The Side Netting Caught Me!

I have said in the past that one of the most dangerous things we do is get on and off a boat.

Last Friday, I got off the boat. As in, I moved off the boat. The moving truck picked up my belongings in one town. We were going to stop by the boat and load more things in the truck, but we were in the middle of what turned out to be record-breaking rain in some places, and we decided to just go to the apartment.

Later, of course, I had to go back to the boat. There were a couple of things that I had to get that day, in spite of the rain: my cat, and her kitty litter box.

I got the cat off first, no problem. But I was tired, and I slipped while getting the clean kitty litter out of the cabin. I spilled kitty litter into my shoe, down the companion way steps and into the cabin. Oh snap!

What I didn't realize was that I also stepped in some of the litter. Murphy noticed, however.

As soon as I put that litter-encrusted shoe on the side deck outside the cockpit, it turned to extremely slippery clay mud. Down I went, most of my weight on the top of my left knee. I felt my body be caught by the netting on the side of the boat. If the netting hadn't caught me, I would have gone into the marina, already injured (my knee did not like that landing), in the rain and with no one around anywhere.

Of course, netting won't help you unless you are on your hands and knees ... but Murphy had already seen to that. Instead of having a much worse accident, I got up, got safely home and washed off my shoes.

Needless to say this incident has made me a believer in side netting. I was going to add something like "particularly for older sailors," but ... NO. This could have happened to anyone (well, anyone with a cat on board!) It has absolutely convinced me that netting plus staying low if moving around the boat in rough waters is a first class idea.

Wearing Gloves ...

or, Someone Really Could Die!

This happened in the marina I live in recently. A man was climbing up his very tall mast, with his wife on the halyard as a safety line.

I don't know what went wrong at the mast, but he slipped, and he needed that safety line to catch him. I also don't know what went wrong in the cockpit, but she did not have gloves on, and could not hold the line. It burned her hands and she had to let go.

He fell 70 feet.

What happened next was like something out of a movie. Instead of hitting the deck, he hit the Bimini. It gave just enough to cushion his fall. Then it split, and he fell through the Bimini to the cockpit, which hurt him more than the fall from the mast did. However, he was not seriously hurt.

I'm not opposed to wives handling the halyard when someone goes up the mast. I do it myself.

However: I always have gloves on, and I always hold the line firmly, with the assumption that this person is going to fall in the next split-second. I have his life in my hands, and that's how I treat it. 

But gloves aren't just for the tasks that are obviously hazardous from the beginning. Just about anything you do on a boat has the potential to become suddenly hazardous. Suppose you fall off your boat at the dock? It's remarkable just how common that is. If you have gloves on, your hands won't get cut by barnacles, and you'll have a much easier time getting out of the water. If you, say, broke an ankle going in, that could be important, especially if you're by yourself. 

I know someone else whose transmission on her smallish sailboat stuck in forward just as she was coming in to dock. She turned the engine off, and made her best guess about going in circles to slow it down before entering her slip, but she didn't get it *quite* right. Since she had gloves on, she was able to grab a line strung between the pilings and physically stop the boat. 

in a storm or rough seas, the stresses on the sheets multiply You can actually pull harder with gloves on than without them. Try it some time. As I've pointed out in other articles, weather can turn sour very quickly. If you already have gloves on, that's one less thing you have to do in the precious few minutes you may have before the ship hits the fan.

And ladies, shake the hand some time of an experienced sailor who doesn't wear gloves. Trust me -- you don't want your hands to feel that rough! If only for vanity's sake, gloves are the answer. They also help tremendously if the diameter of the line you have to pull on is small. My traveler would be an example of that, as is the line on many roller furlers.

While we're at it, I'm going to come down firmly on the side of wearing shoes -- and closed-toe shoes. Once again, if you fall in, you won't cut your feet on barnacles, and you'll have a much easier time getting out of the water. Now, I have a very dear friend whose opinion I highly respect, who can show you the research demonstrating that bare feet grip the deck best. That may well be, but that was only a grip test. It wasn't a "How many body parts can you injure in a storm?" test. I know someone who sailed to Key West in what should have been a good weather window, but he and his crew still got caught in a storm strong enough to knock them around. They came out on the other side of it with a concussion, cracked ribs, and a broken arm. Oh yeah -- the fellow in the open-toed sandals had a broken toe. They didn't have one person fit to sail the boat, although by working together they managed to get to a safe port.

