How to Survive When Fallen Overboard

The Coast Guard has a "50-50-50" rule: You have a 50-percent survival rate if you are in 50 degree F water for 50 minutes. However, you can increase those odds if you stay calm and know what to do to survive.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Mirrors
• Life Jackets
• Whistles

1. Kick off your shoes and remove extra clothing that will weigh you down so that you stay buoyant.

2. Look for something to hold on to, like a life preserver or a floating object.

3. Keep as much of your body as possible above water by folding your arms, crossing your legs, and floating on the buoyancy of your life jacket.

4. Conserve your energy and body heat by putting your back to the waves and allowing rescuers to come to you - unless you're close enough to shore or to the boat to make it there on your own.

5. Stay as positive and focused as possible.

Tips & Warnings

• If others are in the water with you and you've got life preservers on, put your arms around one another and huddle with them to conserve body heat.
• Attach a whistle and a mirror to your life jacket while still on board so that you can quickly signal rescuers in an emergency.
• The U.S. Coast Guard offers boating safety classes, which include man-overboard survival tips. Contact [phone] for more information.

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on 11/22/2005 Unless the water is warm, keep your clothing on. Most especially, keep your shoes on. Your clothing acts as an insulator, trapping water that has already been warmed by your body heat. Most body heat is lost from the head and the feet. Hopefully, your head will be above water. Your feet, however, need to stay insulated, or you will lose body heat extremely rapidly. In cold weather, you don't have long to get out of the water. Don't waste your energy or body heat by stripping off clothing.

on 11/22/2005 To help you stay above water, after you have taken off your shoes and extra clothing, you can inflate your own shirt by breathing air into it. This works best if you are wearing a long sleeved shirt, like a sweatshirt. After that, if you are wearing long pants, like a pair of jeans, take them off, tie the legs in a knot, and throw the open waist end down onto the water, trapping air in the tied off legs. Put your head through the legs and wear it as a PFD (Personal Flotation Device). You can thank the Boy Scouts of America for this helpful piece of advice.

on 11/22/2005 Get a small, low cost, waterproof, GPS and attach it to your life jacket. That way you can check if you're drifting. Best chances are if you stay in the same spot, plus the GPS has many more functions that could be very useful in that kind of situation, it could guide you to safety if possible.
Current GPS can work more than 24 hours on small AAA batteries and weigh about 3 ounces with batteries.

on 11/22/2005 Kick off a shirt or pants and wrap it loosely around your neck. Then blow air or trap air inside. It will eventually deflate and need reblowing. This will serve as a flotation device.