RedactedNarrative: A Monroe couple and a female friend are fortunate to be alive today after escaping serious injury or death while enjoying a ride in a new 22-foot boat in Lake Erie near the mouth of the River Raisin Friday night. 
  
  All three people who are in their late 20s or early 30s were rescued after the male attempted to swim in the choppy water about 8 p.m. Friday. The couple had just purchased the vessel that day and opted to go for a ride and launched the boat from Sterling State Park. 
  
  After motoring to near the mouth of the river, the man jumped in the water to swim without a lifejacket, at which time the boat began to drift away from him due to strong westerly winds. The man attempted to swim back to the boat, but could not catch up. 
  
  When the friend noticed he was in distress, she jumped in the water holding a tag line to the boat and attempted to bring him a lifejacket. His wife attempted to operate the boat, but the tag line became wrapped around the propeller and the boat stalled. 
  
  She then called 911 for help. The water temperature was about 60 degrees, which is cold enough to incur hypothermia, said Frenchtown Township Fire Chief. Frenchtown firefighters launched their craft from the state park and did their normal search patterns to find the distressed boaters, the chief said. “They (the people in distress) were further south of where they thought they were,” said. “They said they were near Fermi, but that can be misleading.” Other area fire departments — Estral Beach, LaSalle Township, City of Monroe and Monroe Township — also launched rescue crafts to try and find them, she said. Monroe Township’s boat coming from the south was the first to reach the boat and the wife on board. U.S. Tow, a private company, pulled the man and the female out of the water and brought them back to the park, where a waiting Monroe Community Ambulance took the woman to ProMedica Monroe Regional Hospital for treatment for exposure. Monroe Township firefighters rescued the wife on the boat and also brought her back to the park.
  