Gary wrote in news:5UxDf.375770$2k.201451
@pd7tw1no:

My wife boat me one of those rope ladders with plastic rungs last year
because she was worried about me getting into the boat if I fell off.
I
jumped over and tried it and it was extremely difficult to climb when
the boat was anchored and stable and I was just wearing a bathing suit.
We regard the ladder as junk. We are still trying to figure out a
better way. We do have a proper boarding ladder that extends a couple
feet into the water but it is heavy and sits in a locker when we are
sailing. I would like one of those custom jobs that flips down from
the
pushpit ad drops deep into the water and doesn't push away when you
step
on it. I am even thinking of having a step put in the trailing edge of
the rudder to facilitate reboarding.



Of course, all these cures assume, wrongly, that the person in the water
is:
A) Awake and alert
B) Able to pull himself up and climb a ladder
c) Not hypothermic, which easily negates A) and B)

Next time you have the wife and kids out for a cruise, and have stopped
to let the boat drift in the tide, make believe she did get the boat
turned around, came near you and got the boat stopped quite close
(probably closer than is reality in an emergency).

Jump overboard and yell, "Unconcious Man Overboard!" Then, just lay
floating there in your PFD and see if the family can save you WITHOUT
your muscle power getting you back aboard.

Related Question: Is the wife and teenagers qualified in CPR recently?

How is she going to REVIVE you, if they manage to get your overweight
hulk back in the cockpit quickly enough.....Or, are you just going to lay
there until you die and they try to navigate home without you.

Can they navigate home without you?.....Or, will they die, too??

Hard questions require hard looking at family preparedness.....

After the successful completion of the CPR test in the cockpit. Tell her
and the kids to sail the boat back to the dock and simulate using the
radio to see if they know how....

Might save their lives, even if we can't save yours.....

Too many skippers play "Master and Commander" all the time and never just
turn it over to the rest of the family to qualify them.....