Coast Guard Helicopter Rescues Sailor From Grounded Boat on Lake Michigan

The Coast Guard Lake Michigan rescue on Saturday, 7 November 2026, saved a sailor whose 28-foot sailboat lost power, capsized and then ran aground near Green Island, southeast of Menominee, Michigan. The man radioed a mayday call at about 6:08 p.m. on VHF channel 16, after his battery died about 11 miles northwest of the Sturgeon Bay Canal in Wisconsin. He reported high winds and concerns that his vessel could capsize, and said he could not anchor and was having difficulty keeping radio contact. Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan watchstanders sent a 45-foot response boat from Station Sturgeon Bay and issued an urgent marine broadcast, while Air Station Traverse City launched an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter. Both crews reached the sailor at about 8 p.m.

The sailor had righted the boat before it ran aground on a sandbar, but the water was too shallow for the rescue boat to reach him. A rescue swimmer went down from the helicopter and the sailor was hoisted aboard, then flown to Menominee Regional Airport, just north of the Wisconsin line, where emergency medics met him. He was transferred to emergency medical services for treatment of hypothermia, after spending hours in cold wind and water on the lake. The Coast Guard said there were no signs of pollution from the grounded sailboat, and Green Island, just south of the United States-Canada border in that part of the lake, remained a hazard for other boaters until the vessel could be recovered.

Coast Guard Lake Michigan rescue shows teamwork

Gregory Grubbs, command duty officer at the Coast Guard Great Lakes District Command Center, said the rescue showed the coordination of the boat and helicopter crews, and urged boaters to check the forecast, to check safety gear and to carry a working radio before heading out on the lakes. The rescue came on a weekend of high winds across the Great Lakes, when small boats can be caught out by sudden gusts and choppy water. The sailor’s name was not released, and officials did not say where he had set out from or where he had been heading when the battery failed.

Source: Lansing State Journal