A very, very lucky girl indeed !!

[lenseman]

Two hours in the water, at night, 45 miles north west of The Scilly Isles - NO LIFE JACKET ON !

And remember the sort of weather we have just had in the western Approaches over the past two days.

Falmouth Coastguard received a call at 1.00 am this morning from the yacht Jaguar Logic reporting that it had overheard a man overboard message from the yacht Buccaneer. At the time, the person was thought to be wearing a lifejacket, although subsequently it was discovered that she was wearing only oil skins.

Falmouth Coastguard scrambled rescue helicopter 169 from RAF Chivenor and requested the launch of the Sennen and St Marys RNLI lifeboats to a position 45 miles north west of the Isles of Scilly. The coastguard also broadcast a mayday relay message and several vessels searched for the person in the water.

The vessel was on its way back home following the Cork Week regatta.

Neil Oliver, Falmouth Coastguard Watch Manager says:

I am pleased to say that the woman has just been found alive and uninjured alongside the vessel Jeese Louise. She has been winched from the water and airlifted to Treliske Hospital.

We are particularly relieved to have found her since she had been in the sea for two hours, was not wearing a lifejacket and sea conditions are fairly rough.

http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga07...s-releases.htm?id=D22AA8A8FC52800D&m=7&y=2010

 

[LONG_KEELER]

She must be some woman !

Two hours must have felt like 2 days.

Shows that we should never give up no matter what.

Great news !

 

[BlueSkyNick]

Contrary to popular belief

This finally proves that life jackets are not as essential as some people make them out to be.

 

[Lady Campanula]

This finally proves that life jackets are not as essential as some people make them out to be.

One still believes personal lifelines, however, are.....

 

[andy59]

Lucky lady. Must have had a handy pair of pyjama bottoms knotted at the ends and blown up !!!! , remember that at school all those years back

 

[GrahamHR]

This finally proves that life jackets are not as essential as some people make them out to be.

What an ignorant comment; lifejackets are meant to increase the likelihood of survival, not to guarantee it. 30, 60 minutes later, who knows, she might have been sunk/ turned onto her face/ be dead. Without a lifejacket her legacy to her surviving relatives would have been , what, £60 higher?

 

[toad_oftoadhall]

What an ignorant comment; lifejackets are meant to increase the likelihood of survival, not to guarantee it. 30, 60 minutes later, who knows, she might have been sunk/ turned onto her face/ be dead. Without a lifejacket her legacy to her surviving relatives would have been , what, £60 higher?

If I had to spend 2 hours in UK water I'd take a wet suit/dry suit over an LJ every time.

If I was clipped on I wouldn't need to worry about two hours in the water in the first place.

The importance of clipping on has been utterly diluted by LJ propaganda in recent years, and it's not a good thing in my view.

 

[Babylon]

This finally proves that life jackets are not as essential as some people make them out to be.

Sure...

And if it had taken them four or even six hours to find her rather than two, would a lifejacket had made any difference...?

And if she was in the water because the boom had knocked her over unconscious...?

And if she wasn't as strong and determined as she must have been...?

And if she couldn't swim...?

How long, by the way, would YOU last in the water...?

 

[Searush]

Here's a thought;

With a lifejacket on one cannot swim easily, so one tends to just lie there. No point fighting, may as well relax. You slowly get colder, slight hypothermia leads to drowsiness & sleep kills. Staying awake is a key lesson for surviving extreme cold.

No life jacket or PBA tends to concentrate the mind - almost to panic. Adrenaline surges thro the body. One has to swim, tread water or at least try to float. You are moving all the time and this increase heat loss, but your movement is generating body heat. So you are using up energy to stay afloat & avoid hypothermia. Shivering is a natural response to being cold - and is involuntary body movement to generate warmth. You sure as heck ain't going to sleep.

Maybe there is some lesson in this that is counter-intuitive? I am not recommending no life jackets (altho I seldom wear one myself, preferring a harness & life line), just asking a question.

 

[toad_oftoadhall]

It's just been on the local news. The reason she wasn't wearing the LJ is because it got caught as she fell off - holding her head underwater. To save herself from drowning she took it off and dropped into the water!

So the life jacket nearly killed her, when she went in the water without it she still didn't drown.

And this incident is used as an argument *for* lifejackets?

 

[BlueSkyNick]

Sure...

And if it had taken them four or even six hours to find her rather than two, would a lifejacket had made any difference...?

And if she was in the water because the boom had knocked her over unconscious...?

And if she wasn't as strong and determined as she must have been...?

And if she couldn't swim...?

How long, by the way, would YOU last in the water...?

All circumstances are different, all people are different. Nothing is black and white.

My point is the theory that falling overboard without a lifejacket will result in certain death, which is often preached around here and elsewhere, is misconceived.

