[QUOTE=jjam;636427]Not a recent accident but in May of 1985 I was thrown out of a Carolina skiff with out the lanyard attached to my person.
Boat circled a few times at wide open speed, the speed was a result of my grip on the throttle (tiller handle) as I was launched from seated position. There were 3 of us in the water (lil sister, girlfriend & I) in danger of being ran over by circling runaway skiff.
After a few near misses, I decided to tackle the thing, waited for the skiff to pass one more time and swam for all I was worth and as the skiff re-approached I launched myself onto the starboard bow rail or at least that was my plan.
I lost my grip on the slippery bow gunnel and now falling back into the water here follows the stern with prop blade a swinging. I was very lucky as the prop hit my forearm and the keel fins crossed my fore head and down through my right eye socket.
The chunk section of the motor hit my shoulder squarely lifted up and back down just like jumping a log. The motor shut down the motor to idle speed. Again, lucky I didn't lose consciousness.
I was scooped up by a near by shrimper that saw the entire event. The shrimper laid me across the picking board and rush me and crew back to the Happy Jack Marina near Empire La. An ambulance made a short ride out of it back to New Orleans.
After a couple of reconstruction surgeries, I'm was good as new.
Very lucky to still be here and many may say what a dumb **** , but seemed like the only thing to do at the time.
Please ALL, wear your lanyards!
Jimmy[/QUOTE
Not a dumb**** at all. You had your little sister and your girlfriend in the water and in danger. Any plan is better than no plan.
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