Robert Wooley, former commissioner of the Louisiana Department of Insurance, helped pull five people from chilly water Saturday morning in Vermilion Bay near Cypremort Point Yacht Club, the club reported on its Web site. Wooley and his crew of three were in a sailboat race when Wooley says he looked off to the port side and saw a life jacket in the distance, which turned out to be a man and a boy. The crew took down the sails, turned on the engine (disqualifying Wooley’s boat from the race) and went back to pick up the two people, who said their boat had been swamped and three more people were in the water. Wooley picked up the other three, two adults and a child, and brought the crew of five back to where they had launched.
“I don’t think the children could have stayed in the water a whole lot longer because it was pretty cold,” Wooley says. “The adults would have lasted a little bit longer, but they were five miles from shore.” Wooley says the five people were extremely lucky that he happened to look in their direction. Wooley, who was insurance commissioner from 2000 to 2006, is a member of the Special Business Service Group at the Adams and Reese law firm.—David Jacobs
