Went overboard

[HuntinCrazy]

I never thought it would ever happen to me, guess what? I was so wrong.
I've spent most of my life either in the water or on the water and I thank my lucky stars I'm a very good swimmer.
So Thursday I was trying out a 12' aluminum boat I just bought from a buddy. Launched at Rapjohn lake and started trolling with an electric trolling motor.... Ten minutes later I landed a nice 12" trout. No biggie.....ten minutes later I was in the water with no flotation device swimming after my moving boat. fully clothed wearing tennis shoes. My glasses flew off as I did a back flip over the gunwale. It was either capsize the boat of go for a swim, I choose to swim LOL
Apparently I slid to close to the shallow gunwale and over I went. I stayed calm and swam to my moving boat, luckily I was moving very slow..catching it I grabbed on. I tried to re-enter over the side but was swamping the boat. I moved to the sturn reached in and disconnect the battery clamp. Whewwwwww.... Now I've got to get in, ok....so I got my foot on the motor and launched myself back in the boat swamping it a bit. Ouch that hurt lol.. So I Bailed out all the water and putted back to the launch to get another pair of sunglasses. There were 5 other boats on the lake and not one person saw me go over except for a guy fishing from shore. He said he watched the whole thing go down and was surprised no one came to my aid. No I did NOT yell for help..... I stayed calm, got my new glasses and returned to fishing lol catching my limit of planters for the smoker. If you have ever tried to get back into a boat after falling overboard it's no easy task.

So the moral of this story is wear a PFD

[Bean Counter]

Glad you're ok thanks for sharing.

[Blacklab]

Glad you're ok thanks for sharing.

  

Had something similar happen last year on my boats maiden voyage. When I made back to the dock. I rested and gathered my thoughts. Then decided to load the boat up and go home. Someone from the bank says, why you leaving your already wet  . Thinking to myself, if that was to happen again I don't think I could make it back. What a ride it was. Like a one eyed fish swimming in circles 

[Stein]

A good way is to tie a foot loop in the bow rope and step up that way.  The bow has more freeboard in those small boats.

[Alchase]

I was talking to a neighbor who was retired Coast Guard a few years back. He stated the majority of recovered drownings he was involved in on Puget Sound and the straights (he was out of Port Angeles) were of men fishing by themselves and when recovered, their fly was open, and their boats were miles away. "Kill switch" tethers do their job when used, make it allot easier to catch your boat. Another friend got lucky, while fishing Point-no-Point, he was playing a fish is his 16 ft Glasply by himself. He was standing to one side when a wave hit the opposite side and threw him in. He got lucky when two guys in another boat saw him in the water. They had to chase down his boat, it was on it's way the Edmonds.

[hunting4sanity]

Glad things turned out well for you. Often times the things that we're very comfortable with are the things that in a split-second become a bad situation.

[Thefisherman83]

Saw a couple guys and a dog go in on mineral lake a couple years ago.  They were in a little 12' sears boat.  The two guys were leaning off to one side doing something and the dog jumped over to see what was going on.  The shift sent all three flying off.  One of them tried to get back on by going over the back and sunk the boat.  Someone on the dock saw it happen and sent out a party barge to retrieve them. 

[Firedogg]

Glad you made it ok. After losing a friend who was shrimping a few years ago and a few other stories I make sure to wear my auto inflating vest when by myself and am getting into the habit of having it on al, the time. Don't even notice it's on anymore. I put it on before backing the trailer into the water.

[Bango skank]

Glad you made it ok. After losing a friend who was shrimping a few years ago and a few other stories I make sure to wear my auto inflating vest when by myself and am getting into the habit of having it on al, the time. Don't even notice it's on anymore. I put it on before backing the trailer into the water.

Keep in mind those things need regular servicing
  Especially the older models.  Im a merchant mariner and most of the guys i work with use those, and there have been a couple cases of them failing, not to mention a couple cases of them inflating unwanted.  Personally i use a standard workvest.  They dont fail.  To each their own though.

[Becky]

Thanks for sharing and I'm so glad you're ok! I know I'm guilty of not always putting on my PFD in small lakes like that (I don't think I've ever wore it at rapjohn  ). Then I remember about the guy who drown in Spanaway lake just last year.. this was a good reminder with a good ending at least.

[LipRipper!]

I'm glad to hear you made it out ok.  You know what I love the most is that after the whole ordeal, you got back in, grabbed some new shades, and then continued on fishing to catch your limit.    Nice work!  I'd like to say that I'd do the same, but I might have been too pissed and went home after that.  It looked like it was a beautiful day though, warm enough to dry you off. 

RIP SOME LIPS!

[Mtn.Ghost]

A good way is to tie a foot loop in the bow rope and step up that way.  The bow has more freeboard in those small boats.

Glad you are ok and still with us.
Always try to get in from the bow if possible I know most peoples response is to get back in the boat anyway possible as fast as possible once they find themselves in the drink.....I've fallen overboard alone in a small aluminum boat myself and did swamp it trying to board it from the side. It was dark I was fully clothed, jeans, boots, flannel, and coat, I kept going under trying to shed boots and clothes all I could do was tread water long enough for a person that heard me splashing about from his home to fire up his boat and drag me aboard. He truly saved my life that night.       

[Ghost Hunter]

Been there done that in my canoe.  Don't swim and alway wear the PFD.  Glad you're OK.

[RadSav]

Glad you made it ok. After losing a friend who was shrimping a few years ago and a few other stories I make sure to wear my auto inflating vest when by myself and am getting into the habit of having it on al, the time. Don't even notice it's on anymore. I put it on before backing the trailer into the water.

Keep in mind those things need regular servicing
  Especially the older models.  Im a merchant mariner and most of the guys i work with use those, and there have been a couple cases of them failing, not to mention a couple cases of them inflating unwanted.  Personally i use a standard workvest.  They dont fail.  To each their own though.

I wore one of the early Stearn models for a while.  One day I forgot I had it on and decided to dive off the boat and take a swim to a log and back.  Besides being a much worse swimmer than I had remembered the vest never did inflate.  I've been a little skeptical of those things ever since.  Better than nothing at all, though!

I can not remember who made them, but when I was guiding I had pull cord inflators for customers to wear.  Five or six times a year we would have a customer fiddle around with the cord and POOF!  Would scare the wholly crapola out of them.  But at least I never saw one of those fail to charge.

I would wear the search and rescue work vest during the winter drift trips.  But dang are those things are HOT!  How do you keep yourself cool wearing those in the summer months Bango?

[Mtn.Ghost]

I saw a guy go overboard at storm lake out in three lakes. He was in one of those little plastic tupperware bass buggy things and he had a bar stool for a pedestal seat. He was knocking back 24oz cans of ice house beer like they were going out of style. Well he tipped one back a little too far and went over backwards....splash!!!! I asked him if he needed help and he assured me that he was okay and had it under control but I pulled anchor and headed his direction just to be safe. He managed to get back aboard and started laughing so I couldn't but laugh with him.

While I was cruising around helping net his gear and floating beer cans. I asked him if he atleast seen any fish while he was down there