 

[GrahamHR]

It's not an either/ or situation, unless you decide it for yourself that way. A wet suit ( or even a better a dry suit) protects you from hypothermia. If you get water into your lungs, even if you are nice and warm, it's not very good for you. If you are clipped in and the boat sinks, I'd imagine it's not a very comfortable situation. Especialy as the clip will be under tension as the boat drags you down. Gas inflated lifejackets are not exactly cumbersome or expensive compared to the overall cost of boating; why not wear one, except for some stupid macho statement ( didn't someone drown a few years ago in Anglesey because he was knocked off a racing yacht and wasn't clipped on and wasn't wearing a lifejacket?; not dead when he entered the water, but was pretty much soon after),

 

[Searush]

It's just been on the local news. The reason she wasn't wearing the LJ is because it got caught as she fell off - holding her head underwater. To save herself from drowning she took it off and dropped into the water!

So the life jacket nearly killed her, when she went in the water without it she still didn't drown.

And this incident is used as an argument *for* lifejackets?

That begs as many questions as it answers. "It caught" - presumably on the boat? I understand that she was held head under water & unfastened the LJ, but I can't for the life of me see why she let go of it. It would have kept her with the boat. Even if it wasn't caught on the boat, a LJ in your hand is almost as good as wearing one.

I would also have been screaming fit to bust for help from any one else on board, even if they were asleep below I would want them to know I needed help.

 

[Achillesheel]

This is one very lucky lady, and its very good news all round. But I will continue to wear my lifejacket under way because I believe I am more likely to survive with it than without it, and this case does not prove otherwise.

 

[GrahamHR]

Precisely

 

[toad_oftoadhall]

That begs as many questions as it answers. "It caught" - presumably on the boat? I understand that she was held head under water & unfastened the LJ, but I can't for the life of me see why she let go of it. It would have kept her with the boat. Even if it wasn't caught on the boat, a LJ in your hand is almost as good as wearing one.

I would also have been screaming fit to bust for help from any one else on board, even if they were asleep below I would want them to know I needed help.

I can understand she might have lost her grip on the boat and not been able to hold on. What I also can't understand is why she didn't scream her head off once free. Maybe they had some Led Zep on down below. Maybe they were deep sleepers. Maybe she was to busy gasping to scream.

 

[NorthUp]

Here's a thought;

With a lifejacket on one cannot swim easily, so one tends to just lie there. No point fighting, may as well relax. You slowly get colder, slight hypothermia leads to drowsiness & sleep kills. Staying awake is a key lesson for surviving extreme cold.

No life jacket or PBA tends to concentrate the mind - almost to panic. Adrenaline surges thro the body. One has to swim, tread water or at least try to float. You are moving all the time and this increase heat loss, but your movement is generating body heat. So you are using up energy to stay afloat & avoid hypothermia. Shivering is a natural response to being cold - and is involuntary body movement to generate warmth. You sure as heck ain't going to sleep.

Maybe there is some lesson in this that is counter-intuitive? I am not recommending no life jackets (altho I seldom wear one myself, preferring a harness & life line), just asking a question.

Movement generates heat certainly- but it is quickly conducted away by the water, and cold blood returns to the body core, further cooling it.
Much better to lie relatively still, floating in your LJ, and let the body's natural defence take over, shutting down blood flow to the extremities of the body and conserving heat to the essential organs in the core and the brain. Wear a hat with your lifejacket!

The water temp up here at present is about 11C, south coast about 18C, that make a big difference, though I don't have the figures to hand to back it up.

 

[BrendanS]

but I can't for the life of me see why she let go of it. It would have kept her with the boat. Even if it wasn't caught on the boat, a LJ in your hand is almost as good as wearing one.

I would also have been screaming fit to bust for help from any one else on board, even if they were asleep below I would want them to know I needed help.

Holding onto anything at more than a few knts is pretty difficult after a while, even more so when you've suddenly been thrown into the water and aren't thinking straight, and probably cold shocked as well.

This thread may also throw up a few issues people aren't aware of....
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=241760

 

[Major Catastrophe]

I can understand she might have lost her grip on the boat and not been able to hold on. What I also can't understand is why she didn't scream her head off once free. Maybe they had some Led Zep on down below. Maybe they were deep sleepers. Maybe she was to busy gasping to scream.

I must have missed the bit about other people being on board.

If there were, I wouldn't waste my breath shouting as I would be too busy banging on the hull.

As to lifejackets, you have to choose your accident, like I did in 1970 when I drove a Ford Cortina off a road near the Snake Pass.

I wasn't wearing a seatbelt and was catapulted through the windscreen and was then nearly run over by my own car that luckily hit a boulder first.

When the car was recovered and I was spending three months in hospital, I was shown the photographs of the engine occupying the driver's foot well and the steering wheel piercing the back of the driver's seat.

So leaving the car was a good option, not that I had any choice.

I always wear a seat belt now.

 

[toad_oftoadhall]

Movement generates heat certainly- but it is quickly conducted away by the water, and cold blood returns to the body core, further cooling it.
Much better to lie relatively still, floating in your LJ, and let the body's natural defence take over,

I can see that logic, but when I swim in cold water, it seems far better to swim like hell - indeed swimming hard enough actually makes it comfortable. More telling, I've heard extreme cold water swimmers say "if I'd stopped swimming I'd have died in x minutes.".

Do extreme swimmers protect themselves from hypothermia with effort, whereas if they'd assumed the HELP position for the same period they'd be dead?

My gut feeling is this isn't as simple as it's made out to be.

Asking the question, not stating an opinion.