2024, Mysteries, Nature, Stories, Travel, Uncategorized

April 30, 2024: Overboard! 

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Today’s post comes to us from Krista.

I wrote about our ride on the Doolin Ferry, about how wet it was. It was windy and cold too. The sea wasn’t too rough, but once in awhile a wave would hit the side of the ferry and it was easy to lose your balance.  

Anyway, when I came in from the lower front deck, I had noticed the door that opened onto the sea and was held shut by a simple sliding latch. I passed it by, noting it to another woman who was there. I found a seat inside and sat down. A pregnant young woman sat down beside me. She looked at me and indicated her backpack. I understood that she wanted me to watch it, so I promised I would. I stayed right there until she returned for it, then I went to find my friends. They had found a table near a window, so I joined them. It was really hard to take photos. The windows were all bleary with moisture and my hands were damp and almost frozen. Clouds of mist hung over the Cliffs of Moher, obscuring the best sites. Almost everyone was looking toward the side of the ferry that was moving along the base of the Cliffs.  

Suddenly everyone heard a loud banging which didn’t sound right at all. There were several loud bangs in a row that sounded like something smashing into the boat. There were quite a few people standing up in the central aisle. I noticed the look on their faces – they looked horrified. Suddenly someone started yelling, “OVERBOARD! OVERBOARD!” Some people started screaming, “Oh NO! She fell overboard! She’s in the sea!” Colleen and I looked out our window and there was the pregnant young woman whose backpack I had watched. There she was in the water, holding her backpack and a shoe above her head! The ferry backed up a little and someone threw her a life ring. She must have been shocked and cold, but she was able to slip the life ring over her head. She must have triggered it to release an orange dye. They began to pull her toward the boat. A rescue boat came quickly to assist. I think the woman was in the water for about 5 minutes. It seemed like more, but it probably wasn’t. She really kept her head together. I can’t imagine how cold she must have been. The water there is around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. They pulled her in and got her into the captain’s cabin. 

I don’t know what happened after that. They brought us back to the harbor immediately, and for us the event was over. We went into Doolin and did a little shopping. We talked to others who had been on the ferry, and they said she was seven and a half months pregnant. Everyone was really disturbed by the incident. Someone said she had been on the upper deck and a wave had hit the boat from the side. She lost her balance and fell, sliding, and hit a door similar to what I had seen on the lower deck. The door just popped open and she fell out into the sea! Someone else said that there was a woman who had once worked on a similar ferry who grabbed the life ring and threw it out to the girl. A man said he watched her slip and fall and caught her phone as she went. Everyone was worried about her.  

The roads are really difficult out there. It’s actually a fairly remote area of Ireland. When we came out of the stores about an hour later, we saw the ambulance finally coming from Galway. I hope they were able to help that young woman. 

We never saw a news report about it or heard anything more about it. I wish her the best.  

When have you been deeply concerned about a total stranger? Any cold water experiences to share?  

25 thoughts on “April 30, 2024: Overboard! ”

  1. Yikes, Krista! That must have been troubling to witness! I know there have been instances when I was very concerned about someone like that, and I hope some detail will surface soon…

    I remember landing in San Francisco for that first summer in 1969, and expecting to go swimming at the beach – HA! This was not sunny southern California, but Bay Area, where you just don’t get fully into the water without a wet suit.

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  2. We were instructed what to do if someone fell overboard when we were on our whale watching boat in April. The most important thing was to keep your eyes on the person in the water so rescuers knew where to search.

    I was quite worried about the children running heedlessly all around the deck, but they all stayed on the boat. They didn’t mind the bumps and cold wind at all.

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  3. Holy cow, Krista–drama! From JacAnon,

    What a shocking story. I have travelled around Europe and the USA never to encounter such a crisis. That water is so cold. I have encountered an Irish rain and wind storm which is uniquely miserable. Being on a ferry would just make it that much more so. On a day when we toured N. Ireland in 2017 it rained and blew all day. Fine, misty raindrops, blown around by a cold, fierce wind created storm conditions. These weather conditions in combination with a belligerent seat-mate made for a less than enjoyable day out. Then I got car sick.

