Wow. I'm glad that comedy didn't end in tragedy.
1) What were they doing off the boat in the first place? Was there no
warning of weather coming? I've had folks laugh at me when I see
lightning 20 miles off shore and insist that I gobble my tacos and get
back to the boat.
2) Driving a dinghy through that kind of surf while sitting on the
tubes? There's this thing called 'Center of Gravity.' I tend to keep
my butt in the bottom of the dinghy in anything other than calm
conditions. One lurch and you can go splash, and it really doesn't
matter if you have a good excuse for falling overboard. The bottom line
is to avoid falling overboard.
3) Boarding ladders. No one ever leaves my boat, even in dead calm
conditions, without the boarding ladder down. It extends far enough to
have two rungs below water, and is located amidships. I took the
original stern ladder, had two more rungs welded on, and it now clamps
onto the boat with bolts. The clamps are strong enough to withstand
just about anything -- in fact I once took off at 3 a.m. and forgot that
the ladder was down, and spend an entire day bashing into 6 foot square
waves with the ladder down on the starboard side. (Ooops.)
4) Regarding rope ladders. I made one just for getting back into the
dinghy, and decided it was worthless. I now keep it snapped to the
stern, next to the Monitor, so that it can be pulled down if needed. I
figure if I *do* end up overboard and that's my only option for getting
back on the boat that adrenaline will give me the strength to deal with it.
Wal
Tom B wrote:
Not C&C related, but worth sharing.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=M6gMDlTTN6A
Tom B
--
s/v Stella Blue
www.wbryant.com
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