Well I fell in.

[Tenzin]

Last week had a sudden massive leak through one of my skylights, which believe me I could do without both. So I had my wet and dry gaffer tape. When the rain had stopped I went along the gunnels on the starboard side of the boat which has a boat beside us. Not the useful side which would have been the pontoon and this never would have happened. And suddenly I was in the water before I even realised it. And not only that, my clothing was acting like an anchor pulling me down. Horribly I had taking a gulp of the water too as I descended. I managed to swim up and grab a rope fender, and the buggering thing just came off in my hand as the rope must have been rotted through. Down I went a second time. Managed to swim up again and realised my arm, where I have a torn rotator cuff wasn’t working at all, and I had probably cracked a rib under it. I managed to get to the deck and call for help. The river water itself was lovely and warm, and probably filled with parasites. After a few minutes I heard the trundling of someone going to the latrine and got his attention. They got a ladder and I climbed out. Showered. And scuttled back to my boat with sheer embarrassment. This is the second time in my life I have fallen out of a boat. Whatever I hit on my way to the river bottom scratched up my legs, I think I cracked the rib by twisting and trying to save myself by grabby the next doors boat.  I feel quite traumatised by it. Put on antibiotics and ivermectin in case of parasites. 🦠 The perils of being a solo boat owner. And also old. 
Anyone else have a good falling in story to cheer me up? 

[Ray T]

Watch a few episodes of "Canal Boat Diaries" with Robbie Cumming he seems pretty adept at falling in!

 

8 minutes in: 

 

Edited Wednesday at 09:54 by Ray T

[Momac]

50 minutes ago, Tenzin said:

Anyone else have a good falling in story to cheer me up? 

 

I fell  this year. It was in June. The first time for me. 

I  hopped off the boat but stumbled and  leaned back against  the boat which was not tied up . So the boat moved and I did the stupid spread eagle thing until inevitably I went in.  It was in about 9ft depth of water on the tidal river . Life jacket inflated . Luckily managed  to grab onto things and not to float off downstream .

Whenever possible the boat is now secured with a line ashore  before hopping off. Which is not always possible but it is ideally  how it should be done.

 

Edited Tuesday at 19:12 by Momac

[nealeST]

My eleven year old son fell in the Grand Union north of Berkhamsted in June. We were moored for the evening and had finished our meal. He was with his older brother and they were amusing themselves by simply floating sticks from the stern down the canal under a bridge. The canal went into a bend after the bridge and he’d stepped onto the gunnel to see round the bend and slipped off. He’d gone completely under the water but when I scrambled out the engine room side hatch he was already trying to get back onto the boat and I was able to haul him out in one go. He was straight into the shower. We are still new to this and he’s the first of us to experience this plight. The boater moored behind us just looked at me and said ‘we’ve all done that!’. Well not me personally yet…and as I said to him I’ve absolutely no intention of doing likewise but my son has proven it’s easily done….

[Lady M]

We had just arrived at Little Venice for the Canalway Cavalcade.  I went to walk along the gunnel of my boat to greet some friends opposite, got to the hatch over the side doors and let go of the handrail then simply walked off the side of the boat.  Brownings Pool is very deep and I didn't touch the bottom despite going underwater.  Someone threw me a life ring and I swam to the nearest boat where I was pulled out of the water.  The scariest part of it was being asked if I had swallowed any water and told to go to hospital if I developed flu like symptoms.  I was due to travel abroad for work the following week so it was fortunate that I hadn't swallowed any water and did not develop Weil's disease.

[Quattrodave]

3 weeks ago, I jumped in 3 tines in 1 day to remove weed from my prop on the old west 🫣🫣

Edited Tuesday at 23:20 by Quattrodave

[Ange]

The closest I came to falling in was on the Leeds and Liverpool canal in if I remember rightly 2010 when the canal froze over for ages. I was walking along the gunnels to fetch a bag of coal off the roof, my feet went from under me but I somehow found a handhold (it might of been an item of our roof furniture that we were notorious for 😊)

I got away with just a wet foot but hubby was asleep, if I had gone into icy waters still makes me shudder.

[LadyG]

When salty water, the mantra was one hand for yourself and one for the boat, I changed that to two hands for the nartowboat. I'm lucky to have a good stern arrangement for entry and exiting at the stern,

[Ange]

9 minutes ago, LadyG said:

When salty water, the mantra was one hand for yourself and one for the boat, I changed that to two hands for the nartowboat. I'm lucky to have a good stern arrangement for entry and exiting at the stern,

I remember being told have three points of contact at all times. I remember another boater saying I should jump between the gate and bank on a narrow lock. I know a lot of people do but I just thought there's no way that's safe. I got a lot of aggro from fellow boaters because I would never take a chance, if our boat was exiting a lock hubby would have to get it to the bank before I'd step aboard.

