Lakesailor
Well-Known Member
Was that off the promontory, Bangor Head
Sailing injuries ('tis dark, we've had a drink, time for seamen's tales)
- Thread starter Greenheart
- Start date
sighmoon
Well-Known Member
I ruptured my ankle stepping off the boat, last year. 3 months on crutches, and a year on, it's only just getting back to what it was.
Seemed an unfairly serious injury for it's cause, but I've done some things deserving of injury and got away with it. At A&E (and several fracture clinics) every one I spoke to had an equally mundane cause of injury. Nobody was climbing the Everest or wrestling bears; everybody slipped over or got out of bed awkwardly.
Seemed an unfairly serious injury for it's cause, but I've done some things deserving of injury and got away with it. At A&E (and several fracture clinics) every one I spoke to had an equally mundane cause of injury. Nobody was climbing the Everest or wrestling bears; everybody slipped over or got out of bed awkwardly.
AntarcticPilot
Well-Known Member
Well, I tore the anterior cruciate ligament in my knee in an accident with a snow-scooter in Spitzbergen, so there ARE exotic causes of such injuries around
Major surgery and several years recovery before I was as back to normal as could be expected; the knee is still a funny shape and is uncomfortable at times. Stopped me playing squash; I was advised not to risk too much rotation on that knee. These days they'd fix it with keyhole surgery with a quicker recovery time, but the technique was not developed in 1988 when I was operated on. In fact, the surgeon was one of the pioneers of keyhole surgery in orthopedic work, and he did go in with an arthroscope before slicing me open, so anyone who's had keyhole surgery for that injury can thank me for being a guinea pig!
Greenheart
Well-Known Member
I remember that one, Fiddler's Dram wasn't it?
Greenheart
Well-Known Member
Ex-crutiate, I expect?
Ripster
Well-Known Member
Crikey how do you compete with some of the stories on here.
About the best I can do, apart from start listing the many times I hit my head on things, is to share a foot injury. Coming into a Pontoon to go along side, SWMBO helming nicely, bit of side breeze blowing us off, but that was all in hand. Jumped off, as I had done many times, in bare feet and met a nasty splinter coming the way. It was like a dagger going in, but having started the mooring had to carry on leaving red foot prints. Anyway, we repaired the stabbed foot and then SWMBO made me scrub and wash down the pontoon. As someone else has said, with all the stubbing opportunities on deck and unforgiving wood pontoons, I now try and remember to wear deck shoes outside of the cockpit.
About the best I can do, apart from start listing the many times I hit my head on things, is to share a foot injury. Coming into a Pontoon to go along side, SWMBO helming nicely, bit of side breeze blowing us off, but that was all in hand. Jumped off, as I had done many times, in bare feet and met a nasty splinter coming the way. It was like a dagger going in, but having started the mooring had to carry on leaving red foot prints. Anyway, we repaired the stabbed foot and then SWMBO made me scrub and wash down the pontoon. As someone else has said, with all the stubbing opportunities on deck and unforgiving wood pontoons, I now try and remember to wear deck shoes outside of the cockpit.
onesea
Well-Known Member
Mid winter regatta dinghy sailing: took all the skin off my hands (I hate gloves),
Other occasions:
Couple of fair sizes bruises (seeing stars etc) from a few booms,
3 Days in hospital when petrol engine went pop in face,
A couple of near misses at stitches,
A couple of close calls with the cold,
Sprained Ankle,
Most Scary did not even injure me, working on foredeck helm got bit close to wind headsail clew touched the side of my head. Any harder and I would of been out for a count and to say my 3 crew where clue less (Excuse pun) was an understatement.
Other occasions:
Couple of fair sizes bruises (seeing stars etc) from a few booms,
3 Days in hospital when petrol engine went pop in face,
A couple of near misses at stitches,
A couple of close calls with the cold,
Sprained Ankle,
Most Scary did not even injure me, working on foredeck helm got bit close to wind headsail clew touched the side of my head. Any harder and I would of been out for a count and to say my 3 crew where clue less (Excuse pun) was an understatement.
sighmoon
Well-Known Member
More details are needed to qualify it as exotic. Where you stepping off it, or trying to jump a series of double deckers, on fire?Well, I tore the anterior cruciate ligament in my knee in an accident with a snow-scooter in Spitzbergen, so there ARE exotic causes of such injuries around
AntarcticPilot
Well-Known Member
Well, the location is fairly exotic, and snow-scooters aren't ten a penny round here
Actually, it was my first time on one, and we were taking them back from the dealer where we got them to the accommodation block we were using (before deploying into the field). Longyearbyen, in common with most Arctic townships, has all the service pipes above ground in insulated wooden conduits, and there were regular ramps over them to allow snow-scooters to cross them. It was a bit tricky crossing them - you had to give the engine a bit of a blast to get up the slope, then drop off the throttle before going down the other side. I was fine until I got on one where someone had made a sort of speed-bump out of compacted snow on the other side, and I didn't drop the throttle fast enough. Hit the bump going a little too fast; the snowscooter bounced one way and I bounced the other. I'd have been OK, but my heel caught on the scooter, and there was an almighty crack! At first I thought I'd broken my leg - these days, I wish I had. Broken bones heal much better than broken ligaments!
A week later I was using a snow-scooter for a regular 30 or 40 km commute across a frozen fjord to our area of operations.
armchairsailor
Well-Known Member
I'm surprised there aren't more injuries on snow scooters - they're brutes. Had to operate one for the first time in 20yrs this winter in -30 and 3-4 feet of snow. Not as easy as it looks...
AntarcticPilot
Well-Known Member
Soft snow is the devil on them! They're fine on a nice hard glacier. But I agree about it being surprising there anren't more injuries - especially the way Norwegians drive them on Svalbard. I've seen them come over a ridge and get airborne off a snow cornice!
armchairsailor
Well-Known Member
I know what you mean - I was working with a mate of these guys... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRPdLFVZdlQ