Taken a swim?

[Boatman Al]

Just for entertainments sake, id love to hear tales of people taking falls into the cut. off the boat? off a lock? after a dog? i havent fell in yet, but i dread the day

[Naughty Cal]

Why dread it it is going to happen one day?

 

I am just counting down the days. It cant be long now. Four years of ownership and six years of hiring with no dunking

[cheshire~rose]

Why dread it it is going to happen one day?

 

I am just counting down the days. It cant be long now. Four years of ownership and six years of hiring with no dunking

 

I remember when I felt that way too - and sure enough I did not have that many days to count

[PaulG]

Just for entertainments sake, id love to hear tales of people taking falls into the cut. off the boat? off a lock? after a dog? i havent fell in yet, but i dread the day

In my experience it's a good idea to take your wallet and mobile phone out of your pockets before you go boating.

Don't ask me how I know this......

[dave moore]

Hi

 

Haven't done it for a long time (touchwood!!) but as a lad back in the 60s I was helping to restore the Stourbridge 16. I was feeding a plank from one side of a lock to the other, legs either side....as crucial distance was reached, the bloody thing pivoted and smacked me in the backside, catapulting me into an empty (drained) lock full of noisesome mud. Luckily, I was unhurt.

 

Leaving the Leicester Rally aboard the ex gas boat Tay in'67, I helpfully filled the 2 water cans that were our only supply. Owner Tony had untied the stern, reday to leave. I stepped on, heavy can in each hand. One foot on the cants, the other on the towpath and Tay moved out....I did the splits until a ducking was the only option. Tony was more anxious to find his camera than to help me out!!!

 

Back in the 80s I used to letter boats for Brummagem Boats in Sherborne Street. The wet dock floor wasn't too stable. Leaving one day with a paintbox in each hand, I inexplicably lost balance and plunged headlong into the empty dock. Again, other staff were happy to grab a camera as I bobbed about along with 2 paintboxes.

 

Luckily, I've never fallen in in a hazardous situation. Probably most duckings are relatively benign, though I'm aware of the odd incident with more serious outcomes. The non slip treadways fitted to lock gates is a good thing, as are lock ladders.

 

Read, enjoy and smile.

 

Cheers

 

Dave

[zenataomm]

The funniest I saw was when a young man jumped the four feet gap from the front end holding a coiled rope with two feet of slack.

It was like Tom & Jerry he stopped in mid air and had time to look down and change his facial expression before falling.

[Guest]

Just for entertainments sake, id love to hear tales of people taking falls into the cut. off the boat? off a lock? after a dog? i havent fell in yet, but i dread the day

 

Last August leaving the boat and locking it up in our marina the very last thing I needed to do was lift a few bits onto the wooden slatted pontoon, which I did but left a very tiny 'sliver' of pontoon to step onto at the very end. Rather than do the sensible thing and move stuff to make more room I stepped onto the very end of the pontoon (the very last slat) which promptly broke away from the end tipping me into the water.

 

With the help of a neighbour I managed to haul myself out.

 

I survived, the iPhone in my pocket did not.

 

Dennis our JRT has been in a few times - the most memorable was when he jumped ashore still attached to his extending lead, I'd only let so much of it out and locked it off. The amount of lead deployed coincided exactly with the the length required to stop him at the exact point he was over the gap between the stern and the side - rather like a cartoon dog he came to a stop in mid-air and plummeted into the drink....

[AidanLincs]

I was thinking of throwing myself repeatedly into the cut a few days before I start cruising. Just to get it over with.

[matty40s]

I was thinking of throwing myself repeatedly into the cut a few days before I start cruising. Just to get it over with.

Let us know when you plan this Aidan, so we can record it as a pinned training thread for newby's.

[PiRSqwared]

Fell into the Torridge out of my canoe yesterday. It was very wet.

[jeannette smith harrison]

I took a look on the day that i was born.

Dad comes from a long line of working boatmen but my Mum is off the

bank.

She never really liked the life on the cut but put up with it for Dads sake.

The plan was for me to be born on my Grandparents boat but a week beforhand Mum

slipped on the plank & in she went & being pregnant took some manovering to get her out

in the process of hauling her out she went into labour.