Sailing gloves are like seat belts. When seat belts first came out, lots of people grumbled and said things like "You can't MAKE me wear it!" (Of course, now they can ...) but I was a young teenager, and my parents said, "Actually, yes, we CAN make you wear it." It became a habit, and now I'm not comfortable in a car unless it, and the shoulder harness, are on. I view sailing gloves in the same way. It's not something worth getting flapped over, and like my seat belt, they may never be the difference between life and death, but the restraint system in my car certainly was the difference between minor injuries and major injuries once. That's how I look at sailing gloves, and I urge you to make them part of your routine.

You COULD Go Over the Side -- Really! -- Lifelines

No smart cracks this time -- this is serious stuff

I have heard about lifelines from a couple of people ever since I got my first little sailboat. People are passionate in their beliefs about them.

For instance, there's a big debate about whether they should be clad in vinyl or not. Many owners feel the vinyl looks nicer, even though vinyl-clad cable is more expensive than bare cable. Others insist that it's extremely important to have bare cable, because vinyl can hide the first signs of rust, a sign that your lifelines could fail.

Oh my gracious -- then you could fall overboard, right?

Well, yeah, you CAN fall overboard, but it can happen if you have the newest, brighest, tightest lifelines possible.

How is that possible?

Just go stand on the side of your boat, and note where the lifeline touches your body. Unless you're a child, it's going to be WELL below your waist. This means that your center of gravity is WELL above that top lifeline (assuming you have two -- smaller boats will only have one). 

The lifelines can't save you, I don't care what the "experts" say. I know a true expert who calls loose or weakened lifelines "deathlines." He's been sailing for many, many years and figured out long ago that the lifelines won't save him, but it's hard to ignore that word -- LIFEline.

Well, you have to. Words don't trump the laws of physics.

So what are they good for? They're an OUTSTANDING visual guide. They make it very, very clear where the edge of the cliff is. But once you have realized that those lifelines won't save you (and could actually encourage you to topple over), you'll realize why you want to move toward the bow from the HIGH side of the boat. On the high side of the boat, if you do fall, you'll fall toward the center of the boat -- not into the water.

What else can you do? My boat is 100% netted. I even made a frame with netting on it that lashes to my gates when they're closed. I have a coordination problem (talked about in a much earlier post), so I'm more likely than you to go over the side. Not everyone wants netting but I think it's wise for me.

The other thing you *must* do is make sure you have good handholds along the edge of your cabin top. You often see these made of teak. My boat also has a stainless steel grab bar that runs across the beam. We hear the saying, "One hand for yourself and one for your boat," and that's exactly what it means. As you move forward, you should always be holding on with one hand, and you shouldn't be holding the lifeline. You should be holding something closer to the center of the boat.

If the boat is sailing and you need to do something at the mast, move to the mast from the high side of the boat, where gravity will tend to push you toward the boat, not away from it.

Wear nonskid shoes. I don't care how many macho men tell you bare feet are best: if you break a toe, you're going to be significantly hobbled. Test their grip on your deck periodically, as the grip-holding tendencies of your shoes can wear out.

Don't count on the "life" lines to save you. Do keep them in good shape, but they are last-ditch, and in my opinion, best used by attaching netting to them.



https://www.facebook.com/boldlygosailing?skip_nax_wizard=true

Various Updates

     Or, New Information on Old Topics

Remember when I said that going down your companionway steps is one of the most dangerous things you do on your boat? I just met a woman who knows this all too well. She fell going down her companionway steps a couple of months ago, breaking several ribs. Remember the corollary advice, that a cabin is a terrible place to fall into because there are so many things you can hit on the way down. I’m not happy that I was right about that one.

