In my last post I promised to try and not suck all the fun out of your time on the water. So, forgive me for this post as it will seem like I’m trying to do just that.
Nothing sucks the fun out of boating like the Coast Guard calling off a search for a lost boater (and they do that every day). So, if you want to be safe on the water, we need to be clear about one primary fact: The water—that beautiful thing we all love and can’t stay away from—is a very dangerous thing.
To manage a risk, you have to understand it. So, I wanted to restart Lifelines with a fresh look at the thing all boaters have in common, the water outside the boat. It presents hazards, specifically three of them, which in combination make it the most hostile environment on earth. For as much as we need water to survive, and regardless of how much we love to be on it and play in it, the water does not love you back because it will not sustain human life for very long.
Understanding the following three things about the water will help you make better decisions about the risks you will not accept, the risks you’re willing to mitigate, and the risks you’re willing to take for what they are, which is what we must do when we venture out to sea.
Hazard number 1: It is colder than you are
Except maybe in Kuwait Bay, the water is colder than you are and is very effective at reducing your body temperature. In water temperatures under 59 degrees Fahrenheit, the risk of a fatality is five times higher than in water temperatures above 70 degrees. As water temperature decreases, all the things you need to do to get out of the water alive—your ability to swim, tread water, wave, yell, use signaling devices—also decrease. True hypothermia is not the greatest danger, it’s the incapacitation that happens long before hypothermia that is the deadliest risk in cold water boating mishaps.
If you haven’t read this previous post on cold water, consider it homework for clearing up any misconceptions you may have about the subject. From misconceptions about how long it takes to become hypothermic (much longer than you think), to how quickly cold water can kill you (much faster than you think), and to how long you can survive in even the warmest waters. Importantly, these misconceptions affect decisions about protective gear, how you prepare, and how you react after finding yourself in a survival situation.
The local water temperature is posted on the wall in every U.S. Coast Guard station I’ve ever been in. When I was in the Coast Guard we always knew the water temperature. Do you? Do you study the sea surface temperatures where you are? You should. You cannot prepare and equip yourself for something you don’t pay attention to. As I write this in February, the water temperature in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, is the same—39.5 degrees—as it is on the Potomac River in Maryland. The water off Charleston, South Carolina is 55 degrees. You have to go south to Daytona Beach, Florida, to get to water that isn’t a very real and immediate problem on temperature alone. And temperature isn’t the only problem.
Hazard number 2: It moves
When someone goes overboard, the speed at which the person in the water is separated from the boat can make all the difference between an easy recovery and the deadliest situation in maritime, losing sight of a person in the water. Four in ten people who lose sight of the vessel are never seen again. This isn’t just a problem for vessels at speed. Even if you fall off a boat that is adrift, rarely will a person in the water drift at the same rate. The sail area of the boat, the wind speed, and the amount of hull in the water, can make swimming back to your vessel difficult, to put it generously.
Add the motion of the water to the temperature and the current becomes a hazard multiplier, making a bad situation much, much worse.
Hazard number 3: It drains energy
Put aside the cold and currents and consider what being in the water does to a person. Though the salinity of seawater does aid buoyancy, it rarely does enough to relieve us of having to tread water to maintain our airway. The hydrostatic pressure of the water on your body, coupled with the need to tread water raises blood pressure. In response, immersion diuresis occurs, leading to dehydration. The cooling effect of the water—which is 25 times greater than it is in air—saps calories from your system. Water drains energy, and water from you. Think about that. Water and energy. Those are two of the three things you need to live, and the water is taking them from you every minute you are in there.
In September of 2023, 29 year-old Matthieu Bonne spent 61 hours in the ocean while swimming the Gulf of Corinth to break the world record for the longest, unassisted ocean swim of over 80 miles. The water temps ranged from 70 at night to a balmy 80 degrees mid-day. Every 30 minutes he ate a little and drank 250 milliliters of water. Every 24 hours, Bonne consumed about 10,000 calories and three gallons of water.
Now, let’s say treading water requires about a third the energy a crawl stroke does. To keep up with your body’s requirements for energy and water, you’ll need about 3,000 calories and a gallon of water every 24 hours. Fall off your boat, and you’ll have none. It’s not hard to imagine how dehydration and exhaustion kills the unfortunate souls who find themselves adrift in warmer waters. This is why the Coast Guard almost invariably calls off in-the-water searches after three days.
OK, so it’s all bad news and I’m trying to suck the fun out of boating. But not really. I love boats and boating, and the water, and I think you should enjoy them whenever you possibly can. But I think that too many of us lack the appreciation and understanding that the thing we love doesn’t love us back. The water outside the boat is a beautiful, awesome, soul-refreshing thing, but it will absolutely kill you if you stay in it for too long. You have to recognize that first. Because that knowledge will change the way you prepare yourself, before you head out to sea.
