On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 16:17:46 GMT, Don White
wrote:

mr.b wrote:
On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 20:01:37 -0800, Tim wrote:


another article says:

"...Laura Gainey, 25, was swept off the Picton Castle on Friday night. She
wasn't wearing a life jacket or a survival suit...."

Tells a lot right there. I doubt if they find her.


Let's try not to blame the victim here. According to the capt she was in
an area on the stern he referred to as a storm deck, a "safe" and
appropriate place for her to be in these conditions. Short and long: She
could have been swept off by the same wave wearing a pfd and/or "survival
suit" and still not be found.

When it gets the least bit rough... even within sight of land, I wear my
PFD with VHF, GPS, signal whistle and mirror reflecting device all
attached by lanyards.
If I'm going in...I plan on making a lot of noise. If anyone's within 4
miles or so, at least they'll save my body from the fishes.

There was mention of a "rogue wave." Not sure how common these are in
relatively calm conditions, but stuff happens. On my can I came off
an 8-12 boiler room watch at midnight while we steamed a few hundred
miles west of Gibraltar as we headed to the Med.
Went up to the 02 level with a watch mate, an mean ugly old-timer
1st-class named Ozborn, to get some air and enjoy the clear warm
night. Could have well went to the fantail but the 02 level offers a
better vista and it doesn't have the noise and vibration of the screws
pounding the water. We were steaming about 20 knots.
There were long following swells and the ship was pitching gently.
There was a light warm breeze and the water was like glass.
Except for Ozzie's mug, it was just beautiful out there.
We were on the starboard side railing, a good 18-20 feet above the
sea.
The ship changed course to starboard. The course change wasn't
sharp, but we soon found the swells abeam. We rode 2 or 3 of them
easily, and I saw the next one coming was different. It looked to be
awfully high. I turned my head to note that to Ozzie but he was
already running to the 5-70 gun mount. I sprinted after him but only
got two steps before I was swept off my feet and floating. I was
quickly dropped back on the deck by the railing. Not sure if the
railing kept me from going overboard, as my heart was beating too fast
for my brain to record that.
I went below, dried off and hit the sack.
Ozzie had jumped a couple of ladder rungs up on the gun mount before
his lower half got clobbered by the wave. He stayed up there to dry
off, not wanting anybody to see how his saltiness got wet. I heard
him sneaking in before I dozed off. Pretty stupid, since I told
everybody what happened anyway, including the fact that he didn't want
them to know about it. I considered it safety training.
We had some deck apes who would tie themselves to the Tartar
rocket mount when standing their aft lookout. We joked about it,
but after what happened to me I never could blame them for doing it.
I really like the idea of these electronic beacons. All I remember
our crew having available was clip-on single cell flashlights which
I never saw anybody wearing, but I took with me a couple times when
dumping trash in heavy weather. Their light was pretty dim.
The thing is, if the sea is choppy and night black, it's almost
impossible for vision to see much, even with big spotlights.
A couple times doing plane guard we searched for downed pilots in
these conditions, and I was disheartened by how much water has
to be looked at in the chop. A 25 square foot piece of the ocean
may not be visible for some time as you scan the chop, and it is easy
to be looking elsewhere when that spot becomes visible.
Here's a "stupid" incident that almost killed my brother.
I just talked to him to get the details straight and he mentioned that
the Canadian girl's father is a hockey hall-of-famer.
Anyway, my bother was working construction in Florida around Ft.
Meyers.
Him and 3 work buddies rented a sail board contraption and sailed out
into the gulf a mile or so. Hardly any wind and the sea was flat.
At some point he was swimming alone and a strong breeze came up
and the sail board took off. My brother was not a "good" swimmer, the
kind that almost has gills, but just an "I can swim" swimmer.
The other 3 guys couldn't get the board back to him. When the breeze
was there they couldn't properly tack, and sometimes the breeze
would disappear.
He's swimming/paddling about half an hour and thought he was going to
drown. The board gets about 50 yards off and one of his buddies who
was a gill type swimmer dives off and swims over to him and keeps his
head above water until the other two get the board closer, which is
almost another half hour. Brother was lucky. There's so many ways
after the first mistake this could have ended differently.

--Vic