Boy did I have an exciting time this past weekend, and not in a good way. I got to pull a 250 pound drunk out of the water. It was not easy, as you might imagine, and he's lucky he's not dead.
We were at our slip, my wife asleep in the rear berth while I was lounging in the salon finishing my drink and watching a movie on Netflix. It was nearly 2 am. I hear some noise, then a big splash and a scream.
I rushed out to our cockpit to see a guy in the water, one hand grabbing the dock, one hand grabbing a dock neighbor's hand (I'll call her Kim). Kim says her boat has a ladder so I jump on to the dock, run around, grab the guy's hand and tell her to flip her ladder down. He doesn't move. I now see that he's panicked and VERY drunk. Great. This is the point where I should have told my neighbor to call 911 but I didn't.
I tell Kim to get a flotation device. She finds one and throws it to him. It hits him in the face but he makes no move for it. He acts like it's not even there and it floats away. I tell him he needs to move over to the ladder (about 4 feet away) and he does't move. I grab the boat with my free hand, pull it as close as I can and tell him that on the count of three I'm going to push him over and he has to grab it. This works and he's now grabbing the ladder and I jump onto Kim's boat.
I struggle to get him pulled up enough so he can get a foot on the ladder but it's not working. I'm a big guy but I'm not going to be able to pull up 250 pounds of drunk weight. I'm surprised I didn't dislocate his shoulder trying. At this point I realize I've me this guy once before. More on that later.
I tell Kim to call 911, but the drunk says, "NO! don't call, I don't want to go to detox again!". I look at him an ask, "Would you rather go to detox or the morgue?". He didn't answer. Kim doesn't know who to listen to. I tell the guy he has one minute to make progress or we are calling 911. After significant struggle, he gets a knee on the bottom rung. In the course of the next 5 minutes, he gets his other knee up, then a foot, and finally his chest is above the transom and I grab the back of his jeans and with all my strength slide him mostly over. His upper body is half on, half off a cockpit seat and he's laying there like a dead seal. The struggle isn't over but he's not going to drown.
We get him all the way in and sitting and he's shivering uncontrollably (It's about 50F with 10kts of wind). He lost his phone in the water so he can't call his daughter to come get him. From our previous "meeting" I know he lives close by, so I figure we can take him there. Because of our previous meeting, I'm pissed. More on that later. After more struggle we get him off the boat and holding him up the whole way, and stopping to rest many times, we walk him the 4 blocks home. I'm in his face about his situation. I reminded him of our previous meeting and how he was drunk off his butt that time too. I told him how lucky he was not to have drowned. Yeah, I was in a surly mood at this time. I REALLY wish we had called 911. That was our biggest mistake of the night.
We get to his place and wake up his daughter (in her mid 20's and lives 2 doors down) and hand him off. She doesn't even act surprised. She tell us he usually doesn't get this bad. (yeah...right). She doesn't even bat an eye at the fact that he's dripping wet and had fallen off a dock. I stressed that this could easily have been fatal and he's damn lucky I was there. Sadly, I'm not sure she cared. I told her to get him inside, out of his wet clothes and into bed and all she did was tell her dad to do it himself. I told her he's now her responsibility and we left.
The previous time I met him? Last fall I spent the night on the boat to do some maintenance the next day. From inside our cabin, I can look out at the park across the fairway. At 1:30am that night/morning, I happen to be looking out, saw a guy walk behind a big bush but never come out the other side. A few minutes later I saw an arm flailing from someone on the ground. I called 911 and head up to see if he needed help. It was this SAME guy that time. He was stumbling drunk, had fallen, cracked his forehead on the sidewalk and was bleeding profusely. The sheriff took him to detox that night.
As I said before, our biggest mistake was not calling 911 as soon as I realized he was drunk, not only to get him out, but maybe to get him some help. There's no reason think it would have helped him long term, but maybe it would trigger some real help. I really, really regret not calling. We got lucky. He got lucky.
A sober person could have easily gotten out. A drunk? Different story. He was nearly dead weight. The only thing I found to motivate him to climb out was the thread of detox! I just shake my head at this sorry fellow.
Sorry for the ramble. This is a sailing forum so let's get back to that topic. We've talked about MOB situations, and we've talked about means of pulling down the ladder from the water. I need to make sure my ladder can be pulled down from the water. I'm going to look into having some sort of roll-up ladder at the end of our finger dock as well.
I'd like to think that my guests would never get drunk but I can't control my neighbors guests. How would you get a drunk of the water? I did come to one stark realization after this was over and I was back in my boat. Had this guy lost his grip on my hand, the dock or the ladder and went under, I don't know that I would have jumped in to try to save him. Call me cold, but I'm not a good swimmer and I'm not trained in water rescue. I also have a wife and three kids who need me around. I imagine having a 250 pound drunk clinging to me in the water would be a good way to drown myself.
