Dan was aboard Balder for the 2004 McAllister Creek Race when ...
It’s 0030 and I can’t seem to sleep. The events of yesterday’s race keep playing through my mind, only these events aren’t about how well we did in the race but the events leading up to, and after, we had a man in the water with a head injury. Not only did we have an unconscious man in the water, but he was also not wearing a life-preserver. He normally wore a life vest under his foul weather gear but this time he had a brand new harness-type self-inflating PFD in his bag below deck. My guess is that, with the change of routine, he forgot to put it on over his foul weather gear.
The day started out looking as if we would have a great day of racing with 15-20 knots of wind. It was a cool January day with occasional rain showers. The water temperature was about 45 degrees, which is not exactly water you would want to go swimming in. The wind conditions were much better for racing than the previous week when we weren’t able to finish the race due to lack of wind.
The 23.5 mile race started on a downwind spinnaker run. We were doing well keeping up with the leading boats in the fleet and preparing to jibe over to port. The pole was brought across and the new guy was attached. When we attempted to bring the pole back into position, we discovered that the guy was fouled. The spinnaker trimmer was distracted, along with the rest of the crew, by the activities of the foredeck crew attempting to deal with the problem of the fouled guy. The boom came over hard to starboard and hit our spinnaker trimmer, a 30+ year sailing veteran, in the back of the head. I looked up just in time to see a swan dive into a back flop off the edge of the boat. Unaware at that time that our victim had a head injury or had even been hit by the boom, I was amazed at how calm he seemed, later I realized he was unconscious.
We used the motor to power over to our man in the water being careful not to get the line that was now in the water and caught on the keel, caught in the prop. The crew did a good job of getting the spinnaker on deck and the skipper did a great job of getting the boat stopped and headed back toward the man in the water. One thing I realized was that the confusion and distraction factors escalate 100 times or more in a real-life man overboard situation when compared to running a drill.
My mind keeps flashing back to the point where we got our man up to the side of the boat. He was dazed and wasn’t expending much effort to help himself. As one of our crewmembers reached down to grab his hand, our victim raised his hands and started to slide beneath the surface of the water. We were able to grab his hands and lead him back to the swim ladder off of the transom. In just the short time it took to get him from our beam to the transom, he seemed to become a lot more responsive and, with a little help, he was able to climb up on the first step of the ladder where he rested for a minute. He was then able to climb aboard with little to no assistance.
We brought him below where we could get him into some dry clothes. He didn’t show any signs of hypothermia but his head injury needed to be seen by a doctor. He had a large swollen area behind his ear and a black eye was forming on the same side, with swelling above his eye.
While a couple of crewmembers were tending to our victim, the rest of us were working on freeing the line that had become fouled under the boat and preparing the boat to motor back to the docks. It seemed as if it took us forever to get going under power, but I’m sure it was just a couple of minutes. Everything seemed like it was playing out in slow motion.
When we arrived at the marina, the skipper drove our man to the hospital where they took X-rays and a CT scan to see if there were any serious injuries. The rest of the crew stowed the sails, secured the boat and then discussed the event. I think we were all feeling down about what had happened and were searching for answers.
It scares me to think how close we came to losing a crewmember. He was lucky to have enough air trapped in his foul weather gear to keep him floating on his back. If he had been moving more, it is possible that all of the trapped air could have escaped. Another thing that sends chills down my spine was when he told us he didn’t even know he had fallen in the water until we were helping him get back aboard the boat.
As it turned out, he didn’t have any broken or chipped bones in his head. After the swelling goes down, the only thing hurting will be his pride. I’m sure he and the rest of our crew learned a few things from this event and I hope anyone who reads this will learn from it too.
My hat is off to our wonderful skipper and crew for their fast actions and their ability to stay calm under difficult circumstances. Because of their actions, we had a successful rescue. Could we have done a better job? Sure, there were a lot of things that could have been improved on, but we are using this experience as an opportunity to better ourselves as sailors and prevent similar accidents in the future.
Key Points:Dan Briscoe
This incident shows how important it is for all of us out racing or cruising to know what to do in emergency situations. The quick-stop method of stopping the boat while staying as close as possible to the overboard victim, which Balder’s skipper John DeMeyer used, is one of the key rescue methods taught in our annual LifeSling Clinic. John is one of our instructors and has taught the quick-stop many times.
The Clinic gives each participant a chance to practice an actual on the water rescue. Please consider taking, or retaking, the LifeSling class which will be on June 5, 2004. Contact Dee or Andy Saller at 491-0175 to register.
Andy Saller, Liberty