Saw this in this moring's Albany Times Union. More effects of our wacky weather.
ROUND LAKE -- Larry Vanderveen was unresponsive and about to slip beneath the surface when rescuers plucked him from Round Lake shortly after 4 p.m. Saturday. But it was a female kayaker -- who paddled over and collared Vanderveen before he went under -- who saved the 41-year-old Clifton Park man's life, Round Lake Fire Department spokesman Joseph Plewinski said. He gave this account of the near tragedy:
A squall on the lake, which is normally frozen in January, kicked up 2-foot waves and capsized at least one of the kayaks belonging to Vanderveen and his two young daughters. All three wound up in the water about half a mile from Route 9.
A short time later, kayakers Victoria Ferrante and Martha Highland spotted the capsized boats. They'd seen the three earlier, cutting price tags off new paddles. They wondered if the family had enough experience to be on the water. They worried that they wouldn't stay close enough to shore.
"I had a bad feeling right from the beginning," said Ferrante, 39, of Albany, who is an experienced paddler.
An hour later, as the women came back to the lake from Anthony Kill, a creek that runs toward Mechanicville, Ferrante and Highland saw the capsized boats. Vanderveen, without a life preserver, was holding on.
"I just jetted toward the guy, and it took awhile" in the rough water, about half a mile from shore, Ferrante said. A third paddler, Jeff Finkle, was also on the lake. He began to search for the girls.
After she reached Vanderveen, Ferrante "was holding onto him" and dialing 911, Plewinski said. "He was a pretty big guy."
At one point, Vanderveen panicked and nearly capsized Ferrante's kayak.
"I said, 'Sir, don't do that, or we're both gonna flip,' " Ferrante recalled Saturday evening. "I was just holding on to him the best I could and trying to talk to him."
But Vanderveen was turning white. "I can't feel my legs," he told her.
"He had no grip," Ferrante said. "I thought I was losing him. The water was really cold."
Meanwhile, Finkle had reached Anneka Vanderveen, 14, and her sister, Liesel, 10, and put one girl into his kayak. Within minutes of the call, Round Lake rescuers brought the girls to shore. Ballston Lake firefighters retrieved an unresponsive Vanderveen.
Plewinski said the family was taken to Saratoga Hospital and treated for hypothermia.
"Let me tell you, these (people) should get some sort of recognition," Plewinski said of Ferrante, Highland and Finkle. "They saved the man's life. All three of them turned a very bad situation into a very good one."
Round Lake, a popular fishing spot, is usually frozen by January and dotted with ice fishing huts.
Ferrante said she was just so relieved that nobody drowned. "Just think about it. What if Jeff wasn't there? What if we didn't have our cellphones? It's a miracle."
