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Around sunset on April 4, Brian and Lynette Hooker got into their 8-foot dinghy to return to their boat following an afternoon ashore on Elbow Cay in the Bahamas. The next morning, Brian arrived back in Marsh Harbour alone. He said Lynette had fallen overboard, taking the key to the outboard with her. He said the current and sea state made it impossible for him to reach her, and he was forced to paddle the tender across the channel to reach shore.
Days after he reported the incident, Brian was arrested on suspicion of foul play. The Royal Bahamas Police questioned and then released him with no evidence to bring charges. At the time of this writing, Lynette is still missing, and investigations continue. Personally, I think authorities could investigate for a year and not get any further, with no idea what happened and only Brian’s statements to go on.
What I know is this: Brian and Lynette Hooker did everything they could do to create a mishap. They reportedly drank alcohol, got into their dinghy without a radio, did not wear flotation devices, and headed out into wind and seas that exceeded the reasonable operating limits of their vessel. And they did all of this in the dark. That one of them fell overboard and was lost, while tragic, is not surprising.
The couple did everything you do if you want a problem and nothing you do if you don’t. Being safe in your dinghy is no different from being safe on the vessel you came from. Be prepared, be sober and operate the tender within its limits. Because if you go overboard, the sea doesn’t care what you fell from.
So what should the Hookers have done? And what should you do the next time you and your significant other board your own tender? I have some ideas, and if we’ve met, you’re not going to be surprised. It all starts with standards. All boaters should operate with a set of unbreakable rules when it comes to the dinghy and its operations.
BOTTLE-TO-THROTTLE Drinking alcohol is for when the boating day is done, not for the middle of the afternoon. Brian Hooker made the decision to head out in what he called “unpredictable and confused seas” after he and Lynette had reportedly been consuming alcohol. When your plan is to get back into your dinghy instead of into a bed, you either don’t drink or you change your plans. In the Coast Guard, we had a 12-hour, bottle-to-throttle rule. It’s not a bad rule. Yours can be different, but you need to have one.
FLOTATION I don’t believe in always wearing a life vest. When I’m down below making lunch or at the helm underway on a nice day, I do not walk around with my life jacket on. But there is no situation that allows for a person to go without a life jacket on a dinghy so small that the best seat is on the rail. That applies even on flat-calm days, when you are making your way from the mooring to the marina just a quarter mile away. Donning a life jacket is too simple a fix to not make a habit. The idea that you are a good swimmer is a ridiculous thing to consider. Good swimmers drown every year. And no one is a good swimmer in a 2-foot chop and 20-knot winds.
KEYS However your kill switch is configured, having a backup key or lanyard aboard makes good sense. Kill switches and lanyards exist so the engine will stop should the operator fall overboard. Having only one key is just asking for a problem, particularly for those left aboard.
COMMUNICATIONS If your boat’s radio were to break, you would buy another one. Why then would you not have a radio on your dinghy? Hooker said he used flares and his cellphone flashlight to signal other vessels, only to no avail. There is a more obvious communication solution: a handheld radio.
Though not required on a small dinghy by the Coast Guard, a handheld VHF radio on your inflatable should be required by any prudent boater. The Bahamian Port Department lists a VHF radio as a requirement in their publication Boating Laws & Safe Practices for Vessels Operating in the Bahamas. That’s a rule the Hookers apparently overlooked.
LIMITS Now let’s assume you have done everything right and maintained the standards I’ve outlined here. You didn’t have those drinks with dinner. You wore flotation in your dinghy that was equipped with a VHF radio and backup keys, and your flare and distress devices were in perfect shape. However, it is blowing 20 knots, and the seas are a mixed bag of slop and worse. And yet you tell yourself you must cross 2 miles of water that is, at best, dicey, because you are on a schedule.
So what do you do next? Do you paddle your dinghy miles across a channel hoping to make it to the boat? Or do you follow your gut and do what made the most sense in the first place: stay ashore. Nothing causes mishaps at sea more than the mistaken belief that schedules matter. Be prepared to change plans.
In the end I believe the tragic disappearance of Lynette Hooker is likely to remain a case of he-said-she-can’t, and the rest shall remain a mystery. But all of it started with choices the couple made before they left the bar, and all of them were poor ones. They decided not to wear life vests. They decided to drink. They decided to use the dinghy in bad conditions at night.
The sea does not care what boat you fall from. Treat your dinghy like any other boat, because it is. It is a hull with a motor that takes you out to a potentially deadly place. It is the only thing between you and the water, and it requires the same safe-boating practices as any vessel of any size.
