you don't get out of a big boat into a little boat to save you life
anyway..go with the cheesewhiz.

You're right. What's the rule of thumb?
Never step *down* into a boat when abandoning ship?

I was thinking more of a situation where you make a dinghy run in the middle of
the night...(dog needs to go ashore and pee, whatnot)...and about halfway
across the bay the seams let go from rot. Suddenly, you're swamped or worse.

Up this way, you count your survival time in the water in minutes. Skinny
people might last less than15-20, those with more "blubber" get to agonize a
little longer.