Free: Contests & Raffles.
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.
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!
Quote from: Bango skank on May 16, 2016, 09:26:54 PMQuote from: Firedogg on May 16, 2016, 09:12:28 PMGlad 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?
Quote from: Firedogg on May 16, 2016, 09:12:28 PMGlad 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.
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.
Quote from: Stein on May 16, 2016, 07:46:29 AMA 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.
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
Glad you made it back safe. What a great reminder that we're all susceptible when we're on the water. And the crazy thing is, our kids are watching us when we don't wear a PFD.
