A fall by any other name...

walt · Feb 24, 2018

We went to a night time marina dock party about a week ago. We had two dogs with us and dock party/ drinking / dark / etc meant the dogs were wearing life jackets so we first went to our boat and put the life jackets on both dogs. My wife forgot something so got back on the boat and one dog jumped from the finger dock to the boat (like the dog has done a million times) only this time he was wearing a life jacket. Life jacket got caught on the life lines and the poor dog struggled for about 15 seconds hopelessly trying to get on the boat - then splash.. into the water between the boat and the dock. Dog swam to the front of the boat and by that time we were over there to pull him out. The life jacket had caused the problem but also the handle on the life jacket made it easy to pull the dog out of the water.

Second story.. about a month ago, a friend (who shall not be named) met us on the dock after we had been out boat camping for a couple days. Our friends dog had recently died of old age and we talked about dogs for a while.
We had not been home for several days so said goodbye and started to walk down the dock. Our friend probably still thinking about his long time good dog companion backed up a little to let us pass.. backed up past where the dock ended and SPLASH into a empty slip.. I pulled him out on the second try. Hope his phone survived..

FYI, its a good idea to have some sort of plan near your boat for getting out of the water. Very difficult to get out without help. On my boat I can pull the transom ladder down from the water.

justsomeguy · Feb 24, 2018

After a rolly sail I was rinsing out the puke from some rags I'd cleaned up the cockpit with, and I lost my balance kneeling over the dock edge. I put out my hand to steady myself, and there was no dock under it.
Nobody saw nor heard the splash, and I was able to self-rescue my way back onto the dock.
Like you Brian, I lost a phone. I caught my forearm on a bit of barnacle, so a bit of blood was shed.

LeslieTroyer · Feb 24, 2018

I was one of many folks help Ross ( of Ross Depth Sounders ) dock his new to him boat. It was fairly big and had tanks on the stern deck big enough for a couple killer whales. I had one of the bow lines just holding light tension as requested got distracted and next I knew I was in the water. No hiding Being young I about leaped out.
Before cell phones so jus wet wallet.

Les

Tally Ho · Feb 24, 2018

On the maiden voyage of my first boat, my 2 sons and I pulled into the marina at Winthrop Harbor on Lake Michigan. It was Easter weekend, we were absolutely novice sailors who should not have been out on the lake in those conditions. We were taking our first boat from Milwaukee where we bought it, to our home port in East Chicago, IN. We were cold and wet, tired and hungry. We were tying the boat up in the dark, when a man on the only other boat in the marina was walking by with his little dog. Still not sure what caused the dog to do it, but he jumped right off the dock into the 36-degree water. My youngest son dropped to his belly on the dock, scooped up the dog and delivered the pooch back on the dock to the thanks of his owner.

Greg

kloudie1 · Feb 24, 2018

Not exactly a fall but while washing hull from a cheap plastic boat, I hooked the valve and the boat sunk from under me .. I quickly looked around for any alligators.. then swam under the pier to the sloping muddy bank and crawled out.. No one saw.. thank Goodness

JamesG161 · Feb 24, 2018

Just back in the USA, my friends said come on down to the yacht club on Fridays. I was a bachelor and missed sailing so I went for great meal for $9. There I met a lovely single lady who owned a Cat 22.

So my expert dancing, suave behavior, and a southern gentleman, I charmed a date for sailing.

Aiming to show I was a good sailor and debonair world adventurer, I met her at her house, where she was ready with a picnic lunch. We went to her boat at the marina, loaded it with provisions and helped rig her boat for a coastal sail. She was in the boat, I was on the pier casting off lines, except one.

"Come aboard", she politely ordered. [not seeing her cast off the securing spring line]

One foot on the finger pier, stepped to her boat!

My other foot entered the Cat 22, but the boat pushed away from the dock.

Split legged, no hand hold, I could only split leg and down I went. SPLASH!

She freaked, I came up with my wet wallet in hand, to give her. She began to cry, I began to laugh.

Thus, began the date. Me soak, her crying, people laughing and wallet stuff ruined.

Jim...

PS: It was a great sail.

jssailem · Feb 24, 2018

Great story Jim.. How long have you been sailing with that Miss?

jerry · Feb 25, 2018

A few years back was helping a neighbor tune the mast at the dock. Stepped back on the dock to check the mast for straightness and down I went. My cell phone and wallet in hand broke the surface of the water before my head did! Cell phone worked for 3 years after that. One morning in May I was working down below in the cabin when I heard a thump and splash aginst the hull. I thought it was just another carp splashing around then I heard a very faint "help! help!" I imeadeatly jumped out of the boat and on the dock and grabbed my wife's hands and hauled her out from between the dock and boat.

She missed stepped.

JamesG161 · Feb 25, 2018

jssailem said:
How long have you been sailing with that Miss?

Once...

Are you kidding me? If she didn't wait till all the crew aboard before casting off... what next?

A Sailor has to have his standards!

Jim...

PS: At least at this port of call.

walt · Feb 25, 2018

Related to losing a phone..

