Boat

A water rescue of four people from a boat offshore from Hawkins Point in Baltimore late Sunday night resulted in three people being taken to area hospitals, two of them in critical condition, the United States Coast Guard said Monday. The rescue occurred near the south end of the Key Bridge after a local fisherman called the Coast Guard about 9:45 p.m. to report a 40-foot recreational boat had crashed into concrete pilings in the water, said Petty Officer 1st Class Nathan Henise.

The weekend is so close you can taste it. If you're headed east to the Atlantic, take a look at our guide to 100 Best Beach Eats , which covers Ocean City, West Ocean City and Delaware towns stretching from Fenwick Island to Lewes. It might be hard to get to on a busy weekend, when the Ocean Gateway (Route 50) is bumper to bumper, but sometime this summer make sure you stop by the Shrimp Boat on Stephen Decatur Highway. This 23-year-old roadside shack is the real deal, where the locals have always come to buy fresh seafood and steamed-while-you-wait shrimp.

You could drive to a fish market or stop at a roadside stand to pick up a few dozen steamed crabs, or maybe a bushel. But then you'd miss the tranquility that comes from bobbing in silky-smooth back waters, the sound of bass leaping to catch low-flying bugs, the sight of great blue herons and bald eagles sweeping the sky to begin their search for the first meal of the day. And you'd miss the satisfaction that comes from baiting a line and...

A water rescue of four people from a boat offshore from Hawkins Point in Baltimore late Sunday night resulted in three people being taken to area hospitals, two of them in critical condition, the United States Coast Guard said Monday. The rescue occurred near the south end of the Key Bridge after a local fisherman called the Coast Guard about 9:45 p.m. to report a 40-foot recreational boat had crashed into concrete pilings in the water, said Petty Officer 1st Class Nathan Henise.

A recent column addressed to mayor-to-be Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called attention to the extremely challenging conditions of doing business in Baltimore, particularly at Crossroads Industrial Park in Southwest Baltimore. Trash, illegal dumping of construction waste, burglaries, expensive air-conditioning units repeatedly destroyed for their copper, no snowplow service and abandoned boats showing up on the street are all business as usual at Crossroads. Baltimore Development Corp.

A boat sank in the Inner Harbor just before 5 p.m. Saturday, fire officials said. The incident happened off the 2700 block of Boston St.and was over in under a half hour, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a fire department spokesman. No one aboard was harmed. A 911 call that came around 4:50 p.m. reported a sinking boat near the Bo Brooks Restaurant & Catering, Cartwright said. A rescue boat, a fire engine and a medic were dispatched to the scene. But by the time the rescue arrived, one of Baltimore city's trash collection vessels had removed the people aboard the sinking boat and taken them to shore, Cartwright said.

Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police recovered the body of a man who had fallen from a 24-foot pontoon boat in the Assawoman Bay near 126th Street, Ocean City Saturday evening. The body of Jordan Craig Hock, 23, was recovered Sunday at 9:50 a.m., according to a spokesman for Natural Resources Police Monday morning. This is Maryland's 16th fatal boating accident victim of the year. According to a release from Natural Resources Police, the boat was being operated by Robert Stanley Holmes, 53, of Lansdowne.

Four-time freestyle kayak world champion Eric Jackson learned his sport paddling Maryland's waters and raised money for his 1992 Olympic campaign by going door-to-door and panhandling on street corners. Now 46, EJ, as the paddling world calls him, is riding high in the water as owner of one of the most successful kayak manufacturing companies and as father of the women's world freestyle champion. He's also plotting to retake the title of world's best next year, wrestling the crown from a competitor he knows all too well: his son-in-law.

Don Riddle, who founded one of the largest independent garden centers in the country in rural Davidsonville and was known for his quiet contributions to civic causes, was found dead Thursday on a boat docked near the back of his home outside Annapolis. Officials did not release a cause of death but said they were alerted by a call about 4:35 p.m. Thursday to a possible suicide or sick person on a boat in Lake Ogleton behind the 1200 block of Eden Lane. Riddle was pronounced dead there by rescue workers, who turned the scene over to police, said Division Chief Michael E. Cox Jr. of the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.

