Lake Simcoe, Cook’s Bay and Kempenfelt Bay can be unforgiving and full of surprises for boaters.

For officers of the South Simcoe Police Service marine unit, life on the water is simply part of their job and each shift can, and usually presents, different challenges.

The Innisfil Journal  joined constables Rob Enwright and Max Brown on board the Wardrop II recently for the afternoon. Enwright, with 19 years of policing under his belt, and Brown, with 26 years, are both in their second year with the marine unit. There are three other officers assigned to the unit full-time, plus a staff sergeant.

They work in tandem with the York Region, OPP and Barrie marine units and when required, the Canadian Coast Guard search and rescue team based out of Trenton.

“We have a lot of police presence out here and it’s helping,” Brown says. “Ten years ago, there wasn’t. We work very well with each other.”

This hot, sunny Thursday afternoon is Brown’s first shift of the season on the boat.
Enwright has been out already, including a joint patrol with York Region’s marine unit. The two have been matched up as partners for the summer.

South Simcoe polices six kilometres of the Holland River with York Region and patrols close to 36 kilometres  of (Innisfil) shoreline.

Enwright logs on with the Coast Guard to let them know the Wardrop II is heading out of Lefroy Harbour Resort. The vessel is named after John Wardrop, an Innisfil resident who was a former chairperson of the South Simcoe Police Service.

Heading out into Cook’s Bay, Brown shows his guests where the “Holy cows!” are – overhead metal bars to grab onto in case of a sudden burst of speed or quick slowdown.

Their craft is a 26-foot Harbourcraft, capable of more than 80 km/h. Brown estimates the value of the Wardrop II, totally outfitted, including motor, is approximately $125,000.

The cruiser carries a NAV system that shows precisely where the boat is on the lake using latitude and longitude. It also measures the depth of water and shows the presence of any of the lake’s numerous treacherous shoals that can seriously damage a vessel’s hull, or even sink a boat.

“It’s worth its weight in gold. It comes in especially handy at night when we’re doing a search,” Enwright says. “It locates buoys if we’re out in zero visibility and we can give the exact location of an overturned boat.”
“It really gives us an eye on the water,” Brown adds. “It’s worth at least $10,000.”

The marine unit began patrolling on May 15 and continues until Sept. 15 on a full-time basis, Wednesdays to Sundays. Before and after those dates, the unit operates on an on-call basis.

“On a normal day, we’ll check fishermen in the morning, then work our way north at about 10 km/h,” Brown says. “The cottagers like seeing us. They’ll call us over to do a marine inspection for them. We’ll also travel into each marina. The owners like it. We’ll do inspections and it gets us familiar with the mariners and them with us”.

“It can get real hectic out here real fast,” Enwright adds. “Things can come in left, right and centre and you fuddle your way through it. We were out in 2.5 metre waves two weekends ago.”

As he heads out into the bay, Brown scans the water at all times for other craft, including canoes that can be very low in the water and hard to see.

The officers describe some of the situations they have encountered in the past.
“Last year we had five kids out on a raft in the middle of Cook’s Bay with no life jackets,” Brown says. “We’ve had swimmers out in the middle of the channel. They don’t realize boaters can’t see them. We had a swimmer and pulled them out of the water just before a huge cabin cruiser doing 60 km/h roared by. The captain of that boat would never know if he had hit the swimmer.”


This year, “we’re having a lot of problems with PWCs (personal watercraft),” Enwright says. “They can operate in seven inches of water. We get a lot of complaints about them.”

The pair recently completed a two-week OPP course that included night training.

“We had one assignment when we went out at night to find six locations on Lake Muskoka, following charts only or a compass,” Brown says. “No lights. We were told ‘If you’re back by breakfast, you’ve passed.’ We were so close to other police boats sometimes you could reach out and touch it.”

While there are some advantages of being out on the water rather than in a squad car, there are unique duties.

“It can get pretty hot on the water,” Enwright says. “You have to lug things on and off the boat. Things look a lot different on the water. The toughest task is removing a body from the lake. We’ve been lucky. None so far this year, or last year.

“We’re not above the weather elements. Two Saturdays ago, a nasty storm blew in. The temperature dropped from 25 C to 10 C  in about an hour. We tied off at a government dock. A little while later, a man with a 14-foot boat came in carrying a little girl. He said his dad had been right behind them in another little boat. A couple of minutes later, his dad arrived. Common sense should tell you when it’s time to get off the water.”
Brown steers the boat into the mouth of the Holland River at the south end of Cook’s Bay.

“Education remains a very important part of what we do,” Brown says. “People buy a boat safety kit, with a buoy, flares and flashlight. Nine times out of 10, they haven’t even opened the kit and installed the batteries in the flashlight. We try to educate people but where it warrants it, we will enforce the statutes.”

