat occupies a slip in Malletts Bay. We were out there fairly early. We left the slip at around 9AM and we were the only boat in the inner harbor at the time. The wind was wild and the water was choppy. I was having trouble steering. My husband had to stop what he was doing to right the boat and while he was doing that I saw what appeared to be two swimmers up ahead. As we got closer it appear as if one person was towing the other and in fact that is what was happening.

Farther from the shore than any swimmer ought to be, two kids who were not able to swim were barely keeping their heads above the choppy water which was at a depth of about 50 feet. Only one, the littler of the two, was wearing a life vest. He was keeping himself and his sister (who was much bigger than he) afloat. As if he had done it a million times, my husband expertly navigated the boat close to them, threw them a couple of flotation devices and assisted them up the ladder on to the boat. It was then that we found out their father was missing. We called for help and after what seemed like a lifetime a police boat came and picked the kids up from us. It took until the evening of the 5th for them to find the father's body.

So here is what happened to them. They were with their father on an inflatable "raft" (the kind that Walmart sells). It was the kind of raft you would use in a small pond while wearing a life vest and possessing the ability to swim. The daughter told me that her brother jumped in to swim with his vest on, but she jumped in without hers. She started to drown so her father jumped in to save her. She said "I did not realized that he did not know how to swim and I pushed him under and it is my fault and it should have been me."

Meanwhile, the news reports that the father died while saving his kids. Some report that he got them back safely in the "boat" but could not get on himself. We never saw the raft. I do not know where they found it, but they did and there are videos with them pulling it ashore (at a boat launch pretty far from where the kids were and where they eventually found the father's body). Some reports say that the people in the sailboat found them on the raft and brought them to shore in the sailboat. (keel boats can't really go ashore, so you know). Anyway, they have completely missed or have downplayed just how much peril the kids were in. They missed the point that the father, rather than actually saving his children, put them in grave danger.

The fact of the matter is, the "vessel" that they were in was completely inadequate for the body of water they were in, the weather conditions of the day, and their lack of swimming ability, etc. I hate to use this term, but it was a "miracle" that we were where we were at the time. In fact, another few minutes and we likely would have decided that it was too rough for a sail. Some say that we were out there for a reason, like it was gawd's will or something. Why did gawd not intervene when the boneheaded decision for them to be out there on that thing was made? Anyway, it is not gawd I am angry at right now, it is the press. Why do they have to be so inaccurate?

Thanks for letting me vent. It helped.

PS, we are not going to correct the record because we do not want our names in the press.
The "raft" they were on: [walmart.com]