Do you know what to do in a boating emergency? State test puts Roger on the hot seat

A lot of us feel that we have the boat safety thing under control so we don’t think about it much. I know I did. Then I had a humbling experience last week.

I needed to renew my state Division of Boating and Waterways test requiring both a written and on-the-water test. I studied for a good week before the test date.

The written test was tough , but I passed it. I still had the on-the-water portion to complete and that wasn’t covered in the study course.

The inspector began with a complete checklist of my boat and equipment at the dock, and then he went through all my safety procedures with boaters. He covered fire extinguishers, personal flotation devices, lights and horns, as well as how I did things and what I said to passengers. It turned out that getting in and out of a boat at the dock is about the most dangerous thing you can do at the lake. I hoped that would end the day, but then he told me to cast off, we were headed out.

He told me to slowly bring the boat up to plane, then do a big figure eight at speed. I was up to about 40 mph and circling back to where I had to cross over my own wake when I heard a loud screech just behind me. The inspector was yelling, “Man overboard! Man overboard!” The “victim” was a seat cushion tossed into the water at the exact moment I had hit the wake. I was dumbfounded as he kept yelling, “Man overboard!”

I turned the boat around but the “victim” was already 300 feet behind me. The inspector pointedly asked, “What are you going to do now?” He was exerting maximum pressure on me, and my brain was screaming! “Keep your eye on the victim and don’t lose track of where they are!” he yelled . My heart was racing, and I tried to calm down as I headed back to rescue my “victim.”

I’m getting closer to the accident victim and the inspector begins screaming, “Help! I’m drowning! I’m drowning!” about every 10 seconds. My blood pressure is going through the roof! Every second seems like a lifetime as I approach under power from the downwind side, like you’re supposed to. He tells me to grab the hooked pole I carry in the boat to reach out to the “victim,” but as I do I slide past and now I’m upwind and I keep missing the “victim” that keeps getting blown just out of my reach. The inspector pointed out that when the boat is on the upwind side of a victim, the wind can push the boat over the victim and the boater loses control of the vessel. This is how boaters unintentionally run over the victims they’re trying to save. Coming from downwind of the victim lets you creep up to them under power facing into the wind as they are blown back to you.

I finally save the cushion. My adrenaline is pumping! Suddenly, my “victim” has a heart attack and the inspector asks what I’ll do now? Call 911, I guess? Yes! You want the responders to be on their way to meet you at the dock. “What do you after you call 911?” the inspector demands. The accident/emergency scenario went on for another 10 minutes.

It was a sobering experience that taught me more in an hour than I had learned in 20 years. You have seconds or less to make a life-saving decision – do you really know what to do when you’re tested under pressure? Reacting automatically in an emergency is exactly how rescue people are trained.

Best test I’ve ever taken! Never give up!

This story was originally published November 20, 2018 at 11:23 AM.