It was not fun for one.
A few years ago, a 17 foot speedboat and my 27 foot sailboat went out fishing and we atarted at one end of the area and the other boat went about 1 mile further up the coast. The water temperature is 49 degrees fairenheit plus or minus 3 degrees for the entire year. We set our lines and began fishing and the woman with me asked where her huaband and boys had gone. I pointed ahead and she went on to the foredeck to look. On her way back, she lost her footing and grabbed the life line rather than the granny bar and went overboard. I immediately put the engine into neutral, but continued to drift. On any previous trips, she had worn a cruiser suit, but not this time as it was sunny; warm with no wind. I immediately threw over a life ring and cruiser suit, but I was not able to put the boat in reverse as the prop walk could have driven the line or downrigger cable into the propeller (inboard) which would give me no possibility of getting back to her. When luck is on your side, strangly enough the other boat phoned as a joke to ask if we had caught anything yet. I quickly said get back here as she has gone overboard. She was able to swim to the side of my boat withing a minute, but hypothermia was starting to take its toll. I wrapped a jib sheet around her and dropped the stern ladder, but she refused to go to the ladder. Instead she tried to climb up onto the small outboard on a stern bracket with no success. The other boat arrived in less than 5 minutes and they pulled her on board their vessel, but she had only one intention, to get back onto the sailboat. She would have walked across the water to get back on board.Her husband then took her inside, took her clothes off and put her in a cruiser suit to warm her up in front of the deisel hot water forced air heater. Arriving back at the marina in about 20 minutes, he took her to a luke warm bath and slowly warmed her up as she was in a mild hypothermic condition and not severe (my understanding is that in a severe condition, the patient should be warned up slowly from the inside {warm fluids} so that all the blood does not rush to the body extremities supplying the heart with no blood). Even with luke warm bath water, she screamed because she thought she was being burnt with scalding water.She said she thought it was over for her when she saw the boat drift away (about 200 feet) from her and she had nightmares for six months. She did not know she was tied by the jib sheet nor that she had put the life ring on. Changes that have occurred are that she puts the cruiser suit on before she gets into a boat, no matter what the weather or wears an inflatable PFD. On the sailboat, I added a second life ring so that both heels would have a ring easily accessible and I have added a longer quick release safety line (there were already 2, but only 4 feet long for rough weather sail changes) which is used to connect a person's belt to a life line. The quick release snap is there to pass by stanchions.Lessons learned: It can happen to anyone as this woman had 20 years experience and Hypothermia is really scarey. Everyone on board should know what to do in the case of an emergency because it could have been me overboard rather than her. I now use a safety line whenever I leave the cockpit as it is only a minor inconvenience and I know I would never get back on board without being secured to the boat because the autohelm would just keep the boat going away from me. When something goes wrong, ask for help imediately as only a short delay in this specific incident could have been more dramatic or even fatal. Lastly, you paid for the PFD so do not admire it, use it as I always wear a cruiser jacket as it keeps me warm and there is always the chance that it will be used to save a life: Mine