Brother, sister swim 14hrs after boat sinks off St. Luica

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Richard5

Back to the topic of this thread, didja hear of the 50 yr old surfer from South Africa who survived 27 hours in the water (no floation device, no wetsuit)?

I don't think the topic has strayed ... but good for him! These are people who keep their wits about them, and we can all learn from them.

[limejucer]

Arne nicolaysen 1955 29hours
He fell overboard from Hogg Silverspray on Xmass eve and swam on spot until the British surveyor picked him up following night at 04:00. During his swim he thinks he saw upto 20 ships who didnt stop despite his shouting etc.
one though cookie I think.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by limejucer

Arne nicolaysen 1955 29hours
He fell overboard from Hogg Silverspray on Xmass eve and swam on spot until the British surveyor picked him up following night at 04:00. During his swim he thinks he saw upto 20 ships who didnt stop despite his shouting etc.
one though cookie I think.

The odds that a passing ship will hear you calling out are quite small. Human voices, unlike bird's cries, are not designed to carry across water. This is why every PFD should have a whistle attached to it. It's why I believe in wearing a fanny pack with a hand-held radio secured to it. They make radios now that wil give your lat and ong. There are any number of other things that can be done to make yourself more visible. One of the easiest ones is to put reflective tape across the tops of your PFD's. They reflect in sunlight as well as in the dark.

What saved all these people was stamina. Likely they ate well, which gave their bodes the energy needed to keep their body heat up. They had to know some efficient way of staying up in the water.

And, of course, there's EPIRBS ...

[Privleoplag]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Indeed.
➥ Drownproofing

Like the article says though.. nowadays a lot of people have trouble with paragraph #5 Negative Buoyancy - I have instructed a lot of people to snorkel/freedive, good swimmers and not so good swimmers. I actually had one person, a huge dude, body builder/football player that with a thin wetsuit AND a life jacket could not float in fresh water! I'd never seen that before!

[FSMike]

One little wrinkle - when I learned drown proofing (in Atlanta sometime in the 50's-60's) I was taught to assume the fetal position. In a fresh water pool most folks could float to the surface until their back broke the surface. Remember, this is face down with lungs full of air. When your back broke the surface you could raise your face above water, quickly get a fresh breath of air, go face down and repeat the process. With practice you could do this without moving your limbs.
This has the advantage of keeping the body core as warm as possible to combat hypothermia. Of course this was in a calm swimming pool, but the practice of keeping the extremities drawn in to the center of the body as much as practicable is a good one. It also conserves energy.