15:03N 58:30W 151.7 to go
Lovely sunny afternoon, calm enough sea with about 1-2m swell so time for MOB practice. Out with the fender, threw it in, Dee at the helm and she zipped round to pick it up no problem. Ace.
Nick is excellent at all this RYA-type drill, David hops about on his good leg to help, Olly is a bit new to it but gets the swing of calling out and pointing at the target.
In fact, it all went so well that once we’d got under way again… I jumped in myself, unannounced of course. One minute in the cockpit, next minute, sploosh, I’m floating about mid-Atlantic. Yes, really.
Nick and Dee have vaguely heard that I had done this before but not quite believed it. The first time I went in was with Stingo in 2007, second time with just me + Nick Martinez off Portugal, third time in the bay of Las Palmas with James, Glyn, Parasailor staff incl Jerry Twomey and some Lauras. So this is the fourth time, new crew, and it’s just as valid. It’s not a “mad laugh” by Matt the well-known nutter. It’s a stretch, a risk, yes, and definitely exhillarating for all. But I had a strobe beacon and epirb with me. So not that risky, not really.
I spoke with friend MarkJ about this in LP a year or so ago in some detail - and we agreed that it would be okay to leap in… AFTER having checked/practised that they were okay with a fender. So that’s what I did
this time.
The ARC staff didn’t really get it. But actually going in yourself as part of an MOB (under the right circumstances) is the difference between knowing your crew can rescue you as MOB… or rather hoping that it just won’t ever happen. It’s the difference between you and/or your crew *thinking* that they are “ready” when in fact they’ve only done it with a fender. For most (but not all) readers, it’s the difference between knowing, and nearly-but-not-quite knowing. You don’t pretend you can drive an F1 car in real life after having played a video game, do you? So why does everyone pretend they’ll be great at rescuing a real person after rescuing a fender?
Hey look – you and I and everybody “reckons” they could do various things that they’ve never done before – but think of the things that you’ve never done before - perhaps juggling, playing a new musical instrument, abseiling down a cliff, surfing, singing karaoke, or actually sailing a boat, whatever, you’ll know what you’ve tried. Were you really as good at *all* those things the very *first* time? As good as you hoped you’d be? I wasn’t.
For me, being “first-timer” standard at a real live first-time MOB isn’t nearly good enough. Surely a fender will do? Maybe. But probably not. And EVERY crew with (from?) whom I’ve jumped in … later raves about how it’s utterly and completely different. This time even Dee was shaking afterwards - and she helmed all fine! But a while ago we had a double Yachtmaster (power and sail) recently qualified, highly commended, crewing on Mojomo – then I jumped in and they just absolutely froze on the spot, they couldn’t believe what had happened. She’d rescued fenders, lots of them, passed exams, but froze when it was “real”.
Oh and by the way, a real man overboard isn’t always in a “serious” situation like offshore in Force Mental cos you’d be cloipped on then, super-aware all the time. MOB can be a result of something silly like picking up water with a bucket, or two people going for the same cleat and one gets “body-checked”, bit of a slip and –oops- in they go, no scream, no noise. Also, always staying near land and never going far out to sea doesn’t insure you against having a real MOB – they happen when people are zipping around a boat – more likely near a marina than way offshore, but perfectly possible anywhere, anytime. I’be had two real MOB’s, one inshore, one offshore. Yes, the bucket and the bodycheck are my real examples.
Okay, I suppose it would be daft for a commercial (say RYA) trainer to do this, it would be daft in cold (eg UK) waters. But before embarking on a circumnavigation and NOBODY on board has ever pulled ANYONE out of the water? Humm. Good luck. Cos luck is all you got, eh? The “experience” box being a bit empty, although not so with me and Dee not so with (a few) other readers.
This doesn’t guarantee that if there’s an MOB it’ll be a cinch for me and Dee, or for Stingo or James or all those others. But it does mean it won’t be mind-bendingly new. It won’t be something like those first-time
activities I mentioned above that your brain tells you that hey, you can’t do this – perhaps give up? Like you gave up that musical instrument, the juggling and whatever else during that first shot, remember? It’ll be
something that Dee and I and some others *know* we can do, we did it before, we’ll do it again. I bet you’ve screwed up things second time – but because it was ok first time, you did it a third, and you got better, yes? Shouldn’t you be that good at picking up people out of the sea?
One other reason to jump in is that Dee and the crew really know that I trust them with my life. Cos, well, I just did exactly that. So that’s one reason why Mojomo crew often has fabulous spirit. That’s gotta be worth something too.
So, for all those reasons and more, I jumped in. And yeah, it’s a memorable hoot, no question.