Man who survived fall from boat into Lake Superior thanks mom for swim lessons

A Duluth man is crediting his mother signing him up for childhood swimming lessons after he survived being thrown from a boat into Lake Superior.

Peter Joice, 41, fell from the boat early Friday evening soon after it pushed off from Grand Portage on Minnesota’s North Shore for a short jaunt to Isle Royale north of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Joice said he swam about 2 miles to Grand Portage Island and was picked up there by a conservation officer later that night, according to Cook County Sheriff Pat Eliasen.

The long list of people Joice, who describes himself as a fitness enthusiast, thanked Wednesday for his harm-free rescue included “my mom for signing me up for swimming and outdoor education.”

Joice and boat operator Joe Modec, 75, also of Duluth, were sloshing along fine until “the boat hit a wave, and [Joice] lost his balance and fell out of the boat” without a life jacket on, the sheriff said.

Eliasen said Modec “kept going and didn’t notice for quite some time” that his passenger was missing.

The sheriff said Joice reported that he swam roughly 2 miles to Grand Portage Island, informally known as Pete’s Island, and “began waving some sticks in the air” in the hopes of being rescued.

A conservation officer with the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa took a boat to the island, “saw him and brought him to shore,” Eliasen said.

Once Modec realized he stopped hearing Joice behind him and realized his friend wasn’t aboard, he notified the U.S. Coast Guard shortly before 10 p.m. and returned to the Grand Portage Marina for their eventual reunion.

Joice explained Wednesday to the Minnesota Star Tribune that “you can’t hear much over the engines and radio. [It’s] not his fault at all.”

Modec told deputies at the marina that he and Joice were going to join up with others on Isle Royale and realized about 2 miles into the trip that “Peter wasn’t answering him,” a Sheriff’s Office report read.

Modec said he looked throughout the boat for Joice, circled the area searching for him, pressed a distress notification button and returned to the marina, the report continued.

“I don’t know, it’s hard to say what people can do under stress,” the sheriff said. “All I know is it’s a long swim in 50-degree waters.”