Avoidable Tragedy

It seems like every summer, I have to write an article for the newspaper about someone who dies from some sort miscalculation they made while enjoying the outdoors on or around Mount Desert Island.
This latest one, about a kayaker who died Sunday, has bothered me more than most.
Eric Hogan had just gotten married to his wife, Sarah Beth (Kellogg) Hogan on May 28 and had been married for less than three weeks. After searching online for more information, I found this engagement announcement that appeared in the Daily Hampshire Gazette of Massachusetts in January. He was 28 when he died. Sarah Hogan graduated from high school a year earlier than he did, and so probably is 29.

They had rented a house at Hancock Point, a fairly upscale seasonal oceanfront village in the town of Hancock that faces downtown MDI from the north side of Frenchman Bay, for their honeymoon. The couple clearly loved the MDI area, having vacationed here before and gotten engaged here in August of 2009. On their wedding website, they describe on the "Our Proposal" page how he popped the question during a private charter boat ride on Frenchman Bay. She writes how the boat captain dropped them off on an island in the bay, where she used a small stone to scratch out the message "Sarah [heart] Eric 4 Ever" on a large slab of rock.

With their having been here before, you think he would have known how cold the water can be. Water temperatures were between 55 and 60 degrees - cold enough to render a person unconscious after about an hour. Four hours had passed Sunday after Eric Hogan set out for his paddle before authorities were alerted that he had not returned. Another two and a half hours passed before he was found, unresponsive, floating in the waters off Hulls Cove.

Experienced ocean kayakers I've talked to about this tragedy shake their heads. A kayak guide never would have been out on the bay in those kind of conditions, much less leading a group of less experienced people. Wind gusts of 35 mph are about half as strong as hurricane-force winds and can aggravate exposure to chilly water. Waves two feet high can easily overturn a kayak.

The facts that Hogan was poorly dressed, wearing only a life jacket and shorts, and that he was paddling a sit-on-top kayak, with no protection from the elements, made the situation worse. Those type of kayaks are better suited for glass surface conditions usually found in small ponds than they are for the ocean. If he had an enclosed kayak that kept him covered from his waist down, was wearing protective waterproof gear from his neck to his wrists, and had a decent amount of kayaking experience, he would have had a better chance of making it to an island downwind after being blown away from shore.
Hogan may have been an experience kayaker, but I suspect he was not, given the conditions he paddled out into. Even if he was experienced, his choices of watercraft and clothing were not good. A PFD might help keep you afloat, but it will do very little to nothing to protect you from hypothermia - even when the sun is out.
My intent here is not to speak ill of the dead. It is heartbreaking that Hogan died, especially considering the fact that he was on his honeymoon and apparently had so much life ahead of him. But the truth of the matter is that his death was avoidable.

The same is the case for John Myers, an experienced boater who drowned in Frenchman Bay in early October 2009 after his motorized skiff capsized while en route from Hancock toward Salisbury Cove. It is also true of the death that same year of Clio Axilrod who, along with her father and others, was swept into the sea by a huge wave as they watched the surf churned up by Hurricane Bill crash along the shore of MDI near Thunder Hole.
If only everyone knew, without having to learn the painful way, that the ocean can be dangerous not just far out to sea, but also within easy eyesight of shore.
My deepest sympathies go out to Hogan's wife and family. What an awful thing.

Red Lobster co-opts Bar Harbor

Bar Harbor's marketing appeal is getting a little publicity courtesy of this June 9 Bloomberg News article, which indicates that national restaurant chain Red Lobster is redesigning its restaurants to resemble the casual, seaside feel of downtown Bar Harbor.
But despite the lede, the article makes only passing reference to Red Lobster's new design scheme and instead focuses more on how chain restaurants nationwide are trying to adapt to the new realities of a poor economy and a customer base that wants to see healthier options on the menu.
Which is good, because if the article was mainly about how the company is using Bar Harbor to market itself, it would be fairly dated. The BDN published this story in 2007 about how the Mount Desert Island town's general appearance was being heavily featured in the restaurant's new look.