I'm ridiculously risky averse and jumping isn't in my vocabulary 😊

[Llamedos]

It’s usually the bash on the head on the way in that causes the worst outcome. This is where life jackets are a good idea as they’re designed to flip an unconscious person over so their airway is out of the water and facing upwards. This at least means you’re not face down in the water and gives you time to regain consciousness.
 

It’s surprising so few of us wear them really... including me!

[pearley]

53 minutes ago, Llamedos said:

It’s usually the bash on the head on the way in that causes the worst outcome. This is where life jackets are a good idea as they’re designed to flip an unconscious person over so their airway is out of the water and facing upwards. This at least means you’re not face down in the water and gives you time to regain consciousness.
 

It’s surprising so few of us wear them really... including me!

And make sure it has a crotch strap.

[IanM]

10 hours ago, nealeST said:

Well not me personally yet…

 

You've cursed yourself now! 😄

10 minutes ago, pearley said:

And make sure it has a crotch strap.

 

Interestingly on the Norfolk Wherry Albion insist you wear a lifejacket but they take the crotch straps off.  They did explain why but I forget the reason now.

[Llamedos]

1 hour ago, IanM said:

 

Interestingly on the Norfolk Wherry Albion insist you wear a lifejacket but they take the crotch straps off.  They did explain why but I forget the reason now.

The CRT ones don’t have one either, well at least the one they gave me didn’t. They were all the self inflating type. One of the guys in our team fell in and said it felt like ages before the inflator ‘went off’ - he remembered looking up and seeing daylight from beneath the water before it triggered. 

[pearley]

4 hours ago, IanM said:

 

You've cursed yourself now! 😄

 

Interestingly on the Norfolk Wherry Albion insist you wear a lifejacket but they take the crotch straps off.  They did explain why but I forget the reason now.

There is an RYA video showing what happens with and without the crotch strap.

[ditchcrawler]

4 hours ago, IanM said:

 

You've cursed yourself now! 😄

 

Interestingly on the Norfolk Wherry Albion insist you wear a lifejacket but they take the crotch straps off.  They did explain why but I forget the reason now.

The Wherry Maud Trus do have the straps and they check you are wearing it correctly before you are allowed to board 

[IanM]

9 minutes ago, pearley said:

There is an RYA video showing what happens with and without the crotch strap.

 

And?

 

All I said was that they didn't fit them for a reason.

[Ewan123]

On 01/09/2026 at 19:21, Tenzin said:

Whatever I hit on my way to the river bottom scratched up my legs

Could have been scraped on the boat. I have zero memory between standing on the icy gunwale in my slippers and standing chest-deep in the water. Came out with scrapes on my shins, I reckon from contact with the gunwales.

 

I had to wade 40ft to the rear deck, pushing away the inch+ thick plates of ice, for a family to watch me haul myself back aboard and strip off on the back deck. At least the fire was already lit.

 

Then a boat came past a couple of minutes later, pushing those sheets of ice before it. 

 

The moral of the story? Get crampons for slippers 👍

Edited yesterday at 14:56 by Ewan123

[Tenzin]

Ended up at doctors yesterday. Confirmed my cracked rib, the area had turned black and blue given the weekend to really flare up. Got some new antibiotics. I forget I have an old body now. Also had a tetanus shot. I was surprised it’s wasn’t given in the bum, as per previous inoculations. They do it in the top of the arm, painlessly. I’ve seen some wild swimmers at the top lock. I wouldn’t get into that river again for a million. There’s human poop in it, the swans well, they are the crapping Olympians. The geese seem to squirt on the grass. I was told there were rats, but haven’t seen one. People are really good picking up after their dogs here. 
I am going to buy a life jacket. My dog already has one. And I’m going to do something about those gunnels. They are too smooth, also there is a gap where the boat panels meet the gunnels of about two inches, which does let water in. I’ll stuff it with insulation or get a wooden boat trim along the bottom and  seal it. Wearing my life jacket of course!

 

[Tim Lewis]

On 01/09/2026 at 23:27, Lady M said:

We had just arrived at Little Venice for the Canalway Cavalcade.  I went to walk along the gunnel of my boat to greet some friends opposite, got to the hatch over the side doors and let go of the handrail then simply walked off the side of the boat.  Brownings Pool is very deep and I didn't touch the bottom despite going underwater.  Someone threw me a life ring and I swam to the nearest boat where I was pulled out of the water.  The scariest part of it was being asked if I had swallowed any water and told to go to hospital if I developed flu like symptoms.  I was due to travel abroad for work the following week so it was fortunate that I hadn't swallowed any water and did not develop Weil's disease.

 

Many years ago a friend fell into Brownings Pool at Cavalacade whilst wearing a Paddington Bear costume, was a nightmare to get her out. Unfortunately she did swallow water and became very poorly 😞

[Lady M]

Perhaps that is why the warning I received was so forceful.