Do you have a way of getting back onto your boat if you were to fall off it? If not, you may want to remedy this when you read what happened to a 57 year old man in Alaska.
The Petersburg Pilot described how a man got himself rescued recently. But he is very lucky to be alive.
The man had had three beers earlier in the day. This, he believed, slowed his reactions because he would otherwise have grabbed at the boat or its rigging as he fell.
He fell in head first, rather like diving. Needless to say, Alaskan waters in February are cold. The immersion would have taken his breath away.
[Ann once sat in a sauna and then dived into a lake in Finland in May and experienced this.]
The beers plus the depth and darkness of the water plus the effect of the cold made it difficult for him to know which way to swim to get to the surface. His brain kicked in and he blew out some air and watched the bubbles.
He would have been surprised and shocked to find that he was 30 ft from where he fell off his boat. His underwater panic and confusion after his fall sent him a long way.
His first attempt to pull himself out of the water failed. The hose he grabbed wasn’t attached to a tap. It was a good idea that didn’t work.
Recognising he was losing energy and body temperature he got himself back to his boat and tried to climb out with the help of the mooring lines. That pulled the boat to the dock and almost crushed him.
He had removed his boat’s swimming step and taken it home to refurbish it so his normal method of getting back onto his boat was not there.
He then hooked one arm around a cleat so that he wouldn’t fall back underwater and yelled for help. It took a while for people to find source of the voice because he was below the level of the jetty.
He was pulled from the water and attended by emergency workers who had been at a training session nearby. After a few hours in hospital, his body temperature was restored and was allowed to leave.
He then returned to the marina and climbed aboard his boat where he was staying overnight. On arrival, the first thing he did was rig a rope step.
Next day he recommended that everyone should have a method of getting out of the water. Swimming ashore is not always an option.
Be warned!
GRAB BAG
1. Ownership of error
“A navigational error caused them to run aground.”
How often have you read this statement, or variations on it? It’s as though the vessel has deliberately run itself aground.
Could it possibly be that human error is the real reason?
2. How loggerhead turtles navigate
Most of us have marvelled at the migration of birds, whales and other sea life.
Nature programs show us mother turtles coming ashore, laying eggs and then leaving. The hatchlings then emerge and scamper down to the water, only to return years later to lay their own eggs in the same spot.
Now researchers have worked out how loggerhead turtles navigate. As Science Daily put it:
The loggerheads’ secret is that they rely not on a single feature of the magnetic field, but on a combination of two: the angle at which the magnetic field lines intersect Earth (a parameter known as inclination) and the strength of the magnetic field.
Continue reading the loggerhead turtle story…
If mankind had this innate ability we wouldn’t have to rely on either traditional or GPS navigation!
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: CHESTER NIMITZ
A ship is always referred to as ‘she’ because
it costs so much to keep her in paint and powder.
Chester William Nimitz, (24 February 1885 – 20 February 1966) was a five-star admiral in the United States Navy.
He was appointed Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet in December 1941, just days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.
Nimitz spent the rest of the war in the Pacific and signed for the United States when Japan formally surrendered on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
As well as numerous military US awards, Nimitz received the Légion d’honneur and recognition from 11 other countries.
Although he retired from the position of Chief of Naval Operations in 1947, his earlier appointment as Fleet Admiral meant that he remained on ‘active service’, with full pay and benefits for the rest of his life. His naval career, thus, lasted 65 years.
That’s all for now, but please feel free to leave a comment.
© 2011 Bevanda Pty Ltd
Tags: falling overboard