    So, on our next tour day I opted to go off on my own to avoid the belligerent person and the carsickness. It worked. I had a wonderful day and I navigated the Irish bus system with success.

    WHen I worked at my St. Paul practice I would drive to work over the St. Paul bridge. Now and then I would see a pedestrian on that bridge and suspected he/she was a jumper. I was concerned and called 911. The completely naked guy was of particular concern.

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    1. Wow, yes, I would be concerned about a completely naked guy on a bridge too. I suspect 911 call center received a lot of calls about that!

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    2. At first I wondered if she had jumped. Later it was clear that she simply couldn’t keep her balance. I was on the lower deck and I couldn’t keep my balance either, so I’m not surprised. She was just so quiet. She hadn’t said anything when she indicated her backpack to me, and trusted me with it for a short time. I thought she was just a little odd. She was alone too, which normally doesn’t surprise me because I do lots of things alone too. But at first when she landed in the water, I wondered if she had jumped. Her responses once in the water were clearly those of someone who wanted to be rescued. She really kept her wits about her.

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  4. No dramatic events or stories for me.

    I did a polar plunge back when it was still new and unorganized. And it was about -10 that year. Kelly has done it a dozen times, in all sorts of weather, and they have multiple tents and warming areas and such.

    We both do cold showers as part of our warm shower… it’s… invigorating!

    XDFBen

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  5. Three. The first was when the street in front of my house was being re-done and there was a lip between the sidewalks/driveways and the pavement of the street. I was cutting the grass, saw an elderly woman out of the corner of my eye crossing the street. When I turned the mower back towards her, she had fallen on my driveway and cut her lip pretty badly. I went inside and got her a towel and ice and called 911. A couple of weeks later, the husband showed up at my door with a new kitchen towel and asked me if I could testify – apparently her teeth and cut all the way through her lip and insurance was giving them grief. I had to be honest that I hadn’t actually seen her trip/fall. He was very kind about it.

    Second was an elderly woman who fell at the top of the stairs at the CVS at the corner of 66th & Penn as my mother and I were coming out. Cut on her face, scraps on hands and knees. She seemed a bit out of it (it was a very hot day, maybe dehydrated?) so we went into the CVS and called 911.

    Third was a woman who had an accident on a little motor scooter on the street in front of my house. I didn’t see it but heard the squeal of tires. I saw her down do went out with a towel. She had a pretty significant injury on her leg – I can’t even imagine the scar that she would have. I wanted to call 911 but she wanted to call her husband. Luckily he had a cooler head and told her to call 911. I stayed with her until the EMTs came. I gave the EMTs my contact info but I never heard anything.

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    1. Wow that’s a lot, VS, and two of them right by your house.

      Not a total stranger, but when we were in married student housing, I remember I was going to testify in court on behalf of a young neighbor in a custody case – about some details of her parenting. When her husband came for the trial and saw that she had me for back-up, he decided to settle out of court, because he’d been lying.

      I’m sure I’ve helped someone take out their groceries to the car, some small things like that.

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    2. Wow! You’ve seen a lot! I don’t know about you, but I felt really worried about this young woman. I’ll never hear how she did afterwards now. I hope her baby was okay. She really fell hard before falling out of the ferry entirely. I’m glad that woman’s husband talked her into calling 911.

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  6. Oh my goodness, Krista, that would have been a traumatic thing to watch. So glad that they were able to rescue that young woman. I hope her baby didn’t suffer permanent damage from the time in the cold water.

    I think the most traumatic thing I’ve ever encountered was when the old man, who tended the coal-fired furnace in the basement of the house we lived in in Carbondale, caught his pants on fire. He had removed some slags of hot cinders from the furnace and placed them in an old metal washtub. He apparently had gotten too close to it while shoveling coal into the furnace and his pants caught fire. 

