Larry wrote:

Take out your usual crew of people, some partially sailors, some not, don't
do anything special or try to add qualified members to your little
assemblage.

Take her out in the harbor to a big open area with few boats you might
endanger.

Jump overboard from your lofty helm perch and start frantically screaming
and waving your arms in distress. Click the stopwatch on your diver's
Rolex Oyster to time this event.

I fell overboard last summer. We had 15 people aboard for a daysail
(it's a 40' catamaran so deck space is not a problem).

We were towing the dinghy and one oar had been left in an oarlock that
was dragging in the water. I pulled the dinghy alongside as my wife
was steering the big boat, motoring at about 6 knots. I hopped in the
dinghy, one hand holding onto the big boat, one reaching down for the
oar.

The dinghy sheered off at the bow, tilting me too far over, and I was
in the water, head first. The dinghy immediately took off astern. As
I looked up from underwater heading for the surface, I saw the dinghy
coming above me. I reached up, grabbed one of the handles on the
side, and flipped myself in. I then *carefully* pulled myself up to
the big boat by pulling on the painter and climbed aboard.

Nobody had noticed that I had fallen in, though it only took about 15
seconds from the splash, to my reappearance on the aft deck. Somebody
noticed I was dripping wet and asked when I had gone swimming. If I
hadn't caught the dinghy, I had planned to be yelling very loudly when
I surfaced!

However I have every confidence that my wife would have recovered me
in under 5 minutes in just about every condition. But we've sailed a
long way together.

Evan Gatehouse