Marine Patrol Rescues Kids After Canoe Drifts Out Into Long Island Sound

NORTHPORT, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A canoe filled with three children was adrift in the Long Island Sound, more than a mile off Northport.

As CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff reported, the kids were safe on Tuesday, thanks to some alert police officers.

The Labor Day canoe outing for three kids enjoying the waning days of summer turned into a lesson on the dos and don'ts of safe boating delivered directly from a police marine patrol.

The Miles brothers set out with a canoe and fishing rods. Davin, 12, and his brother Kenyon, 10, joined friend Chris Gurr on Monday, off Crab Meadow Beach in Northport.

The boys usually fish in a protected estuary, but this time were in search of Fluke in deeper water.

"I kept going out and the point we stopped we were drifting faster, and we couldn't come back in really," Davin said.

Winds kicked up and the boys drifted further from their launch point.

"We just started drifting a lot, then once we tried to row back the two-foot waves started pushing back," Kenyon recalled.

The boys were in choppy Long Island Sound waters, and it was getting dark.

"We kept on paddling even though it would waste our energy, it would keep us in the same spot," Davin said.

The winds were picking up to 15 to 20 knots, seas were 2-ft high, and it was 40 minutes before sundown. Officer Michael O'Leary, of the Suffolk County Marine Bureau, passed in his marine patrol boat, spotted the boys a mile-and-a-half off shore and knew it was no place or time of fay for children in a canoe.

"There was a strong wind out of the south pushing them toward Connecticut so they weren't able to paddle back to shore," O'Leary said.

Officers pulled the boys to safety and shuttled them ashore to relieved parents who had been communicating with the boys via cell phone as they drifted away.

"If he was sitting fishing why is the boat drifting further away? That's when I realized we have to get them back at some point soon," Amy Miles said.

It was an offshore lesson for boaters of any age; always go out with the right stuff, don't go too far, and wear a life jacket.

"They had all their life jackets on and they did have a cell phone on board. What they did wrong, went too far in unsafe conditions," O'Leary said.

Police said when it comes to canoeing or kayaking, how far out you go depends upon your age, ability, the weather, and time of day. Calm seas can change quickly.