It happened Friday while I was getting underway from my mooring.

I heard a loud shout. It was sharp and easily heard above the usual back round noise. A very short, urgent "ALLLLP".

I immediately looked up thinking someone was calling my name (duh). My mind was set to, getting underway, mode so it didn't even register that instead of calling "AL" the person was yelling "HELP".

I could see a couple of guys standing on the sea wall. Hmmmm, maybe they know me.

Backing down away from my mooring ball, I spotted the MCSC boat. On plane and MOVING fast. The sight was so out of the ordinary it finally clicked in my mind. It had been a SHOUT FOR HELP that I'd heard.

Damn, looked to the left and found a tired looking guy in the water clinging to the transom of his sailboat. The dinghy which he'd taken to the boat was swamped. With no boarding ladder and no hand/foot holds, there was no way he (or just about any normal human) was going to get into that sailboat. Getting back in the dingy was also questionable at best. Each time he tried to swing aboard, the dinghy simply tucked under and rolled.

The MCSC Dockmaster arrived first. He did a marvelous job from the get-go. First spotting the trouble and immediately reacting. He approached the man in the water and presented the back of the Boston Whaler to the fellow and turned off the engine.

I circled and put down the stern boarding ladder from Tursiops in case he couldn't make it aboard the Whaler.

After a couple of attempts, he made it with the help of the Dockmaster pulling on his pants.

Bravo to the curly haired blond guy who is one of the most courteous MCSC workers I've met. A heads up kid who is a credit to our organization.

In the aftermath, I've looked around the mooring field. It would be almost impossible to get out of the water and up onto most of the boats there. Mine included.

I started thinking that when I'm out by myself I don't bother lowering the ladder (I simply step over it). One slip and I'm in the water with no way of getting aboard. I may be able to slide over onto the inflatable dingy but I've never tried it. After seeing that man struggle, I just don't know. I've read that its hard to do. Seeing a real life attempt was an eye opener. From now on, the ladder will be coming down each time I'm boarding from the dingy.

I shudder to think how hard it would have been to get him from the water had he not been able to self assist. During my career as a firefighter, I've pulled people from cars, burning buildings, and helped with all sorts of high and low angle rescues. This episode was a wake-up call to me. I need to be more prepared and vigilant. Just like I was at work.

The thought of an emergency occurring in the mooring basin on a beautiful day had never really crossed by mind. Like I wrote, my first thought was that someone was calling my name from shore .

I really do need to have a “person recovery plan” in place. Not just a MOB drill where I get the boat close to someone and expect them to crawl back aboard.

I need to do some research and devise a quick method of getting them back aboard Tursiops even if they can't help themselves. One person pulling on a victims pants will not get it done.

This experience and your sharing it from your professional perspective is golden. I learned something!

Thanks for sharing this wisdom.

I've only had to pull in a swimmer once. I let out one part of the main sheet. The swimmer stepped on this, and I was able to pull it in slowly. The swimmer walked on the line until it was high enough he could double over on the deck.

One technique.

Billy at the sailing center IS good.

I have some minor mobility problems, and watching me transfer from the dingy to the boat is a little like watching a wounded water buffalo ballet. Just last Saturday - the day of the accident you reported - my son suggested that boarding was the one time we really should be wearing our vests. If I'm going in the water, that's probably the time. When you think about it, there's no reason that boater didn't hit his head or suffer some other serious injury during his mishap. Having to take a swim is bad enough. Being injured without a vest could be deadly.

Wow, amazing story. What day was this? Monday? I was down there off and on all weekend and missed it.

This has been an issue I have been concerned about. I've had a rope ladder on board for some years, as well as a wood bosun's seat if needed. I've always assumed I'd use whatever halyard was available (using the main halyard winch) if needed to haul a person on board either with a bowline around the chest or by the bosun's seat (or both).

If I fell, while alone, I've assumed I'd try the kick and flip canoe method to flip my dinghy and then crawl over the stern. I've done this in the past with a heavy 18 foot canoe, but never with my dinghy. Life jackets are a must when disembarking from a small dinghy.

Years ago I had to leave the crew of a boat sailing to Fayette because of my work schedule. I was dropped off at Jackson Harbor, north side of Washington Island to hitch hike back to Milwaukee. The owner of the boat had begun enjoying his beer a couple of hours earlier each day of our cruise from Milwaukee so that by this time he would crack open the first one at breakfast. The remaining crew member had possibly overstated his sailing experience and the problem of combining these two elements on a small boat became apparent upon my departure. That very morning the skipper went over board and the crew had no idea how to rescue him. Luckily he also had no idea what the main sheet was for and had allowed it to drag in the water. This was one of those old wooden, very narrow, very low to the water boats and the skipper was able to grab the main sheet and haul himself up onto the transom as the boat ran downwind.

High sided boats are something completely different.

I think is was Friday that I was out (tough getting old and forgetful). Billy (Guy posted that was the MCSC workers name) would probably remember the day (he's a lot younger and sharper than me).

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this. I don't have a spare halyard due to having roller furling main and genoa. Tursiops does have a pulley setup for another halyard but the previous owner dropped the halyard because he didn't like haying it there "doing nothing".

I have two substantial clip-on-blocks aboard. They might be perfect to mount a system to the end of the boom then led through the genoa turning block and powered by a genoa winch.

I'll have to sit in the boat and "cypher" for a while to get something which may actually work.

After thinking about this topic, I'm going to remove my aft lifeline. When clamped, it neatly holds the permanent stern ladder up, so from the water with the aft life line in place, I'd never get the ladcer down.

Any thoughts?