Im on my third lap top computer in about two months and it has somehow involved the two dogs in the picture below.

The demise of the most recent laptop happened about six weeks ago when I took the smaller dog on the left to the slip in the marina about sunset with the intention of spending the night in the boat. When I got near the boat, I saw a really large eagle or hawk sitting on top of my mast and I sized it up as significantly larger than the dog. When I got near the boat the likely eagle started flying around us and it looked to me like the eagle had some interest in the dog for dinner. So I was in a hurry to get the dog on the boat and in my hurry took my back pack off which had a poorly packed lap top computer in it and just as I got the back pack off.. SPLASH.. turned around and saw the lap top sinking in slip over. I partially jumped in after it but soon realized that was hopeless without diving so the laptop sank to around 10 foot of water one slip over. Lap top stayed down there for 22 hours and after I did a good job drying it for nearly two days.. it was completely dead..The only thing I recovered was a SD card. I had only owned this lap top for two weeks.

The demise of the laptop computer one before the one above happened only two weeks earlier. The dog on the right is a little skittish and was just sleeping in the living room. My wife turned on a washing machine and it startled the dog. Startled dog jumped up and got caught in the nearby lap top cord and then really freaked and bolted. Lap top got flung into a wall and busted a hole in the drywall plus ripped out the AC power plug. I tried repairing the AC power plug but the first time I plugged in the computer a puff of smoke came out.. Laptop is not completely dead now but close.

Kermit · Feb 25, 2018

@walt Just mail me your computers before destroying them. At least someone will get some use out of them.

walt · Feb 25, 2018

I never buy the replacement warranty.. something about self insuring. When talking to the last sales guy and mentioning my story and then again denying the replacement warranty, he asked "how is that working for you". I sort of found that funny..

jeepbluetj · Feb 25, 2018

walt said:
FYI, its a good idea to have some sort of plan near your boat for getting out of the water. Very difficult to get out without help. On my boat I can pull the transom ladder down from the water.

My plan is to swim to the nearest powerboat and pull down the swim ladder. My neighbor has an easily accessible one.

TomY · Feb 25, 2018

I haven't fallen off any of our sailboats, until this happened a few years ago.

Our Nutshell pram tender is easy to board over the bow at over crowded dinghy docks. At one tight dingy dock that I had sailed into (shoe horned the bow between two dinghy's), I doused the rig - but left the mast stepped.

Then, walking up to the bow, I stepped on the forward seat next to the mast butt. When I put my weight on my foot on the seat,...the boat began to heel. About then, I realized - as little mast pinned me to leeward, I had just committed dock suicide. I was going down.

I managed, with both arms around the mast, to half land in the water and on the dinghy next to us.

I never did it again.

Will Gilmore · Feb 25, 2018

Brian D said:
As I was walking backward to straighten the hose I felt the lack of solid ground and instantly realized I just walked off the dock. Being well aware of my surroundings and knowing it would be impossible to correctly my error, I just pushed off with the remaining foot so I did not hit anything going down.

Well, I've never fallen off a dock or a docked boat, that I can remember, but I was visiting this marina and was idley watching this guy washing down his boat, after he came in from a sail. He pulled his hose out, carefully straightening the hose so it wouldn't kink. 'Smart', I thought. He was very careful and meticulously washed down the port side. After unhooking the hose from a cleat and making sure he wasn't going to kink the hose, he walked around to the other side and began washing that side.
I had the impression that this guy was fastidious about his boat, something I can appreciate, even if I don't always achieve that level of care, myself. Then, he did the strangest thing. He walked backwards, obviously pulling out more hose so he'd have enough to finish the job before jumping backwards into the water, right off the end of the dock. It was almost funny.
I couldn't help but wonder, at first, 'why would he do a thing like that?' Then I got to thinking, a guy, that into keeping his boat clean, probably just wanted to use the hose to help him scrub below the waterline.
I also thought it was a bit odd that he was fully dressed. So now I'm thinking, maybe he didn't mean to do that and I missed my opportunity to laugh at a funny situation.

- Will ("never fell

", Dragonfly)

Terry Cox · Feb 25, 2018

Arriving solo at the slip in a moderate cross wind, all dock lines ready as usual; bow, stern, midship. The first line to tie is the midship line followed by the bow line. In my haste to secure the dock line to the dock cleat I do a half cleat knot. The next is the bow line, but as I tie up the bow line the midship line has let loose with the boat stern heading for my slip neighbor's boat.

I'm thinking if I can grab a lifeline I can stop this 35,000 pound boat from swinging further out. Yup, that sure worked! Well my body is far enough beyond recovering from that maneuver and out I go into the water still hanging onto the life line. Trying to lift my body up out of the water is next to impossible, but do manage to swing a leg up and onto the gunwale where I can get my body back on board.

Meanwhile, our boat does a soft bump on my neighbor's boat; no harm no foul. Who saw that fiasco? Nobody around so nothing happened; just another routine dock landing. That is my story and I'm sticking to it.