Clumsy wife non swimmer

[nipper]

This year my wife fell in the water at the landing area just above Zouch Lock on the river Stour, she said that she couldnt touch the bottom and only managed to get hold of the grass immediately above the piling by chance.

By the time I got off the boat and got there, only a 30 seconds probably, she was quite tired. A passer by gave me a hand to get her out.

 

Mary is quite a small built girl, I'm built like a brick s...t house and the other guy was a big guy too, but we had a job getting her up and over the pilings.

The difficulty we had was getting a grip on her clothing, had she been wearing a life jacket it would of given us something to grip hold of and made getting her out much easier.

Mary was only in the water a very short time and she cant remember swallowing any water, but the illness she suffered, and continued to suffer for a good few days suggested she did. The stomach settled down eventually, but the headache lasted for a week or two. She got checked out by a Doctor when we returned home a few days after, telling him what had happened and were!

 

Just remember that Weils disease is not the only thing you can get from the water, even a river!

 

Life jackets nowadays are much more comfortable to wear than years past and they should all be of the auto variety. There should be no place for a hand operated life Jacked one on board a boat, leave them for the aircraft!

[muddywaters]

One thing I have always wondered about the self inflating buoyancy aids.

If they inflate on contact with water what happens if it rains heavy ? do they inflate ?

[system 4-50]

After less than a couple of minutes in cold water unhooking a yacht anchor snagged on mooring chains I was no longer able to climb a ladder at all. The effect of the cold on somebody not used to it should not be underestimated.

[nipper]

I have found that there are two thoughts that go through your brain if you end up in the water wearing a quality self inflating Life Jacket!

 

The first is " Bugger! The bloody jackets inflated"!

The second is "well, it does work then"!

Don't ask me how i know this!

 

 

 

One thing I have always wondered about the self inflating buoyancy aids.

If they inflate on contact with water what happens if it rains heavy ? do they inflate ?

 

There are two types as post 13 states.

 

 

Nipper

[cotswoldsman]

Sorry to hear that ... didn't Andy Holmes, one time rowing partner of Sir Steve Redgrave also die from Weils last year?

 

Going from memory that was dekazer's uncle

 

Edited: Found it I hope dekazer does not mind me posting this again

 

I wouldn't normally mention this, but I doubt I'll be able to stop reading this thread and so will just put a note so anyone who might reply to it is aware.

 

Andy was my Uncle, and I am pleased that we were all able to get to the hospital in time to be with him when he died. He received excellent care at King's, which is an international liver centre, and was seemingly making very good progress before he sadly died. His wife and children are completely devastated, as are the rest of his family.

 

I have learned far more about leptospirosis lately than I ever wanted to. Apparently the more mild form is reasonably common and some people may not even notice symptoms, and some may not seek medical advice. The more severe form, Weil's disease, is extremely rare and has a fairly high fatality rate. If someone as healthy and strong as Andy can succumb it's clearly a very serious infection.

 

More information can be found on the NHS choices website here: http://www.nhs.uk/co...troduction.aspx

 

As someone who lives on the canal and, in younger years, rowed on the Thames, I have always been aware of the dangers. We can only hope that Andy's death means that more people become aware and make efforts to keep themselves safe.

 

Edited December 15, 2011 by cotswoldsman

[KevMc]

Going from memory that was dekazer's uncle

 

Edited: Found it I hope dekazer does not mind me posting this again

 

Oh I didn't realise

[jonathanA]

One thing to add hopefully not too far off topic...

 

its just as hard if not harder to get a big wet dog out of the water.... so we make our dogs wear dog bouyancy jackets that have a handle on, whenever we are on the move.

 

surprising how few other dogs we see with either a bouyancy aid or some sort of harness to make retrival possible...

 

the dogs have fallen in more than me or my clumsy wife although I don't think I'd be able to drag her out using a boat hook....

 

Jon

[ditchcrawler]

One thing I have always wondered about the self inflating buoyancy aids.

If they inflate on contact with water what happens if it rains heavy ? do they inflate ?

I have not know rain to set them off, but put them away while still damp and a couple of days later they could well inflate.

[Pentargon]

Wow what a fast response, thanks everyone. I just drifted off the site for a few minutes and found THESE.

