Avoiding Hypothermia and Swimming

[leong]

Former Dolphins fullback Rob Konrad, swam to safety after falling off his fishing boat 9 miles east of the coast of Florida (his boat was on autopilot and speeding away). Obviously, it would have been better if he had been wearing a safety harness attached to his powerboat. Also, since he was alone, he should have been wearing a PFD with an attached VHF (or PLB)

Although he was “only 9-miles” east of the nearest shore, the strong push of the Gulf Stream gave him a 27-mile workout. I got particularly interested when I heard the story because he came ashore only 3 miles south of my put-in.

Konrad said that he decided he'd better keep moving to ward off hypothermia, so took off most of his clothes and began swimming to shore. What he did is probably the best choice in the 73- to 76-degree water where he was; however, it goes against the usual recommendations to:

Adopt a survival position.
Keeping clothing on.

Leaving aside that he didn’t carry rescue equipment, I think his decision to swim to shore was the least bad choice he could make. Staying clothed and going into a position to reduce body heat loss would have probably ended his life out there in the mostly empty ocean.

What do you think?

-Leon

[spuglisi]

He found himself alone in the ocean 9 miles off shore and made it back to tell his story. Hard to argue with the decisions he made once he hit the water.

[Gcosloy]

Swim for your life! Never been a fan of the breast stroke but think that the crawl while the fastest stroke does consume a lot of energy. Back stroke may have been his life saver in that more energy is conserved and it allows for rest while floating.

[gyork]

"Not too shabby" they might say DownEast. In a professional sport where many formers end up dying prematurely, I'm guessing this guy has kept himself in shape for the long run (swim).

[leong]

For the sake of argument, suppose everything is the same except Konrad fell off his boat while wearing a PFD. As before, he has two main choices.

He could adopt a survival position with his clothes on to ward off hypothermia and because he’s wearing a PFD he could last a long time. So he would be hoping that with the longer survival time that he’d be rescued before he dies.

Or, as before, he could decide to swim for shore. In this case he has to decide whether to discard the PFD and clothes or not. Certainly, the PFD and clothes would significantly impede his swimming.

If you were Konrad in what would you do:

Stay put in a heat conserving position?
Swim with the PFD and clothes?
Swim w/o the PFD and clothes?

-Leon

[Phil Allen]

To really answer the question Leon, I'd need to know the expectations on the "time till help arrives". He was solo, no distress signal was sent and I don't know how long it would be before anybody raised the alarm flags that he was missing. He probably had some sense of those details however. Given what I know of the story (solo, no distress call and unknown "missing" time), I'd swim for it with the PFD (easier resting when necessary). Clothes would be situationally dependent (tight T-shirt and shorts, probably keep; Tuxedo and dress shoes, lose them).

best

Phil

[leong]

This article might be a good read because it includes information about how to survive a long ocean swim to shore. It discusses the problems of navigation (actually, John Huth’s book has a lot more on this subject), fatigue, sharks, jellyfish and dehydration.

Of particular interest to me is the statement, “You need to stay in motion to keep hypothermia at bay”. I think that this is true in water warmer than 70 Fahrenheit; however, it’s the opposite of the usual CG recommendation to “adopt a heat conserving survival position”.

-Leon