Before you go out.
Past Sandy Beach this lake has no cell service. The person on shore who knows where you went is the whole plan. Here is who to call, what this reservoir does to a boat, and a sheet you can print and leave with someone.
If something goes wrong
Call 911. Police, ambulance, fire and search and rescue are all tasked through it. Search and rescue here is volunteer, and a rescue costs you nothing, so nobody should weigh the bill against the call.
Have these ready when you get through, and say them in this order:
- Where you are, in whatever words you have: a bay, a point, how far from the marina, which shore. Names people here use, which a dispatcher will know: Shields, Bauman, Sunshine, Tulip Creek, Deer Park, Sandy Beach, Syringa.
- What has happened, and whether anyone is in the water.
- How many people are with you, and what your boat looks like from the air.
- The number you are calling from, in case the line drops.
Then stay where you are. A boat that keeps moving is a boat the search has to find twice.
If you cannot get a signal
Cell service ends around Sandy Beach. Past there it is gone, apart from the odd small spot where a bar comes back.
An iPhone 14 or later can reach 911 by satellite with no signal at all. Call 911, and if the call cannot connect the phone tries the satellite. You need open sky, so get out onto open water, away from the hillside. Find out whether your own phone can do this before you go, not on the water.
Texting 911 is not open to the public in BC yet. A text to a friend who can call 911 for you will sometimes go through when a call will not.
A personal locator beacon reaches rescuers with no cell service at all. Register it with the Canadian Beacon Registry, which is free.
And if you told someone your plan before you left, they can call 911 for you when you do not come back. That is what the sheet below is for.
If you get in trouble
Read it once on the dock. Out on the water there is no time to look anything up.
Someone goes overboard
- Shout it, then slow down and stop.
- Throw them anything that floats. It also marks the spot if they go under.
- Give one person the job of watching them, and they never look away.
- Come back slowly, keep the propeller well away from them, and bring them in on the side the wind is coming from.
Source: Transport Canada, Safe Boating Guide, read September 18, 2026.
You end up in the water
- The first minute, you will gasp and breathe hard. Do not try to swim. Keep your face out of the water and slow your breathing down.
- For the next ten minutes or so your arms and legs still work. Use them to get out, or up onto something that floats. After that they stop working.
- It can then take an hour to pass out from the cold. Keep still: arms crossed tight, knees pulled up to your chest, or huddled close with the others.
- Every part of this depends on the life jacket already being on. Trying to put one on once you are in cold water is very hard.
Source: Transport Canada, Safe Boating Guide (the 1-10-1 principle), read September 18, 2026.
The engine quits
- Put the anchor down before the wind moves you, so you do not drift onto rocks, stumps or a shoal.
- Never let yourself drift toward the dam. The intakes pull a current at the surface and below it.
- If nobody is hurt and you have a signal, call someone to come and get you. If the water is taking you somewhere dangerous, call 911.
Source: Transport Canada, Safe Boating Guide; BC Hydro, read September 18, 2026.
You are losing the light
- Being out after sunset means your boat needs navigation lights. If it has none, be off the water by sunset.
- Today's sunset time is on our home page, beside the lake level.
Source: Transport Canada, Safe Boating Guide, read September 18, 2026.
These are public numbers, read from the sources at the foot of this page on September 17, 2026. Check them against those sources before you rely on them.
- 911
Any emergency on the water or on shore
Police, ambulance, fire and search and rescue all come through 911. Search and rescue is volunteer and there is no charge for a rescue.
Source: BC Search and Rescue Association
- 250-365-7721
The Castlegar RCMP non-emergency line
A boat that never came back but is not yet overdue, a theft, a hazard somebody should know about.
Source: Castlegar Search and Rescue
- *5555
Report a wildfire
From a cell phone. From any phone, 1-800-663-5555. Smoke on a shoreline you cannot reach is worth the call.
Source: BC Wildfire Service
- 1-877-924-2444
Today's reservoir level, from BC Hydro
A recorded line, updated Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The gauge on our home page reads the same reservoir from Environment Canada, hourly.
Source: BC Hydro, Arrow Lakes Reservoir
- 250-304-1003
The lockkeeper at Hugh Keenleyside Dam
For the navigation lock at the dam.
Source: BC Hydro, Arrow Lakes Reservoir
- 250-365-3267
Our store
During our store hours. We are twelve kilometres up the road from Robson and we know who to call. We do not monitor the lake and we are not a rescue service.
