Man overboard

[Scillypete]

Someone had a lucky escape last night having fallen in in the harbour, not sure if they were transferring from dinghy to yacht or not, but he was in the water for twenty minutes before being found. Local lifeboat crew and auxilliary coastguards were out and firing flares to light up the harbour, quite a show with a happy ending.

http://www.scillytoday.com/2011/05/22/man-rescued-in-st-marys-harbour/

 

[Searush]

The 60 year old guy is 20 mins in the water, holding on to a dinghy (no L/J), not serious enough to evacuate to mainland, but CG still says "Another 5 mins & it could have been a tragedy"

I suppose you have to dramatise for the publicity, but to claim he was just 5 mins from death seems a bit OTT to me.

 

[Seajet]

There is a lot talked about this subject, including by me after going between tender & cruiser recently; the chap was very lucky to survive in such a place as the Scillies, I suspect maybe quite windy too.

It's a long shot, but I just remembered a tip I thought I'd mention; if nothing else is available and finding self in the water one can raise the waist of a waterproof jacket and scoop it forward & down to trap air, as a poor man's lifejacket.

One's problems would still only just be beginning, but it may be a start.

 

[Searush]

There is a lot talked about this subject, including by me after going between tender & cruiser recently; the chap was very lucky to survive in such a place as the Scillies, I suspect maybe quite windy too.

It's a long shot, but I just remembered a tip I thought I'd mention; if nothing else is available and finding self in the water one can raise the waist of a waterproof jacket and scoop it forward & down to trap air, as a poor man's lifejacket.

One's problems would still only just be beginning, but it may be a start.

Yes, and the other trick is to remove waterproof pants. knot the legs & capture air like that. I've done it in a pool & it is pretty effective. The air escapes slowly, but another scoop is easy enough from time to time & uses a lot less energy than swimming.