Leelanau County’s Marine Safety Unit has made it through the halfway point of summer boating season without a single drowning — (knock on wood) – a current data point that Leelanau County Sheriff Mike Borkovich calls remarkable given how much water recreation the county sees each year.
“I’m just very impressed with their work, and luck — God’s looking after us, you know,” Borkovich said.
The division has a new commander this season: Cary Garton, who spent 33 years with the Sheriff’s Office as a corrections deputy before retiring late this past winter.
Borkovich asked him to return and take over Marine operations, a role that runs roughly six months out of the year.
“Carrie’s doing a fantastic job,” Borkovich said. “He’s a big asset to have,” Borkovich said.
Joining Garten is Steve Freeman, the division’s most experienced deputy, who works the position four to five months a year. A Suttons Bay resident and lifelong boater, Freeman handles boat maintenance, equipment and engine troubleshooting in addition to patrols and rescues.
Marine deputies’ duties this time of year run the gamut: fireworks and drone-show safety patrols, routine water safety enforcement, and rescues. The office has also fielded reports of boats breaking loose from anchors and moorings — including at least one pontoon boat that drifted into another vessel.
Kayaks and canoes remain one of the division’s biggest headaches, largely because, unlike motorized boats, they aren’t required to be registered or marked with identification. When one is spotted drifting alone in open water, deputies have no way of knowing whether it simply blew off shore or someone is missing.
“We rush out like it’s a drowning,” Borkovich said. “We don’t know.”
Bow riding — passengers sitting or standing on a boat’s bow — is another persistent safety concern. If the boat strikes a submerged stump, rock or other obstruction and stops suddenly, a rider can be thrown forward directly into the path of the motor.
The division continues to enforce a long-standing zero-warning policy on life preservers: deputies say they’ll offer leniency on plenty of violations, but not wearing or carrying a personal flotation device isn’t one of them.
“If you don’t have a life preserver, you’re getting a ticket,” Borkovich said.
Paddleboarders are a frequent target of the policy, Borkovich said, describing cases of boarders far out in West Grand Traverse Bay or off Glen Arbor with no flotation device — sometimes even with a dog aboard wearing a life vest while its owner has none.
While jet skis have caused relatively few problems, Borkovich pointed to a drowning several years ago involving an experienced rider on an efoil-style hydrofoil board, who went under and did not resurface.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Borkovich said. “Worst case scenario, if you just had a life preserver on, we’d pluck you out of the water.”
He also singled out sailboarders and windsurfers who, especially on windy fall days, try to jump the breakwall at marinas such as Leland Harbor.
“That is just beyond stupid,” Borkovich said. “That’s active water where boats come and go. Even if there’s no other boats in there, it’s still dumb.”
Kayakers attempting the open-water crossing to North and South Manitou islands remain a steady, if not growing, concern each year,
Overall, Borkovich said this year’s Fourth of July was somewhat quieter across the county than in past years, which he attributed in part to fewer visitors traveling north amid broader financial pressures on families.
The Marine Division’s patrol boats include a protective/rescue craft based on the west side of the county that also supports homeland security patrols between Leland and Empire; a 24-foot Pursuit boat based in Suttons Bay covering the east side; a 19-foot Boston Whaler on a trailer rated for Great Lakes conditions; and the 17-foot, 38-year-old boat used primarily for inland lake patrols.
