Wednesday was a mighty fine day for a river rescue.

Two 10-year-old boys got caught in a strong gale while out on the Detroit River. Perhaps the winds wouldn't have taken down the Edmund Fitzgerald, but they were enough to capsize a sailboat.

And around 1 p.m., they did.

"They all ended up in the water, " said Ray Smith, who saw the incident. "Once they ended up in the water, a larger boat they were waving to came to their rescue."

That salvation on the sea was the U.S. Coast Guard. However, it was some seaworthy Samaritans that did the heavy lifting.

"(It) sounded like they didn't - the little kids couldn't flip it back over so we hopped on the coach boat here and Jake and Blake jumped in the water and flipped it back over," said Sydney Foley.


Officials from the Bay View Yacht Club said the two kids were most likely taking the sailboat from the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club to the Detroit Yacht Club in preparation for a big regatta on Thursday and Friday.

That's when the winds struck and tipped the ship over.

"The Coast Guard told us not to do capsized drills without warning them, but it wasn't a drill," Foley said. "Every single day before we start the program, we do a capsize test and teach them how to ride a capsized boat."

The incident left mostly good news in its wake. The kids are fine, the boat isn't damaged and any delays in fishing and sailing was back to normal. For one of the vigilante Vikings was asked if he felt like a hero after the save.

"I don't know about hero, but we were just doing our job and the staff here is well-trained for the situation," said Blake Stackpoole, who helped with the rescue. "So we just used our training and everything worked out well."