Poll. Serious Injuries at Sea

[Emerald Sea]

Check out this recent CF related thread:

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...er-123710.html

Lots of good discussion on health and safety.m


Emerald Sea
Lagoon 450/304

[JPA Cate]

Hey, Cherp,

I used to love my butt belt on our first "Insatiable". It always kept me safe.

Now, I have a deep U shaped galley, with the engine box cover as the other counter on the U. There is a fend-off bar in front of the oven/stove. Safest galley I've ever worked in.

Wow, Nigel,

You all did great with your injured crewman. What a nasty accident! ....Once here on CF, I wrote to someone, "never stand over a loaded block." Poor devil had to ask why!

The point: Lots of newbies put themselves in the way of unpleasant to awful experiences.

Ann

[Jeannius]

You really should have added None as one of the options to your poll. I'm sure many people sail extensively without any injuries at all.

From personal experience, my wife and I lived aboard for 4 years, sailing about 30,000nm and never had need of anything other than a couple of small bandaids and hangover relief.

[Snowpetrel]

Appreciate the replies from everyone, many thanks.

Originally Posted by Emerald Sea

Check out this recent CF related thread:

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...er-123710.html (snip)

Hi Emerald Sea, good thread, and lots of overlap with this one, thanks for the link, I guess I should have done a better search first! cheers

Originally Posted by Jeannius

You really should have added None as one of the options to your poll. I'm sure many people sail extensively without any injuries at all.

From personal experience, my wife and I lived aboard for 4 years, sailing about 30,000nm and never had need of anything other than a couple of small bandaids and hangover relief.

Yes I was thinking that, though it then might have got skewed by lots of people without many miles ticking the none box? Anyway I am happy to get a none answer like yours, thanks for the input. Shows that major accidents are very rare. Cheers

[capt-couillon]

Lacerations: Numerous and varied... Some serious enough to require sutures. Suture kit including instruments are cheap, but work best if you have had some instruction and practice. A whole ham (with skin) is a good practice medium, plus you can eat it after . Topical application of a local anesthetic (xylocaine / lidocaine) assists in keeping your subject from jumping around. Suture Kits are also handy if you (or crew) needs some stitching done at a local clinic whose sterile practices are somewhat questionable. Plus bringing your own keeps the locals from having to use what may be limited supplies.

Burns: Cooking in the galley while in a sea way can be dangerous. Boiling soup or coffee can cause instant 2nd degree burns. We always carry Silvadene onboard, but burns over 4 or 5 sq inches should be checked out by a pro as soon as possible. If you carry them, a course of antibiotics (prophylactic) is not a bad idea if pro services are a ways away. Since we instituted a ships policy of wearing your foul-weather bibs when cooking under way, no more burns.

[zeehag]

underway i only had a seasick crew.
on mooring before i left, however, i slipped on a wet floor-- and broke my back. self treated. stayed on boat for 6 weeks with neighbors helping find food as i couldnt get to store. healed well. am still walking and being me.
prevention--- no slick floors.. dry water as it enters, and make sure feet are dry before walking on wood in am with wet decks.
goal--remove all varnish and cetol from soles on boat.
all wood in walk ways is without slickery stuff interior and exterior.

[Loco Gato]

All the usual slices and cuts, stove burns, head banging,( no not to music!), dehydration is the most common problem on my deliveries with new crew.
The worst was twofold, my crewmember last year on the bash up to Oahu from Raiatea, got seriously dehydrated and he had heat exhaustion. A few liters of water with a home brew mix kinda got him back before we left Huahine to Rangiroa . He was still weak and fell a few times but it was a wild ride, white squalls and storm cells that came out of hell. From there up to Oahu he slept a lot, a couple of hard falls in the cabin, at this point I kept him tethered to the cockpit, mostly for my own piece of mind. His mind was drifting around and unable to stand watch plus he was taking 20 minutes to wash out a bowl. I was now at the point of no return, Hiva, the line islands and Oahu were are within a 300 mile difference. E-mails to Docs and the opinion was from banging his head too many times plus lack of drinking water. I've had to force him to drink since Raiatea. BTW he is 64, and fit. Once docked at Kewalo Basin Harbor in Oahu, I sent him home asap as his mental state was not looking good. Parkinson's. He started the trip with it slowly coming on and as the trip progresses he became steadily worse. So the point of all this rambling, on a long passage what may seem to be a routine problem can mask other, more serious issues. One of the reasons I always have a sat phone with a couple of MD type friend's number on speed dial.
Something to think about when you are out of reach from any type of help.
Look at 6sx145w

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

^^Thanks Paul. Another quick question. Why was his hand near the windlass? Certainly shows some issues with foot switches. I guess the same thing could happen with helm mounted switches, just lean on them by mistake and chomp chomp... Cheers

Sent from my GT-P5210 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

He was clearing a chain hang and meant to send some chain out but pushed the goes-in button. I heard the jam and snap while below, along with a loud 'bloody hell' scream. Those windlasses are strong.

