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Single Handed Sailor Jolly Holly has been plying the waters of the Caribbean for a while now living life to to the fullest,
but a trip to shore for dinner cost her much more than the meal tab, and she's lucky thing were not much worse...
Not sure where to start this story but some of you are gonna want answers when you catch wind of this and everyone should be made aware of the danger/ and necessity for proper safety precautions! DO NOT drill me with other question or concerns!!!! i've been in a hospital bed for two days with an elbow the size of my knee, two broken ribs, and a hole cut in my chest with a suction tube assisting to expand my collapsed lung so have ZERO patience or energy for the situation other than healing... but here is the update...
April 1st just after painting my sunfish and watching the sunset my friend Teddy and I climbed onto my dinghy to head in for dinner at the yacht club (nearest point of landfall) I requested he grab a headlamp because I had no other light on the tender... i sat in my usual place to drive on the starboard pontoon and he on the port pontoon
as we made way across the harbor all was normal then I heard a faint but strange noise behind me... in the second I tuned to look it was too late... the bow of a cabin cruiser was on top of us at a full plain in the water... I don't remember much but from this point have pieced together the information as best as possible... i don't even remember the impact itself but remember the pulpit of the boat standing well over 6-7 off the water and it coming towards the starboard stern of the tender FAST and had NO RUNNING LIGHTS!!!!!!!! I will take a moment here to point out that our light was also NOT sufficient!!!! a headlight is not a 360 visible light! we all know that and just like me many of us often jump in the tender with only a headlamp or flashlight!!! I hope that if nothing else.. my irresponsible misfortune can influence some of us to invest in proper lighting AND USE IT!
After impact I was told by my passenger he found me face down in the water and rolled me onto my back. a few moments later I started coughing and coming to.. had he not been there... i may not be writing this.... he says he put me against my upside down mostly deflated dinghy and started trying to figure out which way to swim and yelling help... within moments we were approached by a local man in a large cabin cruiser who pulled us from the water... I have a vague memory of laying in the cockpit yelling in pain repetitively before I was shuffled into the cuddly cabin where still all i can remember is just yelling moaning and being confused questioning what happen over and over... we were taken to a dock and i was put in an ambulance...
in hindsight the boat that picked us up only moments later is speculated to be the same boat that hit us... due to size shape and mostly the fact he took us to the dock with no running lights on... it was approx 25-30 ft cabin cruiser with a 300hp outboard... not sure what that equates to in speed but obviously much faster than my Ridinkulous doing nearly 30 knots....I will at this point willingly eat my words of "i can just get out of the way"... a statement ive made jokingly in the past! I aso would like to state that I do not hold animosity against the other boat... for many reasons we were both equally irresponsible with our lighting, he did nothing malicious just simply made bad choices resulting in a mistake. a big mistake but still a mistake. he also did the right thing by turning around to help fish us up instead of running fear. HE, MYSELF and all of us need to take a moment to think about our visibility and safety on the water!!!
I have no other thoughts to share or answers on details... please don't ask! I will hopefully be out of the hospital in a few days. until then here is a few pics of whats left of ridinkulous, my fat arm, and a reluctant but positive thumbs up to healing soon! ill spare u guys on the chest tube... its as gross as it is painful! ;/
but a trip to shore for dinner cost her much more than the meal tab, and she's lucky thing were not much worse...
Not sure where to start this story but some of you are gonna want answers when you catch wind of this and everyone should be made aware of the danger/ and necessity for proper safety precautions! DO NOT drill me with other question or concerns!!!! i've been in a hospital bed for two days with an elbow the size of my knee, two broken ribs, and a hole cut in my chest with a suction tube assisting to expand my collapsed lung so have ZERO patience or energy for the situation other than healing... but here is the update...
April 1st just after painting my sunfish and watching the sunset my friend Teddy and I climbed onto my dinghy to head in for dinner at the yacht club (nearest point of landfall) I requested he grab a headlamp because I had no other light on the tender... i sat in my usual place to drive on the starboard pontoon and he on the port pontoon
as we made way across the harbor all was normal then I heard a faint but strange noise behind me... in the second I tuned to look it was too late... the bow of a cabin cruiser was on top of us at a full plain in the water... I don't remember much but from this point have pieced together the information as best as possible... i don't even remember the impact itself but remember the pulpit of the boat standing well over 6-7 off the water and it coming towards the starboard stern of the tender FAST and had NO RUNNING LIGHTS!!!!!!!! I will take a moment here to point out that our light was also NOT sufficient!!!! a headlight is not a 360 visible light! we all know that and just like me many of us often jump in the tender with only a headlamp or flashlight!!! I hope that if nothing else.. my irresponsible misfortune can influence some of us to invest in proper lighting AND USE IT!
After impact I was told by my passenger he found me face down in the water and rolled me onto my back. a few moments later I started coughing and coming to.. had he not been there... i may not be writing this.... he says he put me against my upside down mostly deflated dinghy and started trying to figure out which way to swim and yelling help... within moments we were approached by a local man in a large cabin cruiser who pulled us from the water... I have a vague memory of laying in the cockpit yelling in pain repetitively before I was shuffled into the cuddly cabin where still all i can remember is just yelling moaning and being confused questioning what happen over and over... we were taken to a dock and i was put in an ambulance...
in hindsight the boat that picked us up only moments later is speculated to be the same boat that hit us... due to size shape and mostly the fact he took us to the dock with no running lights on... it was approx 25-30 ft cabin cruiser with a 300hp outboard... not sure what that equates to in speed but obviously much faster than my Ridinkulous doing nearly 30 knots....I will at this point willingly eat my words of "i can just get out of the way"... a statement ive made jokingly in the past! I aso would like to state that I do not hold animosity against the other boat... for many reasons we were both equally irresponsible with our lighting, he did nothing malicious just simply made bad choices resulting in a mistake. a big mistake but still a mistake. he also did the right thing by turning around to help fish us up instead of running fear. HE, MYSELF and all of us need to take a moment to think about our visibility and safety on the water!!!
I have no other thoughts to share or answers on details... please don't ask! I will hopefully be out of the hospital in a few days. until then here is a few pics of whats left of ridinkulous, my fat arm, and a reluctant but positive thumbs up to healing soon! ill spare u guys on the chest tube... its as gross as it is painful! ;/
