Child overboard!

Last week while we were working on the boat we heard the splash. We knew instantly what it was and the second we heard it, it was our child and he went over board.

Our son is three and somewhat independent. He likes to have dad put his shoes on yet he can build with great detail on his own a helicopter using Lego's. He was potty trained earlier than most and has a curious knack for things that are engineered. He always wears his life jacket even out to dinner or on road trips. Hes not obsessed with it like he is with Star Wars but he will wear it without any complaints. He states that while he was working on the bow sprite he went swimming with the fish in the deep water. That translates to, he was playing on the dock with Jack ( our dog ) and reached for the whisker stay and fell in. Mom warned him earlier that he was going to fall but I guess he remained curious and ignored her wisdom yet again. We heard the splash from inside the boat and ran top side to see the little man bobbing around doing a improvised doggy paddle towards the dock. I encouraged him to come towards us but the instant my last word left my mouth mom jump over and grabbed him. The two of them swam that long 3 feet to the dock and I reached over pulling the little man out by his life jacket. Mom was a bit more of a challenge to pull out and I began to things were about to get serious. Our marina has no swim ladders near our sailboat and the dock sides were populated by mussels and other sharp ocean creatures. She could not leverage herself to help with the extraction. I could only pull her out half way by doing a curl type of motion, like body builder do in the gym. after two attempts she insisted I grab her belt loops so on the third try I pulled her out by grabbing her shorts and giving her a somewhat large wedgie. All in all this event was a good experience. Our son finally learned that the water is cold and he can fall off the docks. Mom learned to let him figure his troubles out and that he was going to make the swim back to the dock. I learned that a family is the best thing a man can have and I cant curl much weight in my older age.

A funnier story was when the cat fell over board but that's for another time.