[Pete7]

Brief description of injury (type and cause)

Smashed front teeth

Details of what happened

Winch handle slipped out of large 3 speed winch and hit crewman in the mouth smashing the two front upper teeth.

How it was dealt with initially

Nerve endings were still exposed after cleaning up the blood and bits of teeth. Crewman was a Dentist so new exactly what was to come hundreds of miles offshore.

Long term care and outcome

3 day dash to Gibraltar to reach a dentist. Diet of cold soup and mash potato.

Causes

Worn winch handle
Prevention

Winch handle dropped over the side afterwards

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by gjordan

Snowpetral, your story of the lady being thrown out of an upper bunk reminds me of why I consider pilot berths to be a very unseaworthy addition to a boat. In truly bad weather, you are safer sleeping on the cabin sole, than way up in a pilot berth. (snip)

Ahh, I could debate this. The Pardy's have been using them, as have Rolf and Deborah on northern light for years with great success. Personally I love being in a proper pilot berth, as long as I can sit up, and have a very secure lee cloth. In a real blow I figure injuries are less likely as I only have a small distance to fall (as long as the leecloth is designed to minimise the gap at the top.

I actually think being on the floor is a bad place in a real blow. A serious knockdown or capsize could result in falling 6 foot onto the deckhead, and anything flying about will probably land on you... Sleep will be hard as anybody moving about the boat will stand on you.

Quarter berths share some of these advantages. Without the same risk of falling out while entering and exiting, but you get wet from any water down the companionway, and generally they are just less pleasant and private to live in, and don't protect your head as well unless you stick your head aft which can be pokey, but is secure, and I quite often sleep this way.

But this is just my opinion, the facts are if our crew had been on the floor she wouldn't have been injured in this case, but with a good knot she would have been fine as well, so an interesting debate.

Cheers, Ben

[zeehag]

just tie self to mast. knockdown is just a decent bath ye needed anyway...aarrrrgghhhh
and tied ye wont fall down when yer asleep (theoretically, anyway...we do enjoy testing this theory)

as every boat is different and every cruise and every individual is different, most wont experience that which many others seem to fear and few actually experience. reading the adventures is awesome fun; however, living this is a lot different for each and every soul out here. bar none.
even 2 souls experiencing same event in same space will experience a different adventure......

[atoll]

Originally Posted by zeehag

just tie self to mast. knockdown is just a decent bath ye needed anyway...aarrrrgghhhh
and tied ye wont fall down when yer asleep (theoretically, anyway...we do enjoy testing this theory)

often thought of using velcro babygro's to secure the kids to the bulkheads!

but as they grew up they took to using cardboard cartons as sleds to slide from one side of the saloon to the other.......with a cry of "Big wave"......can't do that on a catamaran

[estarzinger]

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

Hi Evans, would love to know more about how this happened, was it on silk or hawk, did she fall against a corner? could it have been avoided with more handholds or better design? Cheers, and thanks for the input. It's very valuable getting feedback from those with a lot of miles as well, even if the injuries are not so major.

It was on silk, our very first ocean crossing. She was making pizza from scratch in a gale and got thrown against a counter edge - I am not sure if it was a corner or just a flat edge. She knows now to brace herself better but did not have that "sea legs" skills set then. There were lots of hand holds, and a galley belt but she was working with both hands and needed to move so was not using the belt. The counter edge could be "rounder" but I suspect it still would have cracked the rib.

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

It was on silk, our very first ocean crossing. She was making pizza from scratch in a gale and got thrown against a counter edge - I am not sure if it was a corner or just a flat edge. She knows now to brace herself better but did not have that "sea legs" skills set then. There were lots of hand holds, and a galley belt but she was working with both hands and needed to move so was not using the belt. The counter edge could be "rounder" but I suspect it still would have cracked the rib.

Is this the incident whe describes in her book where she was making a pizza (for your birthday?), and the pizza ended up on the cabin sole? As I recall you ate it anyway.

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

It was on silk, our very first ocean crossing. She was making pizza from scratch in a gale and got thrown against a counter edge - I am not sure if it was a corner or just a flat edge. She knows now to brace herself better but did not have that "sea legs" skills set then. There were lots of hand holds, and a galley belt but she was working with both hands and needed to move so was not using the belt. The counter edge could be "rounder" but I suspect it still would have cracked the rib.

Thanks Evans, Interesting about the sealegs. After a few days at sea you get the feel for the boat, and get used to hanging on and bracing when needed. I wonder if you aren't much more vulnerable during short hops. And living aboard in harbour might actually make things worse as you learn bad habits?