I arrived kicking & screaming four hours later.

So does that count as my first of many times?

As a matter of intrest Mum has never set foot on the boats since.

[Tuscan]

Managed to do the splits in full view of the crowds while pushing out at the bottom of Foxton locks.

[Daftmare]

Yep, I am a member of this club

 

On the K&A a few years' ago.

 

Mooring up. "Eye" of the mooring pin sheared off when I was pulling the boat in to tie up. Off the stern I went - backwards. Nice one.

 

Have always made sure I use the mooring pins the right way round since then

 

Jo.

[Nightwatch]

Yep, I am a member of this club

 

On the K&A a few years' ago.

 

Mooring up. "Eye" of the mooring pin sheared off when I was pulling the boat in to tie up. Off the stern I went - backwards. Nice one.

 

Have always made sure I use the mooring pins the right way round since then

 

Jo.

Hope you carried out a neat surface dive to recover said 'eye' then climb out as if you meant to do it. (for the obvious observers)

 

Martyn

[Grebe]

I've been fully in the drink three times and got a leg wet on a couple of occasions.

 

The first time was in 1983, it was a soggy Friday afternoon and we were crossing Brayford Pool, going east, to get onto the Fossdyke. In those days, if the bridge was down you had to ring for the man to come. So we are in wet-weather gear, SWMBO is on the tiller I go to the front as we will have to stop and ring, I go along the port side and start to cross to starboard for the stop, my foot slips on the port gunwhale and off I go.

 

No time to cry, SWMBo thinks I'm in the well deck. Start kicking, never touched the bottom, stilloriented - swim away from boat and propeller, air in waterproof help buoyancy, surface, face boat shout to SWMBO..."What are you doing there?" is the first question. I then let her know what I expected. With the boat drifting and the propeller stopped I then swan to the boat. Then the problems started, how to get me back aboard. What struggle me at the waterline, her on the stern deck, a cruiser stern guard rail, eventually we did it.

 

We decided after this event that we must have a recovery plan prepared. Basically it was use the stern guard - a metal affair with a button fender on it as a climbing aid. Our second defence was to buy a rope rescue ladder that folds out of the way. This came with us when we sold the boat and went on all hire boat trips. It has now been refurbished - new ropes and new treads (like grandad's sweeping brush) and is part of Grebe's permanant inventory - always mounted and easy to release.

 

The other times have been inattention when moving about boats, on moorings on the broads. These had ample fixed ladders available.

[Daftmare]

Hope you carried out a neat surface dive to recover said 'eye' then climb out as if you meant to do it. (for the obvious observers)

 

Martyn

 

 

Sadly not. Mooring pin and "eye" remained firmly on bank. Just me and the rope went in. I just surfaced and grabbed hold of back fender blabbering "I fffell iiin", whilst OH asks if I can do it again, cos he missed it (very old joke, and not appreciated at the time).

 

Several towpath walkers' day brightened, however. OH spent next hour texting all and sundry reporting event. Jokes got even worse - reporting whale sightings, pollution, etc. etc.

 

I got my own back when he went into Weybridge Town Lock earlier this year. There he is reminding me that I should "turn the bloody engine off", but I hit the horn instead......... Oops!

 

j.

[Leonie]

I haven't fallen in - yet - but I have been in voluntarily. It was utterly disgusting. On the first day I picked up my own boat, I promptly threw the keys in the cut while jogging back to it to grab a coat before going to the pub. So there I was, locked out of my own boat while trying to show it off to friends in almost the middle of nowhere on the first day of ownership.

 

I stripped down to my tights and tshirt and went fishing for the keys along the bottom of the canal with my feet. I never did find them but the memories of that sludge and the cold dank canal lapping around my neck is still with me :-)

 

In the end, someone walked to the nearest marina, who sent someone with bolt cutters to lop the padlocks off.