We were at our slip, my wife asleep in the rear berth while I was lounging in the salon finishing my drink and watching a movie on Netflix. It was nearly 2 am. I hear some noise, then a big splash and a scream.
I rushed out to our cockpit to see a guy in the water, one hand grabbing the dock, one hand grabbing a dock neighbor's hand (I'll call her Kim). Kim says her boat has a ladder so I jump on to the dock, run around, grab the guy's hand and tell her to flip her ladder down. He doesn't move. I now see that he's panicked and VERY drunk. Great. This is the point where I should have told my neighbor to call 911 but I didn't.
I tell Kim to get a flotation device. She finds one and throws it to him. It hits him in the face but he makes no move for it. He acts like it's not even there and it floats away. I tell him he needs to move over to the ladder (about 4 feet away) and he does't move. I grab the boat with my free hand, pull it as close as I can and tell him that on the count of three I'm going to push him over and he has to grab it. This works and he's now grabbing the ladder and I jump onto Kim's boat.
I struggle to get him pulled up enough so he can get a foot on the ladder but it's not working. I'm a big guy but I'm not going to be able to pull up 250 pounds of drunk weight. I'm surprised I didn't dislocate his shoulder trying. At this point I realize I've me this guy once before. More on that later.
I tell Kim to call 911, but the drunk says, "NO! don't call, I don't want to go to detox again!". I look at him an ask, "Would you rather go to detox or the morgue?". He didn't answer. Kim doesn't know who to listen to. I tell the guy he has one minute to make progress or we are calling 911. After significant struggle, he gets a knee on the bottom rung. In the course of the next 5 minutes, he gets his other knee up, then a foot, and finally his chest is above the transom and I grab the back of his jeans and with all my strength slide him mostly over. His upper body is half on, half off a cockpit seat and he's laying there like a dead seal. The struggle isn't over but he's not going to drown.
We get him all the way in and sitting and he's shivering uncontrollably (It's about 50F with 10kts of wind). He lost his phone in the water so he can't call his daughter to come get him. From our previous "meeting" I know he lives close by, so I figure we can take him there. Because of our previous meeting, I'm pissed. More on that later. After more struggle we get him off the boat and holding him up the whole way, and stopping to rest many times, we walk him the 4 blocks home. I'm in his face about his situation. I reminded him of our previous meeting and how he was drunk off his butt that time too. I told him how lucky he was not to have drowned. Yeah, I was in a surly mood at this time. I REALLY wish we had called 911. That was our biggest mistake of the night.
We get to his place and wake up his daughter (in her mid 20's and lives 2 doors down) and hand him off. She doesn't even act surprised. She tell us he usually doesn't get this bad. (yeah...right). She doesn't even bat an eye at the fact that he's dripping wet and had fallen off a dock. I stressed that this could easily have been fatal and he's damn lucky I was there. Sadly, I'm not sure she cared. I told her to get him inside, out of his wet clothes and into bed and all she did was tell her dad to do it himself. I told her he's now her responsibility and we left.
The previous time I met him? Last fall I spent the night on the boat to do some maintenance the next day. From inside our cabin, I can look out at the park across the fairway. At 1:30am that night/morning, I happen to be looking out, saw a guy walk behind a big bush but never come out the other side. A few minutes later I saw an arm flailing from someone on the ground. I called 911 and head up to see if he needed help. It was this SAME guy that time. He was stumbling drunk, had fallen, cracked his forehead on the sidewalk and was bleeding profusely. The sheriff took him to detox that night.
As I said before, our biggest mistake was not calling 911 as soon as I realized he was drunk, not only to get him out, but maybe to get him some help. There's no reason think it would have helped him long term, but maybe it would trigger some real help. I really, really regret not calling. We got lucky. He got lucky.
A sober person could have easily gotten out. A drunk? Different story. He was nearly dead weight. The only thing I found to motivate him to climb out was the thread of detox! I just shake my head at this sorry fellow.
Sorry for the ramble. This is a sailing forum so let's get back to that topic. We've talked about MOB situations, and we've talked about means of pulling down the ladder from the water. I need to make sure my ladder can be pulled down from the water. I'm going to look into having some sort of roll-up ladder at the end of our finger dock as well.
I'd like to think that my guests would never get drunk but I can't control my neighbors guests. How would you get a drunk of the water? I did come to one stark realization after this was over and I was back in my boat. Had this guy lost his grip on my hand, the dock or the ladder and went under, I don't know that I would have jumped in to try to save him. Call me cold, but I'm not a good swimmer and I'm not trained in water rescue. I also have a wife and three kids who need me around. I imagine having a 250 pound drunk clinging to me in the water would be a good way to drown myself.