    I heard him making some unusual sounds and ran outside to investigate. I found him running up the outside basement steps, his legs and lower torso completely engulfed in flames. I screamed for wasband to come quick, and together we managed to get him on the ground. Wasband, who had been a medic in the air force, knew exactly what to do. He rolled him in the grass, and together we managed to pat out the remaining flames with our hands. By that time most of his pants – he was wearing coveralls over a pair of wool pants with Long Johns underneath – were gone. I retrieved a clean sheet from the house and wrapped him in it, got him in the car, and drove him across the street to the emergency room of the hospital. Despite our valiant efforts to save this old man’s life, he died a few days later from third degree burns all over his legs and lower torso. I visited him every day in the hospital, and sat with him, holding his hand, as he slipped away. It still makes me sad that his life had to end in such a traumatic way.

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    1. Wow! That’s really sad. I’ll bet you really felt a connection with him before he died. I don’t even know this girl’s name but I was as concerned about her as I would have been my own child. I hope the baby will be ok too. She fell really hard on the ferry before falling out. It was so cold too!

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      2. I left out the part of being turned away at the ER by the nurse on duty, and told that I needed to take him to the clinic at the other end of town. This was late afternoon, rush hour in full swing, and I had to drive this badly burned 80 year old man across town. At the clinic they took one look at his legs and told me to take him back to the ER.

        Once back at the ER, nurse Paula Truly – I’ll never forget her name – got busy filling out routine paperwork. When she asked who his doctor was, Mr. Tope replied that he didn’t have one. “You mean you’re 80 years old, and have lived in Carbondale your entire life, and you don’t have a doctor?” she asked. “That’s right,” he said. At this point Mr. Tope was going into shock and was shivering uncontrollably, he just wanted to go home to take care of his dog, he said.

        At that point I asked why she didn’t call a doctor, and she responded that he didn’t like to be disturbed unnecessarily. Thus far, she had only taken a quick glance at Mr. Tope’s injuries, I suspected because she didn’t want to risk seeing his exposed genitals hidden by my sheet. I was desperate and demanded that she call someone immediately, and waited till a doctor finally showed up. Then I filed a complaint with the hospital about how this case was handled.

        Shortly after Mr. Tope died, a coroner’s inquest was held, and I was subpoenaed to testify. The hospital was found negligent and was ordered to review their intake procedures for the ER. Ms. Truly was reprimanded and transferred out of the ER.

        One final irony: When the subpoena was served on me, I was surprised to see my name on the subpoena as both a witness and the deceased, the result of a careless clerical error at the coroner’s office. High standards all around.

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      1. I think any caring person in my situation would have done the same. It struck me afterwards, how sad it was that an 80 year old man had to do that kind of work. I’m sure he was paid minimally for it, and no one recognized him. I had never seen or talked with him before this happened. He had two adult children who lived in the vicinity, too busy with their own lives to pay much attention to him. Just broke my heart. The hospital contacted me as “next of kin” because they thought I was his daughter.

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  7. I was driving across the High Bridge a number of years ago, about a mile or so from where I live and saw a car stopped. Two women with anxious expressions ran from one side of the bridge to the other, looking over the side. I thought, this doesn’t look good. By the time I got to the bottom of the bridge, emergency vehicles were arriving. A teenager had just jumped. The witnesses said she struggled to swim after she hit the water, but she didn’t make it. That happened in August, so the water was not particularly cold. It was just the height of the bridge.

    I have heard that on average there is about one jumper per year from that bridge. Some survive.

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  8. Hi Krista. My family was on that ferry too!! I just googled it because we were talking about the trauma that lady must have went through! I know who threw that life ring!! I want to know if she was compensated for her back pack of camera gear? And most importantly, the unborn child!! She accidentally leaned against the unsecured gate where you got on and off by the loading ramp. Totally delinquent on the ferry operator. Contact me please, I have more details and questions. Thanks

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