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An adventurous few listen to the warnings of the waves.

The recent rescue of a man 聽is a success story of big-water search efforts and the upside of water safety.聽

The 75-year-old boater set out Friday afternoon from Port Maitland. His boat was found about 20 kilometres away. The man, afloat and unharmed with help of a life-jacket, was located five kilometres out in open water Saturday morning.

On the same day the lucky boater was found, a at Port Dover Beach, pulling a family member to safety.聽

The intrepid youth recognized their relative聽鈥� a 65-year-old man 鈥斅爓as in distress, having experienced a medical episode while swimming. The child pulled the man to safety, where he was resuscitated by other adults.

Other big-lake misadventures have not gone as well.

Here are a few more infamous incidents in Hamilton waters that ended with some bruised egos, but where landlubbers made it out聽mostly unscathed.

In Burlington Bay鈥檚 most famous students-in-a-storm-surge incident, 100 high school and Mac student rowers and their coaches, in about 30 boats, were surprised by a freak storm.

It was a chilly but calm April morning in 2011 before 90-kilometre-an-hour gusts drove two-metre waves onto the flotilla of athletes. Most of the students were able to make it to the shore on their own; however, two shells of students didn鈥檛 stand a chance, wrote Spectator reporter Paul Morse at the time.

But in a case of 鈥渇ortuitous timing,鈥� Hamilton police and RCMP marine units were already in the area training.

No students or rescuers were harmed in the incident.

Spectators gathered to watch a sinking 39-foot Bayliner, metres from the Pier 8 boardwalk聽pedestrian barrier, in mid-August 2023. The yacht鈥檚 allegedly intoxicated pilot barely missed Theodore Tugboat and narrowly avoided the breakwater on his way into port after striking the pier.

The smoking boat took only about 15 minutes to sink after it started to take on water.

A 28-year-old Waterloo man was charged with operating a vessel while impaired and failing to comply.

For marine officers, the summer of 2020 was notable for something other than pandemic pandemonium. Bored and lonely thrill-seekers, with no thought of lake safety, sought out any floatie they could buy to set out on the water.聽

In one July incident, the聽Mascioli family set out on a legendary voyage with their new pink flamingo.

Onlookers watched as Chantelle, brother Curtis and mom Nadine kicked off from Pier 4. The trio soon found themselves kilometres offshore, armed with one bag of goldfish crackers, two giant pepperettes and three bottles of water.

Hours later, and well after midnight, they realized they had two choices: 鈥淲e were either going to sit there and drift all night until we got close enough to paddle onto shore or we call the police,鈥� Chantelle said.

They chose the correct option, getting rescued soon after the 911 call.

It was just like the movies. On a cold October night in 2022, Shawn Farquharson jumped into frigid waters near the Bayfront Park boat launch to save a man in a sinking car.聽

The unlikeliest hero said others around him hesitated, so it 鈥渨as just down to me.鈥�

Farquharson took the plunge, pulled the man from his vehicle and performed CPR, despite not knowing what he was doing, he told The Spec.聽

Unlike similar situations that quite often end in death, the driver regained consciousness and was taken to hospital with聽non-life-threatening injuries.