JamesTT
Member
Further to the recent posts regarding embarrassing problems and learning from making mistakes, I now want to share an experience that scared the life out of me last month.
On a beautiful Saturday in early June my wife, daughter and I decided to spend a day off a beach near our home marina in North Wales with our jet ski.
My wife drove the jet ski off the floating pod in the marina into the river and around to the bay, I followed with our 10 year old daughter in our 28ft sports cuddy.
We spent a terrific 3 or 4 hours in the bay taking turns with our daughter on the ski, using the boat as a pontoon and had a picnic lunch with the ski tied up to the anchored boat.
During lunch on the boat my daughter happened to be sitting at the helm and asked me what the curly red cord was for that hung from under the dash, she had the end of it in her fingers, I explained it was the kill cord and what it did.
My wife headed back to the marina, just after high water, it took me some time to tidy the boat up and stow the anchor.
I headed back again with my daughter in the boat, at a fair pace in an effort to catch up my wife on the ski.
We rounded the perch mark entering the river, about half a mile up from the marina entrance, I throttled back to idle speed to head up the river, no sign of the wife.
The tide was now running out of the river, I straightened the boat up and asked my daughter to keep the boat ahead whilst I sorted the fenders and warps, something we have done many times before.
I went to fix the rear fender on the starboard side, leant around the arch resting my hand on the gunwale. I suddenly lost my balance as my hand slipped off the wet surface. I rolled over the sun pad that covers the engine hatch down the back of the boat onto the swim platform and into the water. As I entered the water I felt a sharp pain to my foot and ankle and realised I must be very close to the prop as I could feel the bubbles from the prop wash on my face and body.
My jacket inflated and I popped up quite quickly to see the boat travelling up the river, with my daughter knelt in the helm seat facing back towards me and by now about 50 feet away.
I couldn't move my leg but knew that the biggest problem was that the boat must be stopped. I shouted for Molly, my daughter to pull the lever back, she shouted back which lever, the boat was still moving away and I realised that the next shout had to count, somehow, I remembered she had asked me about the kill cord earlier, I screamed at her to pull the red cord several times, pull the red cord!.
The relief when I heard the engine die was immense.
With the situation now under control my thoughts turned back to my leg, I slowly slid my hand down from the knee and was very relieved to feel my foot and toes, although it was still dead and I couldn't move from my knee down.
I started to swim towards the boat, but was struggling to close the gap against the outgoing tide and my dead leg.
Several sailing yachts passed me in the river, but I knew that it would be difficult to get on a yacht and then onto my boat so I kept swimming.
A jet ski came up from behind me, I was expecting it to be my wife but it was two young lads, they asked me if the flip flops they had passed further out to sea were mine and they offrered to go back and get them!.
I told them to forget about the flip flops and asked for a tow to my boat which I then pointed out, it suddenly dawned on me that they thought I was just out for a swim, once near the boat and on seeing a 10 year old alone on board they realised the gravity of the situation, I can't remember if I thanked them or not now, but I would not have made it without them!
I dragged myself and my dead leg on board and hugged Molly, she had kept calm and composed up until this point.
We floated around in the river for 10 minutes whilst I composed myself and comforted Molly. I started the boat and headed back to the marina, to find my wife dry and changed at our berth.
Several lessons learned for me here, particularly to stop the boat completely when fixing fenders, always to wear a life jacket, ( I would not normally have had it on, but we had been on the ski ), familiarising everyone with the controls. I have been through the basics with my wife should I ever be injured but the situation of my daughter being alone in a moving boat had never crossed my mind.
On a beautiful Saturday in early June my wife, daughter and I decided to spend a day off a beach near our home marina in North Wales with our jet ski.
My wife drove the jet ski off the floating pod in the marina into the river and around to the bay, I followed with our 10 year old daughter in our 28ft sports cuddy.
We spent a terrific 3 or 4 hours in the bay taking turns with our daughter on the ski, using the boat as a pontoon and had a picnic lunch with the ski tied up to the anchored boat.
During lunch on the boat my daughter happened to be sitting at the helm and asked me what the curly red cord was for that hung from under the dash, she had the end of it in her fingers, I explained it was the kill cord and what it did.
My wife headed back to the marina, just after high water, it took me some time to tidy the boat up and stow the anchor.
I headed back again with my daughter in the boat, at a fair pace in an effort to catch up my wife on the ski.
We rounded the perch mark entering the river, about half a mile up from the marina entrance, I throttled back to idle speed to head up the river, no sign of the wife.
The tide was now running out of the river, I straightened the boat up and asked my daughter to keep the boat ahead whilst I sorted the fenders and warps, something we have done many times before.
I went to fix the rear fender on the starboard side, leant around the arch resting my hand on the gunwale. I suddenly lost my balance as my hand slipped off the wet surface. I rolled over the sun pad that covers the engine hatch down the back of the boat onto the swim platform and into the water. As I entered the water I felt a sharp pain to my foot and ankle and realised I must be very close to the prop as I could feel the bubbles from the prop wash on my face and body.
My jacket inflated and I popped up quite quickly to see the boat travelling up the river, with my daughter knelt in the helm seat facing back towards me and by now about 50 feet away.
I couldn't move my leg but knew that the biggest problem was that the boat must be stopped. I shouted for Molly, my daughter to pull the lever back, she shouted back which lever, the boat was still moving away and I realised that the next shout had to count, somehow, I remembered she had asked me about the kill cord earlier, I screamed at her to pull the red cord several times, pull the red cord!.
The relief when I heard the engine die was immense.
With the situation now under control my thoughts turned back to my leg, I slowly slid my hand down from the knee and was very relieved to feel my foot and toes, although it was still dead and I couldn't move from my knee down.
I started to swim towards the boat, but was struggling to close the gap against the outgoing tide and my dead leg.
Several sailing yachts passed me in the river, but I knew that it would be difficult to get on a yacht and then onto my boat so I kept swimming.
A jet ski came up from behind me, I was expecting it to be my wife but it was two young lads, they asked me if the flip flops they had passed further out to sea were mine and they offrered to go back and get them!.
I told them to forget about the flip flops and asked for a tow to my boat which I then pointed out, it suddenly dawned on me that they thought I was just out for a swim, once near the boat and on seeing a 10 year old alone on board they realised the gravity of the situation, I can't remember if I thanked them or not now, but I would not have made it without them!
I dragged myself and my dead leg on board and hugged Molly, she had kept calm and composed up until this point.
We floated around in the river for 10 minutes whilst I composed myself and comforted Molly. I started the boat and headed back to the marina, to find my wife dry and changed at our berth.
Several lessons learned for me here, particularly to stop the boat completely when fixing fenders, always to wear a life jacket, ( I would not normally have had it on, but we had been on the ski ), familiarising everyone with the controls. I have been through the basics with my wife should I ever be injured but the situation of my daughter being alone in a moving boat had never crossed my mind.
