Initial story:

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/p...607170346/1006

Follow up

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/p.../NEWS/60717004

Note this portion of the report:

"Water struck the side of the boat and washed inside causing the boat to
overturn and forcing all three occupants into the water."

I was on the canal Sunday afternoon between 4 and 5 or so. It was calm as
a canal should be.

That water had to come from somewhere.

It's a canal for heaven's sake, and Middletown is about 1/3 of the way up
it from the Chesapeake side. This happened either because someone did not
watch his wake or because capsized captain did not pay attention or, more
likely, both.

I can't see any other explanation.

Just my two cents.


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The body has been found. It also appears that the boat was anchored and
got overturned by a wake.

Question to the experts (which I am not)? Could this have happened
because the anchor rode was too short or was it just inevitable?

(Personally, I would never anchor in the canal, but that's because canals
just don't seem to be the right places to anchor out.)

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/p...8009/1006/NEWS

[BEGIN QUOTED PORTION]

State Fish and Wildlife officials confirmed today that a body of a man was
recovered this morning from the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal near the
spot where a New Jersey boater disappeared Sunday night.

The body, which has not been identified, was found about 8:45 a.m. in the
vicinity of a Sunday night boating accident in the canal about a mile west
of Summit Bridge Road.

Kevin “Darby� Stewart, 49, of Salem, N.J., disappeared after the anchored
boat he was in capsized in the wake of a passing tugboat and barge. Rescue
workers have been searching for his body.

DNREC spokeswoman Joanna Wilson said the body has been turned over to the
state Medical Examiner's Office to determine the man’s identity.

[EMD QUOTED PORTION]

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Another article:
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/p...07180343/1006/

They were stupid enough to anchor from the stern of the boat! Yeesh that's
bad. That and not being able to swim, having said so to others, he doesn't
wear a PFD? Darwin in action.



Only two weeks ago, Kevin "Darby" Stewart told his brother he had no desire
to go boating because he couldn't swim.
But apparently the 49-year-old Salem, N.J., man changed his mind. Stewart
ventured out with two friends Sunday on a boat that subsequently capsized in
the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal; he was last seen trying to swim toward the
surface.

"We can't imagine why they would take him out on the boat and know he can't
swim," said Stewart's cousin Deborah Pope. "We don't know what happened, how
it happened or why it happened."

On Monday, the U.S. Coast Guard and officers from the marine unit of the
state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control scoured the
canal for Stewart, who was swept into the water about a mile west of Summit
Bridge Road.

State police spokesman Cpl. Jeff Whitmarsh said Stewart had accompanied
Ernestine Robbins, 36, and Robert Lovett, 32, both of Woodstown, N.J., on
Robbins' 1973 20-foot Cruise Craft boat.

None of the occupants wore a life jacket, authorities said.

About 6:45 p.m., Robbins, who reportedly was operating the craft, tried to
tie it to a fishing pier west of Summit Bridge Road. When that failed, she
threw an anchor into the canal from the rear of the boat, said department
Lt. David Blaasch, who is investigating the incident.

"If a person throws an anchor from the stern, he's asking for trouble,"
Blaasch said. "If water hits it, it pulls the stern lower. The safest place
to anchor from is the front of the boat."

According to state police, after the trio anchored the boat, a tug boat
pushing a barge passed through the canal, creating a wake that capsized the
boat.

Robbins and Lovett were both rescued by a passing boater.

Blaasch said Robbins was cited for negligent operation for anchoring in a
shipping lane. No boats are permitted to anchor or stop in the canal. "You
have to be under power and moving," department Sgt. John Webb said.

Although watercraft are supposed to carry wearable life jackets for each
occupant, only children 12 and younger are required to wear the devices.

"A lot of people don't wear them -- whether they know how to swim or not,"
Blaasch said. "Most people aren't expecting to go into the water."

Sister Phyllis Stewart said the family is devastated. Kevin Stewart is one
of seven children, an Army veteran who has worked for the past seven years
as an attendant at a Sunoco service station on the New Jersey Turnpike.

He has been engaged to the same woman for more than 15 years.

"He was very likable, friendly and happy-go-lucky," Phyllis Stewart said.
"I'm so devastated and sad."

Phyllis Stewart said she was puzzled about her brother's actions, because
only a couple of weeks ago he mentioned to a brother that he wasn't going to
go out in his friend Rob Lovett's boat because Stewart couldn't swim.

"They were just talking because my brother knew his friend Rob had just
gotten a new boat," Phyllis Stewart said. "They hadn't had that boat for
three months."

Blaasch said rescuers expected to continue the search today.

On Thu, 20 Jul 2006 02:59:29 -0000, Bill Kearney
wrote:

They were stupid enough to anchor from the stern of the boat! Yeesh
that's
bad. That and not being able to swim, having said so to others, he
doesn't
wear a PFD? Darwin in action.

I was busy today at work today and missed that article.

Thanks.

You're right. Dumb.

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