My chartplotter still doesn’t work right. West Marine told me the software needed to be updated. Someone with a PC loaded it onto a SanDisk for me. I put it in the chartplotter and nothing happened, so I took it all to West Marine. When they inserted it, a hidden window popped up that should have updated the software, but it didn’t happen. West Marine told me the SanDisk was empty, so I took it back to the fellow who had loaded it for me. He put it in his computer and found the software on the SanDisk. Meanwhile, the chartplotter’s depth sounder told me that I was in over 20’ of water – while I was aground, centered in a channel (that’s another story). So the chartplotter, which has an extended warranty, is going back to West Marine, and I am going to insist that they send it to Garmin. Stay posted and keep your paper charts handy! I know someone else who benefited from purchasing the extended warranty, and I am now officially recommending that.

The Cruisers and Sailing Forum continues to talk about how small boats should just get out of the way of big ships. They have been debating the meaning of “impede” in the COLREGS, but more and more people are saying, “Oh for heaven’s sake. Just get out of the way!” So far, none of those people have been kicked off the forum that I know of. I am glad that those people have not been kicked off, and I’m glad they’re not being harassed for displaying obvious common sense as well as expressing the true intent of the law.

The little boat aground by the Skyway Bridge is still there. We’ve had extreme low tides here lately (part but not all of the grounding incident mentioned above) because of strong north winds just blowing the water south, and with the water nearly gone it’s clear that the entire keel of the little boat is buried in sand. That boat isn’t going anywhere until Pinellas County decides to cut it up and haul it away. Whoever is the registered owner will get a big bill when that happens, so if you sell a boat, make certain that the new owner transfers the title, or you might get a salvage bill some day for a boat you thought you no longer owned. At least in Florida, boat titles are not controlled as tightly as car titles are.

Go to our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/boldlygosailing?skip_nax_wizard=true 

How Joe Shattered His Leg, and How He Survived

_______

May 5, 2013

     You are primed to come up with a creative solution.

Fortune cookie

Joe lives in St. Petersburg, FL. Last December, he was going for a sail on a friend’s boat in Venice, FL, about an hour south of his home. A 36’ boat, it had a fair amount of freeboard –- its deck sat higher from the water than smaller boats. Nevertheless, it was an abnormally low tide, and a bit of a drop to the boat. Joe had gone through two knee replacement surgeries in the previous year, so he carefully considered his options. As he was first to arrive at the boat, he would have to do this all himself.

He pulled the boat close to the dock, and tossed his backpack into the cockpit. He didn’t want to risk dropping anything into the water during a tricky boarding. That also kept his center of gravity lower, always a good thing when boarding.

Holding the boat close to the dock with his right hand, he sat on the edge of the dock and swung his legs over the lifeline. He judged that he could make the short drop well. Typically, stepping on to the outside of the lifelines would be the best choice, but the boat was so low in the water that this didn’t look like a good choice to Joe.

Unfortunately, soon as he let go of the boat to jump down, the boat moved rapidly away from the dock. This threw his balance off, and with his feet inside the lifelines, he ended up hanging from the lifeline by one knee. While the knee was not injured, his body twisted, and he broke his left femur quite badly. Fortunately the boat had moved so far from the dock that he did not hit his head, but his body weight pulled him into the water. Now he was in cold water, and he was badly hurt.

No one else was around. Hollering for help brought no one.

He managed to pull himself to the stern of the boat, and that is where the owner of this sailboat helped save his life—even though he wasn’t anywhere near the boat yet. The owner had tied his stern ladder up with a “half bow tie,” with the loose end of the line long enough for Joe to reach it from the water. Here’s a picture of the type of knot his friend used. It is also commonly used to secure the mainsail to the boom.

Joe managed to pull the line, drop the ladder, drag himself up the ladder and land in the cockpit using his arms and his good leg.

Once in the cockpit, he was able to find his cell phone in his backpack to call 911. Since he had put his belongings in the boat before he tried to board, his cellphone had not gone in the water with him, and so it worked. The ladder, rigged to be deployable from the water, saved his life. With such a severe injury he wouldn’t have survived long in cold water.

When EMS got Joe to the nearest hospital, the doctor told him he needed immediate surgery. “Please transfer me to St. Petersburg, where I live,” Joe asked.

