Labor Day weekend signals the end of summer, but holiday celebrations that were to include water activities on and around the St. Johns River are shaping up to be ones worth forgetting. ...more

August 31, 2008

SEBRING — Sheriff Susan Benton accepted a letter of resignation Monday from a deputy who was charged in April by the U.S. Coast Guard with intoxicated operation of a vessel, while boating in a Pine Island canal. Former deputy Craig Skipper reportedly took an excursion in his boat on April 18, when he was stopped by the U.S. Coast Guard after a complaint was filed. Coast guard officials reported Skipper appeared intoxicated but he refused twice to take a sobriety test, an investigation report by Sheriff's Internal Affairs Officer Lt. Gus Garcia stated. The agency received a complaint that the boat was "operating on plane" (speeding) in a no wake zone and that the boat operator was "exposing himself," Garcia's report stated. ...more

June 24, 2008

One last New Year's resolution that would be a great help to hundreds of boaters around the Bay area would be to make 2008 the year when they finally get around to taking one of the excellent boating safety courses offered by the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the U.S. Power Squadron organizations. ...more

January 6, 2008

ANNA MARIA ISLAND - A boat propeller struck and killed a man Sunday after he was thrown from a yacht powering through rough water in the Gulf of Mexico, authorities said. State marine patrol officers identified the victim as Henry Ogden, 49, of Sarasota. He was tossed from the boat at about 4 p.m. ...more

November 26, 2007

Two snorkelers died in separate accidents during the busy Labor Day holiday weekend in the Florida Keys, officials said Sunday. ...more

September 3, 2007