Dozen family members survive boat sinking on Lake Mohave

By Kyle B. Hansen

Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010 | 9:30 p.m.

A dozen people on a family outing Saturday afternoon had to abandon their boat on Lake Mohave after it started to take on water and sink in rough waters.

Luckily, the family — including seven children ages 6 months to 11 years old — was prepared with life vests and was able to stay afloat until rescued by other boaters.

“My first thought was, ‘Oh, brand new boat, brand new skis,” said Ed Torrance, who had taken family members out for the day. “Then I looked and said, ‘I’ve got 11 people here, my wife, seven grandchildren, my daughters. I realized the boat and material stuff isn’t important. That can all be replaced.”

The family, from Las Vegas, headed out on the lake at about 11 a.m. and spent hours cruising, ridding an inner tube and swimming. The group maxed out the 24-foot boat’s 12-person capacity.

By 3:30 p.m., the wind started to pick up and the family decided to head back to the dock at Cottonwood Cove. They were halfway there when water started coming aboard.

Wind speeds on the lake ranged from 15 to 28 mph, National Park Service Ranger Laura Anderson said. It’s not uncommon to see four- or five-foot waves on the lake on summer afternoons, she said.

Torrance was piloting the boat and looked down to see the water was ankle-deep. Then the engine stalled, and he knew there was no way they could make it back to shore.

“I told my wife, ‘It’s time to buckle up the jackets, we’re going off the boat,’ and she didn’t believe me,” he said.

The water rose quickly, with the boat going under in less than two minutes, the family estimated. “From ankle-deep to up to your neck was probably a minute and a half,” Torrance said.

Luckily, the children were already in life jackets and the adults had theirs ready to go. One daughter started handing out seat cushions to use for extra flotation, and each adult held on to a couple kids as they rolled off the back of the sinking boat.

“If we’d had to life jacket up all those kids at the same time, there would have been people in the water without life jackets,” Torrance’s wife, Cathy, said.

Some of the family members started to drift apart while an ice chest, diaper bags, sippy cups and other items from the boat floated by.

“I must have counted 100 times, taking a head count, making sure everyone was out,” Ed Torrance said.

Family member Jennifer Torrance held onto her 6-month-old son, Nathan, while floating in the lake.

“This is like a Lifetime movie. This is something that happens on TV. I should be on my couch watching this,” she recalled thinking. “Wow, I could very easily loose all my kids right now. This is very real, very scary.”

It was difficult to judge time while bobbing in the water, but the family estimates they were floating for about 20 minutes.

Finally a boat stopped and loaded a couple people onboard, before the driver said he had to get back to the dock before he sank, too. Then right away, two more boats stopped and picked up the rest of the family and took them to the dock.

One of the rescued boaters, Erin Cox, said she didn’t have time to process what happened until the group was back on land.

“Really it was just kind of a survival mode. I didn’t really think about anything until we were back at the dock and getting in the cars, and then it was kind of like, ‘Oh my gosh. The boat sank,’” she said.

Jennifer Torrance said everybody was OK. “We had a couple bumps and bruises and scratches, but nothing a Band-Aid and some ice can’t fix,” she said.

It took a recovery crew all night to recover the family’s boat.

Anderson, the ranger who met them at the dock, said the family is safe because they were prepared.

“We just want to get the message out to people that having your proper safety equipment is always a great idea. Plus, it’s the law,” she said.

Every boat is required to carry an approved, proper-fitting life jacket for every passenger, and everyone under the age of 12 has to wear theirs at all times, she said.

While situations like the Torrances’ aren’t common, they do happen.

Lake Mead National Recreation Area spokesman Andrew Munoz said three people have died from drowning in the area so far this year. Last year, 14 people died in the recreation area.

Meanwhile, the Torrance family said it may be a while before they head back out on the lake.

“That night, I said, ‘I’m done.’ But my kids are saying, ‘Oh mom, come on, come on,’” Cathy Torrance said. “We probably will (go on the boat again), it just might not be this summer.”