“You’ll be dead before you get there,” the doctor bluntly responded. “We have to operate NOW.” A piece of bone had cut the femoral artery, and Joe was actually bleeding to death inside his leg, even though the skin had not been broken. Joe has boarded boats many hundreds of times over the years. This is the only time he was hurt, but it was a doozy.

It’s really important to have a good ladder on the stern of your boat. There are several things that go into that. The ladder needs to hang from the boat at the right angle. If it hangs at more than 90º, people will have a hard time climbing it. Injured, it would probably be impossible. In addition, it needs to be long enough that the lowest wrong is well down into the water, or it will be hard to use, especially with a significant injury.

Your ladder also needs to be rigid. I was on a boat once where the owner had made his own ladder out of wood and rope. It floated at the surface, making it difficult to get a foot in the bottom rung after a swim. In addition, its flexibility let it curve under the boat. Finally my friend had to physically hold the ladder out at a 90º angle and then I managed to get back on the boat. A ladder is no place to try to save money. West Marine sells portable ladders you can hang over the transom or the side. They work well. If you use this ladder, get the longer one—it only costs $59.99 at this writing. The farther that ladder drops (rigidly) into the water, the easier it will be for an injured or otherwise impaired person to get safely aboard.

The problem with this type of ladder is that most owners won’t leave it hanging on the boat unless they are on the boat, so it probably wouldn’t have been there when Joe needed it so desperately. However, it is highly superior to anything made of rope and boards. A permanently installed ladder is a better choice, but this one is a lot better than nothing, or a ladder that can’t be lowered from the water.

Joe survived this accident for several reasons. First, he kept his wits about him and didn’t panic, even though he knew it could well be a fatal accident. Second, he was familiar with the boat. He knew that ladder was there, and that it was worth his rapidly fading strength to get to the stern. Third, the boat owner had a ladder long enough to be useful even under extremely difficult conditions. Fourth, the owner secured the ladder in a way that made it easy to deploy it from the water. Finally, Joe had kept his phone safe and dry, and was able to get to it. He does not believe he could have gotten to the marine radio in the cabin. Without his cell phone, he would have bled to death in the cockpit.

LESSONS LEARNED:

FIRST: When boarding any boat with either life lines or railing, pick a place to get on where you can place your feet on the outside of that lifeline or rail. By the shrouds is an excellent choice: you can step on the toe rail and grab the shrouds, which are very strong, at the same time. Then swing one leg over the lifeline, get that foot secure, and then bring the other leg over. This is an expansion of rock-climbing technique: three points secure (one foot on the toe rail and two hands on the shrouds), with one leg moving at a time. If your legs are on the outside of those life lines and the wind suddenly blows the boat away, even if you fall in the water, it won’t be nearly so dangerous a fall. The only thing likely to be hurt will be your pride. But in all likelihood, you’ll be able to keep your behind on the dock, stay dry, and just try again, or hang on to the boat. Either way, you’re safe.

SECOND: Always have your boat’s safety features fully functional. Joe might have fallen off of someone else’s boat without a good ladder, but he still might have been able to get on his friend’s boat, and perhaps by hollering for help from the cockpit, another person would have come along in time. Your properly secured and adequately long, rigid ladder could save someone’s life some day.

The Most Dangerous Things We Do on Our Boats

     Or, Liquor Goeth Before a Fall

Sometimes we forget that this thing we do, sailing, can actually be a little bit dangerous. When most people think about danger, they think about things like the boat tipping over, or being caught in a terrible storm. But in reality, the most dangerous things you do on your boat are also ordinary, everyday activities. They don’t look dramatic, or risky, or scary. That’s one thing that makes them dangerous –- they become so ordinary that we don’t always pay full attention while doing them. In my opinion some of the big ones are:

·      Getting on and off the boat

·      Going down the companionway “steps”

·      Drinking while sailing, and

·      Sailing with friends (What? Yes …)

Stepping aboard:

It’s so easy to get on and off the boat casually, but you should give it your full attention and not think about anything else. One misplaced foot, and you could fall in the water between the boat and the dock. You could be squeezed between those two big, hard things –- onto barnacles! People have died because they hit their heads on the dock on the way down, knocked themselves out and no one knew they were in the water.

