Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My uncle drowned years ago in the Chesapeake on Easter weekend early April in a boating accident. He knew how to swim, but the water is just too cold that time of year. even with a lifejacket, the water is like a boa constrictor around your chest, every breath in and it squeezes, until you just cannot breath anymore. Then you either pass out and die of 1) drowning, or 2) hypothermia. Even if they had life jackets, they would not have survived whatsoever. My heart breaks for them.

My uncle's body washed on shore 4 days later. I hope their bodies are found so the family can have some closure.

I'm very sorry for your loss. However, I believe that you are probably wrong about what the outcome would have been in this case had they been wearing life jackets.

They were spotted struggling in their canoe and a call was placed to 911 at 4:49 PM. The Coast Guard responded promptly, and by 7:00 pm, their canoe was recovered.

No one knows exactly when they went into the water, but the temperature in the bay is now in the mid 40s. People survive 1 to 3 hours in 40 to 50 degree water. Life jackets would have kept their heads and a portion of their torsos out of the water and provided insulation, buying them additional time before hypothermia set in.

A total of 19 vessels and 5 aircraft participated in the search. With life vests, they would probably have held on to the canoe or drifted along with it. They would have been found within one to two hours of entering the water would most likely have survived, even if unconscious by then.

They drowned and sank to the bottom when their lungs filled with water. The vessels looking for them probably passed over them several times. In few days, once the process of decomposition fills their chest cavities with gas, they will float to the surface an be spotted or wash up on shore.

Anonymous wrote:My uncle drowned years ago in the Chesapeake on Easter weekend early April in a boating accident. He knew how to swim, but the water is just too cold that time of year. even with a lifejacket, the water is like a boa constrictor around your chest, every breath in and it squeezes, until you just cannot breath anymore. Then you either pass out and die of 1) drowning, or 2) hypothermia. Even if they had life jackets, they would not have survived whatsoever. My heart breaks for them.

My uncle's body washed on shore 4 days later. I hope their bodies are found so the family can have some closure.

Anonymous wrote:My uncle drowned years ago in the Chesapeake on Easter weekend early April in a boating accident. He knew how to swim, but the water is just too cold that time of year. even with a lifejacket, the water is like a boa constrictor around your chest, every breath in and it squeezes, until you just cannot breath anymore. Then you either pass out and die of 1) drowning, or 2) hypothermia. Even if they had life jackets, they would not have survived whatsoever. My heart breaks for them.

My uncle's body washed on shore 4 days later. I hope their bodies are found so the family can have some closure.

Anonymous wrote:My uncle drowned years ago in the Chesapeake on Easter weekend early April in a boating accident. He knew how to swim, but the water is just too cold that time of year. even with a lifejacket, the water is like a boa constrictor around your chest, every breath in and it squeezes, until you just cannot breath anymore. Then you either pass out and die of 1) drowning, or 2) hypothermia. Even if they had life jackets, they would not have survived whatsoever. My heart breaks for them.

My uncle's body washed on shore 4 days later. I hope their bodies are found so the family can have some closure.

Anonymous wrote:I think she must have been very familiar with the water and canoeing in general to get into that boat with her son.

I’ve only been in a canoe once — it would be foreign to me to just jump in one at a shoreline property, with my child, and without life jackets in.

Anonymous wrote:I think she must have been very familiar with the water and canoeing in general to get into that boat with her son.

I’ve only been in a canoe once — it would be foreign to me to just jump in one at a shoreline property, with my child, and without life jackets in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP +1 that the property was basically on open water. That's not a "cove" in the sense that the word is typically used. It's a concave beach.

It looks like the husband called it a cove:

“The cove is protected, with much calmer wind and water than in the greater Chesapeake,” David McKean wrote. “They got into a canoe, intending simply to retrieve the ball, and somehow got pushed by wind or tide into the open bay.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maeve-kennedy-mckeans-husband-posts-tribute-to-wife-and-son-after-maryland-drowning

I imagine that he is torn between being angry at her for doing something so foolish and taking his son with her and wanting to preserve her good name and not alienate her family. The optics are much better if they were in a calm protected cove and were inexplicably push out into the open bay.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP +1 that the property was basically on open water. That's not a "cove" in the sense that the word is typically used. It's a concave beach.

It looks like the husband called it a cove:

“The cove is protected, with much calmer wind and water than in the greater Chesapeake,” David McKean wrote. “They got into a canoe, intending simply to retrieve the ball, and somehow got pushed by wind or tide into the open bay.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maeve-kennedy-mckeans-husband-posts-tribute-to-wife-and-son-after-maryland-drowning

I imagine that he is torn between being angry at her for doing something so foolish and taking his son with her and wanting to preserve her good name and not alienate her family. The optics are much better if they were in a calm protected cove and were inexplicably push out into the open bay.

Anonymous wrote:NP +1 that the property was basically on open water. That's not a "cove" in the sense that the word is typically used. It's a concave beach.