Seamanship & Survival

Hypothermia and sailing The water temperature in Brenton Cove in the winter can regularly get below 40 degrees. Just ask any Laser sailor from Fleet 413, or from March on, any high school sailor. Add in 15 knots of wind in 35 to 40-degree air temperature and the combination certainly focuses the mind on paying attention to the conditions. This attention is elevated to some high number exponent when one has the care of a dozen or…

(Adapted from the new book, Extreme Survival: Lessons from Those Who Have Triumphed Against All Odds, by NY Times Bestselling Author Michael J. Tougias) The five shipwreck survivors clinging to the eleven-foot inflatable Zodiac were in the trough of a thirty-foot swell and looked up into the green walls of water. That’s when they saw the sharks. Brad Cavanaugh, age 21, could clearly see three sharks, and one was larger than the Zodiac. “It was bad enough seeing…