The city has responded to a January column that chronicled the sufferings of businesses in Crossroads Business Park (formerly Industrial Park). They have lots of problems - crime and vandalism, especially - but the place also was littered with trash and furniture. Baltimore Development Corp.'s M.J. "Jay" Brodie sent me pictures of the cleaned-up spots, which are hugely improved, especially Bernard Drive where it goes under Interstate 95. But Brodie is mistaken in his assertion that the city Department of Public Works also took care of a boat dumped months ago in Crossroads.

Small craft advisories are a common occurrence on the Chesapeake Bay, so take note that tomorrow begins the National Weather Service's Safe Boating Week , in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard and other groups. The weather service will broadcast safety tips over weather radio during the week. Some of the tips include: Wear appropriate clothing and protective gear in case of capsizing to prevent risk of hypothermia. Have a plan of escape if there is a risk of thunderstorms.

A 34-foot boat carrying 10 people hit an unlit channel marker in the Severn River near the Route 450 bridge about 3 a.m. Saturday, injuring four, police said. Cpl. Steve Stauffer of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police said the four were treated for non-life threatening injuries. Police are investigating the accident, Stauffer said. He said alcohol may have played a factor, but no charges had been filed. One person was flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center with breathing difficulties, but was later released, Stauffer said.

Don Backe and Karl Guerra share more than a love for sailing: After their lives were transformed by tragedy, both men used the sport and the organization they now run to regain their sense of purpose. Backe helped found Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating in 1991, four years after a horrific one-vehicle automobile accident in Crownsville left the former independent private school headmaster a paraplegic at age 51. Guerra is now executive director for the Annapolis-based nonprofit organization that helps those with physical, mental and emotional handicaps - along with others who can't afford financially to sail - gain entrance to a sport Guerra thought he had lost when he suffered a massive stroke in 2000 at age 52. But it could take the dream of a much younger man without any disabilities with the same love of being on the open waters to help keep CRAB afloat.

Three boaters were rescued Monday evening from Middle River by Natural Resources Police after their small boat capsized in choppy, wind-swept water, the agency reported. An officer found Dwayne W. Abbott, 28, of Essex and Jonathan M. Miller, 11, and William H. Miller, 34, both of Middle River in the 58-degree water near Wilson Point with help from the Baltimore County aviation unit. The boaters were transferred to a Baltimore County Fire Department boat and then taken to Franklin Square Hospital for evaluation, the police report said.

I support a reasonable boat registration fee increase, but the most recent request for an increase by the Department of Natural Resources is still way out of line ("DNR seeks smaller rise in boat registration fee," March 14). To go up from $24 to $100 for the most popular size boat will not benefit Maryland. Boat owners already are finding ways to register their boats elsewhere and still boat in Maryland. Instead phasing in a doubling or tripling the current fee, use the Transportation Trust Fund tax paid by boaters on the water into the Waterway Fund in Maryland.

Capt. Herbert Hamilton Ward III, a retired career naval officer who was active in Upper Chesapeake Bay environmental matters and other issues, died March 17 from complications of a blood clot at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. The Broadmead retirement community resident was 91. The son of a lawyer and a homemaker, Herbert Hamilton Ward III was born and raised in Wilmington, Del., where he graduated in 1939 from Friends School. He was a member of an accelerated wartime class at the Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1943.

A District Court judge has sentenced a 21-year-old Dundalk resident to six months in the Baltimore County Detention Center for violating his probation and for failure to remove a boat from state waters. Jacob Dane Green must also pay a $3,000 fine. Green, registered owner of a 33-foot cabin boat, had abandoned the 28-year-old Broadwater cruiser in Back River near Whetherby Point, police said. Natural Resources police charged Green in August with littering the waterway. He plead guilt to those charges in February.

Once again, we have our state legislature using scare tactics to justify more tax increases that we do not need ("Budget would slash education, police aid," March 6). They threaten to cut funding for essential police and fire services and the like if they don't raise taxes again and call their response to Gov.Martin O'Malley's budget a "Doomsday Budget. " Well, the real Doomsday Budget will more likely be what they pass. This is no time to mirror the mistakes made by other states and the federal government where spending is out of control.

Since the Department of Natural Resources needs additional funds to dredge our Maryland waterways, they should first strictly enforce registration in Maryland of all those Pennsylvania and Delaware boats residing for the season in the many Eastern Shore marinas from Chesapeake City southward to Rock Hall and beyond. All one has to do is walk those docks to see the preponderance of out of state boats (with no Maryland registration decals) using our state's waterways but not paying their fair share of maintaining them.