A 66-year-old man is being treated in hospital after Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) say the Mono Township resident went overboard while on a small boat in Sturgeon Bay near Waubaushene late Thursday morning.
"The male then inflated his lifejacket and tread water and swam for well over an hour until he was able to pull himself onto a rock shoal and out of the 10.5 degrees Celsius water," according to an OPP news release.
Police say a retired OPP officer and his spouse who have a home overlooking the water glanced out over the bay and noticed a speck of yellow colour on one of the rock shoals that portrude out of the water about 400 metres from shore.
They alerted police and an officer went to the residence where the sighting was confirmed to an OPP Marine Unit.
"At approximately 2:00 p.m.,two OPP marine unit members aboard the OPP vessel Thomas P. Coffin where able quickly locate and bring the male aboard who was suffering from obvious signs of hypothermia," police said. "Officers credit the survival of male to the fact of wearing a colourful lifejacket which was inflated shortly after going overboard and the good fortune of being spotted by the callers on shore."
The Southern Georgian Bay OPP Detachment maintains a marine unit late into the fall season.