That's a nice looking deal to me and I'd be easily convinced to go with it. I ALWAYS wear my own auto-inflate on or near water. You get used to them that way like seat belts. I have never actually fallen in but then again I've never tested the airbags on my car either. good luck on the cut and when we meet

[Naughty Cal]

One thing I have always wondered about the self inflating buoyancy aids.

If they inflate on contact with water what happens if it rains heavy ? do they inflate ?

 

We have accidentally set ours off whilst washing out the cockpit with the hosepipe. They were in the locker which isnt water tight and went off. They were a bugger to get out of the locker inflated as well

 

Converseley we have also been out on the coast with spray rolling over the bow and into us and also in the puring rain and they didnt go off. We are this year changing our firing mechanisms to the pressure sensing type to reduce the risk of accidental firing.

[Robbo]

Converseley we have also been out on the coast with spray rolling over the bow and into us and also in the puring rain and they didnt go off. We are this year changing our firing mechanisms to the pressure sensing type to reduce the risk of accidental firing.

 

Puring rain? Is that when it's raining cats ands dogs or just cats?

Edited December 16, 2011 by Robbo

[Lewis 53]

One thing I have always wondered about the self inflating buoyancy aids.

If they inflate on contact with water what happens if it rains heavy ? do they inflate ?

 

Yes they can. Its important to ensure that the outer cover does not trap water round the fireing mechcanism if you have the "disc operated" type.....doesn't count if you hit by a wave!

 

On another point.....a single hander (no life jacket) fell off the back of his boat as it was entering a lock and disappeared from view as we approached the same lock about 100 yards away from us. My wife who had just got off the boat sprinted up to the lock and started to grope arround in the water to try and find him. I arrived a few moments later and between us we managed to find him and get him to the bank side but couldn't get him out because he was so heavy in his wet clothes. Eventually a walker came to help and three of us managed to get him on to the bank with a lot of coughing and spluttering. Moral of story get a life jacket and ware it. As the RNLI say....."Life Jacket....Useless unless worn"

[drunkensailor]

I wear one when I'm singlehanding. The self-inflating kind; I feel daft in a bright orange lifejacket on a canal. It's not a major inconvenience, and it might save my life one day.

[Lady Muck]

Can be extremely difficult to get out, and better if your not in too long, weils desease is horrid

One of the community boat volunteers in Camden got it. They were warned about doing endless eskimo rolls in their kayak, but they didnt listen. They were very ill with it.

 

We keep sanitary hand gel at the front and back of the boat and we always wash our hands before eating.

[i love my narrowboat]

another thing is never put your windlass on the grass/ground, you never know how many dogs have relieved themselves from both ends by the locks ...yuk..

[Pentargon]

I wear one when I'm singlehanding. The self-inflating kind; I feel daft in a bright orange lifejacket on a canal. It's not a major inconvenience, and it might save my life one day.

I totally agree with you, Sir and I don't care how stupid I look in my crew saver. if I fall in t'cut unconscious it will turn me head up and I won't ingest canal water. Weil's disease can kill and does. Weil's killed one of Sir Steve Redgrave's rowing buddies. Part of this discussion was covering self-inflaters self-inflating. There's a whole procedure for checking out your jacket but almost no-one on canals knows it because they haven't been exposed to the training. A properly arranged self-inflater has to submerged in water to go off while being worn. They should never be stowed wet, but again how would someone know that without been shown or told? Go in peace and when we meet we can point to our jackets and smile at the innocence of youth. Edited January 25, 2012 by Pentargon

[Chertsey]

AFAIK Weil's isn't transmitted primarily through ingestion but through wounds, and its relatively high fatality rate is largely because it tends to be misdiagnosed. You are more likely to get gastroenteritis from swallowing canal water.

[Dekazer]

Just a quick post to say thank you to those who posted with condolences for Andy's death - I hadn't monitored this thread so I hope you didn't think I was being rude.

 

From what I gather diagnosis of Weil's can be ropey, but it's very rare and usually not fatal. Best avoided though

[The Bagdad Boatman (waits)]

Many more adults and children die on the canals who we never hear about we only hear about the tragedy second hand. An interesting fact is that when three men where drowned when their boat was run down by a ferry out of Southampton/Portsmouth one survived far longer because he had fastened the leg loops on the life jacket. Having spent many hours on big rivers in bad conditions I always wear my life jacket and use the straps now.