We keep a marine radio on channel 16 in the store while someone is in it. It reaches to about Deer Park, and not past there.
Source: the store, September 21, 2026
The Arrow Lakes are run for power and for flood control, so the water here behaves in ways a natural lake does not. All four of these come from BC Hydro’s own page for this reservoir.
The water moves, every day
The reservoir rises and falls by as much as 20 metres through the year, and it can move about 30 centimetres in a single day, at any time of year. Where you beached this morning may not be shore this afternoon.
What the water hides when it drops
When the reservoir is below its full level, bars, rocks and debris, including stumps, can sit just under the surface. Watch for floating debris, submerged debris and shoals, and keep your speed down where you do not know the bottom.
Stay well clear of the dam
Obey every posted sign and keep well away from BC Hydro dams and their structures. The intakes at Hugh Keenleyside Dam can pull strong currents at the surface and below it. Never stop, anchor or tie up below a dam.
Sirens and lights mean the water is about to change
BC Hydro uses sirens and strobe lights to warn that levels or flows are about to change. If you hear or see them, get away from the water's edge and away from the structure.
What you have to carry
What the law requires depends on the length of your boat and what drives it, so we will not paraphrase the table and risk getting your boat’s row wrong. Transport Canada publishes it, free, in the Safe Boating Guide.
Read the Safe Boating Guide (TP 511E)
One rule is the same for every boat on this water: a Canadian-approved life jacket for every person on board. Ours go out with every rental, and the ones that work are the ones people are wearing.
Renting from us
Everyone wears a life jacket. You need to be 18 to rent, or have a parent or guardian here to sign. Our tinner needs a Pleasure Craft Operator card. If the wind or the water turns, we may move or cancel a rental, and we would rather do that than have you out in it.
The sheet
One page. The top half goes in your pocket or your dry bag. The bottom half you fill in and leave with somebody who will notice you are late: whoever you live with, a friend, or family. Photograph it and send it to them if that is easier.
On the water: Lower Arrow Lake
Scotties Marina, 5220 Broadwater Rd, Castlegar. 250-365-3267
In an emergency, call 911. Say where you are, what happened, how many people, and the number you are calling from. Then stay put.
Scotties Marina, during store hours: 250-365-3267
If you get in trouble
- Someone goes overboard
- Shout it and stop. Throw anything that floats. One person keeps watching them. Come back slowly, propeller away.
- You end up in the water
- First minute: don't swim, slow your breathing. Next ten: get out or onto something. Then keep still, knees up, huddle.
- The engine quits
- Anchor before you drift. Never drift toward the dam.
- No signal
- No service past Sandy Beach. Open sky: an iPhone 14 or later can reach 911 by satellite. Texting 911 does not work in BC yet.
On this water
- The water can move 30 cm in a day and 20 m in a year.
- Low water: stumps, rocks and bars sit just under the surface.
- Keep well clear of the dam. Never anchor below it.
- Sirens or strobes mean the water is about to change.
- No navigation lights? Be in by sunset.
- We listen on VHF 16 during store hours, to about Deer Park.
- Where you are: Shields, Bauman, Sunshine, Tulip Creek.
Leave this half with someone who will miss you
Give it to whoever you live with, a friend, or family. If I am not back by the time below, call 911 and give them this page.
- Who is going out
- How many people
- Phone we are carrying
- The boat: make, colour, length
- Where we are headed and where we will stop
- Leaving from
- Date and time out
- Back by
- Start worrying at
- Who to call first and their number
- Anything else worth knowing: medical, the vehicle at the launch, the dog
Read from BC Hydro and the BC Search and Rescue Association on September 17, 2026, from Transport Canada’s Safe Boating Guide, Apple and E-Comm 911 on September 18, 2026, and from the store on September 21, 2026. The other useful numbers are on the safety page of our website. Scotties Marina is not a rescue service and does not monitor the lake.
Where this came from
Everything on this page was read from these: the numbers and the reservoir on September 17, 2026, what to do in trouble on September 18, 2026. Where the signal ends, the radio in the store and the place names are ours, from September 21, 2026. If one of them changes, this page is wrong until we fix it, so go to the source when it matters.
- BC Hydro, Arrow Lakes Reservoir
- BC Search and Rescue Association
- BC Wildfire Service, report a wildfire
- Transport Canada, Safe Boating Guide (TP 511E)
- Apple, Emergency SOS via satellite
- E-Comm 911, Next Generation 9-1-1 in BC
If you see something on this page that is out of date, please tell us and we will fix it.