On the May long weekend, a boater was charged with failing to have life jackets on board. They could be fined $230 per person in the boat.

“A lot of people are doing things (illegal) that they’re not aware of,” Brown states. “Last year, we had two families, each with three young kids, as young as five. They were missing a life jacket for one of the kids. We followed them into the nearest marina where they could buy a life jacket.”

Many people on moored boats wave and say “Hello” and know the officers by name, including a woman named Pam whose husband, John, built a large craft by hand in Bradford named, ‘Knot Two Nite’.

Heading back out into Cook’s Bay, the crew’s first inspection takes place.
Enwright asks to see the boat’s safety kit.

It hasn’t been open and the man operating the boat doesn’t even know what’s in it. After unwrapping the kit he finds the flashlight.
“No batteries,” he says.

Then he finds and installs them. His sunbathing wife is keeping her modesty intact only by the good graces of a skimpy piece of fabric. She remains completely oblivious to what’s going on.

Enwright gives the man a bit of a pep talk about the importance of having your safety kit ready at all times.
Brown turns and says, “See what I mean?  We’re not surprised by anything we see on the open water.”

On the second inspection, Brown slowly approaches a boat close to shore.
“Right now, we’re eyeballing the occupants. Their body language tells you a lot,” Brown says.

It’s a group of young adults cooking up some perch they’ve caught.
Once again, the skipper is asked to install batteries in the flashlight.
When asked if there’s any alcohol onboard, a woman produces an unopened bottle of wine and admits, “We forgot to bring the opener.”
“We have zero tolerance for open alcohol on the water,” Brown says. “You can transport alcohol on a vessel as long as it’s not open. If that bottle was open, we’d check the operator’s breath.”

The officers depart after asking to see the man’s Operator’s card.
“As of Sept. 15 (2009), everyone has to have an Operator’s card,” Brown says. “It’s good to know the safety regulations. It makes it safer for everyone.”

Heading out into the bay, he keeps an eye out for ‘dead heads’, submerged tree stumps or logs that can seriously damage a boat or propeller.

A legendary lake yarn involves a man who grounded his expensive cruiser off Big Cedar Point last summer, just before midnight.
Enwright and Brown were the investigating officers.
“We found one man, in his 70s on the boat, with 12 ladies. And the boat was starting to sink,” Enwright says.  

Suddenly, a distress call comes in over the radio.
A woman named Laurie Zon has called in from her cell phone.
She had left Lefroy Harbour Marina only minutes before and says her boat has lost power “out in the middle of the lake” .

It only takes a few minutes for Enwright and Brown to locate the craft even though the woman is obviously stressed and having a difficult time pinpointing her position in relation to the shore. The officers tow the woman’s boat back to the harbour.

Once safely back on shore, Zon says, “Having your boat stop in the middle of the lake with no one around is a bit of a shock. We were all very grateful when the police boat came to our rescue so quickly. The winds and waves can be unpredictable on Lake Simcoe. The officers were very friendly and caring to ensure we were all comfortable and secure while we were being towed back to shore. Our sincere thanks to the South Simcoe marine unit for their assistance.”

Turns out the only thing wrong with Zon’s craft was an ignition wire that had come loose. A marine mechanic back at Lefroy Harbour Resort takes about 10 minutes to pinpoint, and fix the problem. Despite the experience, the Zons are ready to try again.

Towing stranded boats back to safety can be “a daily occurrence,” Brown says. “On a windy day, your anchor won’t hold and you can get pushed out on the lake quickly or pushed onto the rocks.”

Entering Cook’s Bay again, the officers rendezvous with York Region Police’s marine boat, the Waawaatesi, a much larger cruiser than the Wardrop II. The two crews spend about 15 minutes swapping information on upcoming training seminars, occurrences and share some small talk.
From there, Brown navigates toward the pier at Innisfil Beach Park where a dozen teenagers are taking turns diving into the water.

“The municipal dock here is a problem for us,” Brown says. “The dock gets hit by waves and it can be hard to launch a boat. It gets crowded here and we get calls to break up disputes between boaters trying to get in the water.”

As the officers head back to shore to discharge their passengers, the officers make one more check.

Two men are sunning themselves. Enwright asks one to show their lifejackets.
The man searches bow to stern, a couple of times, before he locates the potentially life saving devices.

In the bridge, Brown offers another rueful smile.
“Everyone knows where their tire jack is for their car, but in the middle of a lake, in choppy conditions, you should always know where your jackets are,” he says.

After saying their goodbyes, the officers prepare to head out again to complete their nine-hour shift.