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It's happened again.


Rickent

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I think that there are two separate issues here, one is the need for a lifejacket (debatable in a canal that is often shallow enough drag the bottom of my boat on) and the second one is how to get back out of the canal should you fall in. Having had the experience of helping to lift out an elderly lady who fell in by a lock a couple of years ago (she wore an auto inflating lifejacket) one doesn't really assist the other. She wouldn't be pulled out by her arms and trying to lift her out by the lifejacket also inflicted a lot of pain. We eventually recovered her from the water by sinking a tarpaulin I had on the roof of my boat under her and lifting her out on it, a bit like like a hammock.

 

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Thankfully we dont hear of fatalities from falling in too often so somethings going right. I havent had the pleasure yet in my 3 years on the cut. But i,m wisening up, i,m ordering two self inflaters forthwith. My pontoon mooring at Barby is pretty deep but the bankside is gently sloped. Strangely i,m rarely tempted to the openside gunwal. I turn the boat when washing or working on that side. Obviously being scared has its safety advantages.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I went in today! 

My only, rather poor excuse, is that burd and her little daughter were doing my head in, and I wasn't concentrating as I should have been when I went to step onto the bank, which was a good five feet further away than I thought.

Time went into slow motion when I realised I was about to plunge in, and I did a reasonable Indiana Jones impression with the centre rope as I entered the water.

 I lost a packet of fag papers and a lighter, but my baccy stayed dry and my phone still works.

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I fell in 18 months for the first time in 25 years of boating. I was tightening the bow line when moored with our wheelbarrow wheels as fenders, as we had been touching up the blacking. 

I misjudged the gap to the bow, and in I went. Must have been the quickest of dunkings, as my feet hit the mud, I hauled myself out. I was wet to my chest, but my iPhone survived though the cash in my back pocket did need drying out. SWMBO gave me no sympathy, as she just cracked up laughing. 

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