[madcat]

Several dunkings,none dramatic.The worst was at factory locks.I was walking back to climb on the boat and motor out of the lock when my feet went from under me and I skidded into the lock behind Halsall .I grabbed the fender and surveyed the syringes and other horrors bobbing about in the lock and thought Oh shit. A friend gave me a hand to get out and I didn't get stabbed. Not best thing to happen on a winters day

[RLWP]

If you are planning your first falling in, I can recommend the Cannock Extension in early June

 

Richard

[magpie patrick]

Falling in canals, so long as no boats are moving and other people are around, can be amusing, falling into 20 foot deep rivers, in the dark, when you are on your own, is less funny.

 

Suffice to say Juno now has a ladder...

[system 4-50]

Long time ago, hire boat, slipped on wet gunnel due to wrong type of footwear, traveled down the side the boat, hip catching on each strake on the way down. Don't remember how far in I went, only remember the enormous green-brown bruise from the the knee up to the top of the hip. Very very, painful.

[owen]

I haven't fallen in - yet - but I have been in voluntarily. It was utterly disgusting. On the first day I picked up my own boat, I promptly threw the keys in the cut while jogging back to it to grab a coat before going to the pub. So there I was, locked out of my own boat while trying to show it off to friends in almost the middle of nowhere on the first day of ownership.

 

I stripped down to my tights and tshirt and went fishing for the keys along the bottom of the canal with my feet. I never did find them but the memories of that sludge and the cold dank canal lapping around my neck is still with me :-)

 

In the end, someone walked to the nearest marina, who sent someone with bolt cutters to lop the padlocks off.

:lol: that made me chuckle underwater ballet dancing

[Allan(nb Albert)]

My first immersion was after drinking in the New Inn at Buckby, round about 1970. A local character 'the Colonel' was seated on a bar stool with with a dog lead and a tin of dog food on the bar and a spaniel at his feet knocking back whiskies and saying every so often 'Must go and feed the dog, old chap'. This went on for some time and on one occasion he actually left but wandered back in about 30 seconds later having forgotten where he was going.

 

Well finally he did go. About thirty minutes later, in need of some fresh air, I walked down the locks only to find the Colonel sitting in the canal with his back against the bank.

 

'What are you doing in there' I asked.

'Tripped over the bloody dog, old chap' said the Colonel.

'Shall I help you out, Colonel' I offered, holding out my hand.

'Yes please,old chap' said the Colonel, grabbing my hand and pulling me in with him.

 

I later found out that it was a very common occurrence for the Colonel to end up in the cut.

[Daiboy]

Fell in the river Thames about 4 weeks ago. Very frightning. Moving moorings, I had let the fore and centre line (very slack and just there for insurance and peace of mind) go and was untying the aft line and trying to retrieve my mooring pins, realised that the boat was taking off downstream.

I must admit (only having the boat around 4 months) I panicked. As I attempted to "jump" back aboard, the aft line got tangled with my leg. After what seemed an eternity, I managed to scramble aboard, put the boat into forward gear only having the aft line foul the prop.

So there I am, in quite a fast stream, floating down the Thames towards Windsor/Eton bridge with no control. After scrambling for overhanging branches, to no avail, I was rescued by a lovely couple in a GRP cruiser. He certainly new how to handle his boat. He came up close and nudged me into the Windsor bank and with the help of other boaters on said bank, I was safe. I had a lifejacket on but in all my panic, I forgot to pull the pin.

This has tought me a lesson and I go through a sort of plan of campaign before I move again.

[churchward]

I have gone in two or three times over the years by accident and a few times by design to see to something on the boat or try and retrieve something. The last time it was reading glasses I got them too.

 

The more recent daft dunking was getting onto the fore end to adjust the aerial in the rain I turned to get off and lost my footing and went face first into the canal.

 

I very nearly went in on our last trip out. We got back to the marina on the Sunday (the wet Jubilee weekend Sunday) and after coming alongside the pontoon I stepped off (the canal level was higher than usual) and a combination of wet wooden pontoon with a I guess a nice mixture a little algae and duck/goose poo made me lose my footing then too. However my momentum made me go forward onto the pontoon rather than into the water (glad of that as the water is 10-12feet deep at the back of the boat) and I did a rather graceless splits. If you meet me you will realise I am not designed to do the splits and so it was a bit painful!