In The Blink of an Eye

IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE

by Bill Holcomb

            In over thirty years of sailing, providing sailing lessons and racing sailboats; safety has always been "part of the program". And, since I single-hand often, I've had a strong inclination to wear a lifejacket often. There's even a list of times when lifejackets are required:

            At night

            If there's thunder or lightning about

            If the main sail is reefed and a small jib is set

            Winter sailing

            Single handing

            etc.

            I didn't follow the "rules" religiously, but generally did.

            Along with the "rules", I had thought often about what to do if someone fell off of my boat....or a boat that I was riding on. There were even occasional (if not frequent) "man-overboard" drills where a floating cushion was tossed over and then "rescued". If I lost my hat, I'd generally go about and attempt to rescue it before it sank.

            While hoping that I'd never have to use any of these safety skills, I figured that I was pretty well skookum as far as man-overboard went.

            On April 1, 1995 - Yes, April Fools Day - I had arranged to teach a private lesson on my students 15 year old Catalina 22. Part of the lesson was to be tuning the mast's standing rigging; and part to be sailing if the weather cooperated. The tuning went perfectly and by about 10 o'clock everything was ready for a sail. The mainsail was already bent on and we rigged the 110% jib as the wind was blowing in the 10 to 15 range (and we could see some of the racers with their 150's rail-down in the gusts). The engine fired right up and away we went.

            The first hour and a half were spent broad to beam reaching until we were about 4 miles or so downwind from the marina. We turned the boat and began working to windward. When the first gust hit, Steve (the student) let go of the tiller as someone had told him to let go of everything in a big gust so that the boat could find its own level - kind of like a small airplane will fly straight & level if you go "hands off". Of course, the boat proceeded to inadvertently tack with the jib backed; then spin out of control downwind into a jibe.....Pretty thrilling!

            I told Steve that he needed to keep control of the boat and to "feather" the boat into the wind to keep from heeling over too far. We also discussed moving the traveler position to leeward to decrease heeling and about sheeting out the mainsail. We worked back to a port tack and took a couple more gusts.  Everything seemed to be just fine..........

            That was when a BIG GUST hit us. The Catalina 22 rolled to starboard until water was pouring in over the coamings and into the cockpit. My first thought was to wonder if the thru-hull valve for the cockpit drains had been opened. About that time, an additional puff hit us and we rolled further. I lost my balance and began falling from the high (port) side of the cockpit into the water. There were no lifelines or stern rail to grab onto; and I remember thinking that if this didn't work out, that Kathy would be pretty upset with me. As my left hand was entering the water, I looked to my right and saw the tiller (Steve had let go of everything again). I grabbed it and hung on! Of course, I was completely off of the boat in the water and that had pulled the tiller hard a'starboard - causing an immediate tack.... I don't know if we did a complete "spin around", more than one, or none.

            However, I was in the water hanging onto the tiller. My sea-boots were full of water as well as my foul weather pants that were tightly velcro'd around the boot-tops. My pants, long-johns, shirts, wool sweater, down vest, etc. were all quickly soaked through and saturated. The water was cold, about 40 degrees. It was now that I remembered that my lifejacket was in my bag on the cabin floor, not on my body. And, I realized that I might be in trouble. 

            There was a swim ladder fortunately on the starboard side of the transom (close to me) and I made my way to it carefully. I was still hanging onto the tiller. As soon as I reached the swim ladder, I lowered it into the "down" position and grabbed onto the top rung - letting go of the tiller then to hang onto the ladder with both hands. The boat immediately started to sail downwind at about 3 knots dragging my feet and legs away from the transom. I finally was able to get my right knee onto the bottom rung of the ladder, but was unable to lift my left foot onto the rung because of all the weight of water in my pants and boots. And, there was just too much weight of water for me to lift myself bodily higher with the boat sailing off on its own downwind. It was now that I asked Steve to give me a hand to get back into the boat.

            We took the sails in and motored the 45 or so minutes back to the marina and everything worked out fine.

            They say that in flying, any landing you can walk away from is a good landing. However, the more I've thought about my situation, the more I think that I've probably had a pretty close call. There are many "what ifs": What if I hadn't caught the tiller; what if there hadn't been a swim ladder; what if the motor hadn't started right up; what if...what if.

            I do know that I had never really thought about what would happen if I fell off of the boat. I hadn't ever thought about training guests, Kathy, family members or  students for that possibility. I was always pretty good about lifejackets, but not really "religious" about them. I'd thought about jack-lines and harness', but seldom rigged them - except for bad storms. I knew about the 50/50 rule - 50 degree water, 50 yards from the boat - 50/50 chance of being rescued. I'd always thought about the possibility of someone else falling off the boat. 

But In The Blink Of An Eye........