If you put netting on the bow or stern of your boat, you can set things on the boat without risk that they will fall into the water, and you can then get on the boat with both hands free to do so securely and safely. (By the way, according to a doctor friend who sails, if you cut yourself on barnacles -- do not pass GO, do not collect $200 -- get yourself to your doctor immediately, who will undoubtedly put you on antibiotics, as barnacles and dock-bound oysters can contain some very nasty, dangerous bacteria.)

Don’t get on or off your boat with your arms loaded with “stuff.” Your center of gravity is already higher than the lifelines, and loading yourself up only makes that worse.

Going down the companionway “steps”:

They aren’t steps. They’re LADDERS. It’s very dangerous to go down ladders with your back to the rungs. Yes, I know these rungs often look like steps, but please – always turn around, face the steps, and use the handholds. I know a man with decades of sailing experience who slipped going down his companionway. He lay on the floor of his cabin for hours with a badly broken leg before someone found him. I know another fellow who spent an enjoyable night drinking with friends, and then fell going down his companionway. Fortunately he was only scraped up and bruised, but not badly hurt – see below.

Now think about your cabin. Most cabins are not spacious, and there are many things you can hit as you fall. The same rule applies for this as for getting on and off the boat: heads shouldn’t hit hard things, and your hands mustn’t be loaded up with stuff as you go up or down the companionway ladder.

Drinking while sailing:

I don’t let my crew drink until we’re done sailing for the day. On a 24 hour shift, we would have rotating shifts and try to work out R and R time for people, but still, real moderation would be key. Alcohol affects balance, and boats tend to lurch suddenly. Sailing while drinking is common –- many people’s fantasy of sailing is of tootling around the Caribbean with the wheel in one hand and a fancy drink in the other (you wouldn’t do that driving, though, would you?) Alcohol also stimulates socialization, and you can end up with everyone having a great time in the cockpit –- and no one noticing that the boat is headed straight for that channel marker (see below).

One person I have met lost the entire ring finger on her right hand just by adjusting a docking line –- after having had too much to drink. The line wrapped around the base of her finger and tightened, and took it right off. 
LESSON LEARNED: Alcohol can make you go "bump!" Party hearty if you want – but at the end of the day.

Sailing with friends:

Say WHAT??? Yeah, you have to be careful. Remember when you were 16 and had just learned to drive? What did you want to do first? Pick up all your best buds and go cruising around town, right? Some states now don’t allow new drivers to have any passengers with them because they are such a distraction to drivers for whom much is not automatic yet.

 Sailing is similar. There’s a lot to think about (really, it can be overwhelming at first), and someone has to be looking out for hazards. I know someone who hit a channel marker (those things pop up in the craziest places!) with three people on the boat. The skipper was facing his guests –- and forward, but the guests were facing him, and he was looking at his friends, not the water. He was going along pretty fast and when that channel marker jumped out into the middle of the channel, it did a lot of damage to the bow of his boat. (By the way, you’ve met this man before. He’s the one who ended up with the keel in his boat instead of under it.)

FINALLY:  Buy a good, sharp, folding knife and attach it to your pants or shorts any time you sail – whether on your boat or someone else’s. West Marine sells excellent knives,

as well as elastic cords with clips on them.This is the knife and cord I use:

If your favorite sailing shorts don’t have belt loops, sew a metal (not plastic) ring inside the left pocket if you’re left-handed, and the right pocket if you’re right-handed. Clip that knife on!

Then, if your leg should get caught in a line and you go overboard, you will know you have that knife with you, and you can use it to cut yourself free without worrying about losing the knife. It was the first safety tip given to me (thanks, Craig!) and I think it was one of the best. Recently a fisherman near my marina drowned in six feet of water because he was tangled in his anchor line and couldn’t get free. It’s not a common accident, but probably a fatal one without a sharp knife to free yourself with.

This is my safety advice to newer sailors. Have fun – but be careful out there!