Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Richards
Wow...did the whale strike break off your keel? It's great that you guys were prepared.
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This was a power boat so the keel doesn’t hang down like a sailboat. The whale hit us head on below the waterline and stove in a 4’ piece.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeremyD
The other item is water temperature. Although we don't get the frigid cold of some northern states - we still get water that cools into the 50's and lower 60's. About 5 years ago I rescued a kayaker at the request of the sherriff's office. (they had a delay in getting their boat out, mine was in the back of the house) He had fallen off - had a life jacket - but the water was upper 50's and hypothermia had started to set in.
When we got to him - about a mile into the bay - he was babbling - big guy - probably 220 - and his legs were stiff - he couldn't get them onto my ladder, couldn't make them work.
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In my situation the water temp was in the 50s. The life raft was one those little round ones with a canopy and a single layer floor made of Hypalon (I think). A few hours into it we had all removed our lifejackets to put between our asses and the floor because of the cold.
When the Coast Guard cutter got to us we were all too stiff to climb the Jacob’s ladder by ourselves.
I think the saddest part about the NFL guys is that if they’d had an EPIRB, it would have activated automatically when the boat capsized and they probably would’ve been picked up in a few hours.