SOFT NEWS Man uses jeans to save himself from dying at sea

Cardinal

Cardinal

Chickministrator
_______________
https://inews.co.uk/news/world/man-floats-hours-lost-sea-jeans-survive/

A tourist who was thrown overboard survived hours stranded at sea thanks to the help of his trusty jeans.

German tourist Arne Murke was sailing through New Zealand alongside his brother Helge on Wednesday to deliver a yacht named Wahoo from Auckland to Brazil.

But during the trip, they got caught in some rough weather, leading the 12-metre yacht’s mainsheet came loose and caused the boom to swing around.

It was then Mr Murke was knocked into the water without a life jacket 20 miles off Tolaga Bay.
‘Without the jeans I wouldn’t be here today’

Although his brother tried to throw him a life jacket so he could reach the coast safely, he was already too deep in the water.

“My brother started directly to get me but the swell was like three metres,” Mr Murke told New Zealand Herald.

“He threw a life jacket with a rope overboard.

I couldn’t reach that, it was already too far away. Then I think the motor exploded,” he added.

It was then the 30-year-old resorted to drastic measures and fashioned his jeans into a makeshift life-jacket.

Copying a technique from a US Navy Seals video he had watched in the past, he made knots at the end of the legs of the jeans and inflated them.

He then placed the jacket over his shoulders.

“I saw it many years ago and I always thought if I ever go overboard without a life jacket I’m going to do that,” he told New Zealand Herald.

“I took a deep breath, took out my jeans, made knots at the end of the legs and inflated the jeans, pull it over water and get air inside, and then push it underwater – I had an improvised life vest.”

“Luckily, I knew the trick with the jeans. Without the jeans I wouldn’t be here today, they were really the thing that saved me,” he added.
Waited for nearly four hours

Mr Murke waited for nearly four hours before he was rescued by the New Zealand Coastguard and Royal New Zealand Air Force.

The lifeguards recorded the rescue in action, and said Mr Murke is “incredibly lucky to be alive.”

Mr Murke said he was motivated to stay alive by the thought of his 10-month-old daughter.

At one point, he went under the water and struggled to summon the strength to float back up to the surface again.

“I was under water and I just thought, do it for your daughter. I managed to somehow get the jeans right and floated again. That was one moment where I really thought I might die, if I don’t give all my energy.”

However, the sailor said nothing will stop him from returning to the sea again.

The 30-year-old has spent twenty years of his life on the water.

He told New Zealand Herald: “I know the risk but I’m not scared of it. I’m just going to be super careful in the future. I would never say I’m not going out any more, or I’m too scared.”

Below is a vid on how to, for the interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cde9HAvgRgs
1:50
 
ShadowMan

ShadowMan

Designated Grumpy Old Fart
Standard training for all USN sailors in boot camp. Just saying. Nothing new but a smart smart move.
 
Raggedyman

Raggedyman

Res ipsa loquitur
ShadowMan said:
Standard training for all USN sailors in boot camp. Just saying. Nothing new but a smart smart move.
Click to expand...

first learned it as a boy scout - life saving merit badge - then again in boot camp. good stuff that to be frank had completely left my concious memory
 
ainitfunny

ainitfunny

Saved, to glorify God.
Yep, my dad, a chief petty officer in the USN told us kids how to do that in the 1950’s.
I thought everybody knew that, by now.

BTW- It was God, not his jeans, that really saved him.
 
Doc1

Doc1

Has No Life - Lives on TB
When I worked on the water I used to always carry one or two small, plastic garbage bags in a back pocket. I knew the jeans trick, but it's better to put inflated plastic bags into pant legs or even a shirt.

Best regards
Doc
 
Txkstew

Txkstew

Veteran Member
You can buy small strobe lights, the size of an ink pen, and carry one of those in your pocket when out at sea. Like when on a passenger cruise ship.
 
W

WalknTrot

Veteran Member
Ya....I thought everybody knew this. Learned it in Red Cross training in Jr. High School phys-ed.

Guess most people don't know anything anymore...or best to expect it and plan accordingly.
 
W

Witness

Deceased
When I was in the Navy they told me to tie the knots in legs then flip jeans from over your head to get air in them.
I expect the bell bottom trousers helped to get jeans off.

I could not swim until I joined the Navy. That was the first time I heard of that maneuver.

My father told me to dog paddle when in water, he did not tell me about the jean trick.
 
L.A.B.

L.A.B.

Goodness before greatness.
On a similar cant.

If you ever fall deep into dark water at night you have to consider this experience.

October 1999 I was finishing up an installation on a sailboat for a sailing family that was taking the Y2K issue to heart. The last minute tedious details of waterproofing the many holes for the deck rail installation took me an hour past dusk into the darkness. Collecting up my tools and stepping off the vessel onto dock step I felt it collapse like a set of stacked dominos under my weight. Instead of attempting to reposition my feet, I just went with my 45 degree headlong / neck impact into the bulkhead of the sailboat berthed next door.

In Muy Thai fighting, one form of blocking is to place your hand over your ear as you raise your elbow in a plane to block impact to the neck through top of head. It works for going head-long sideways into fixed objects too.

As I plunged into the marina saltwater my first reactive instinct was to close my eyes. I closed my eyes. I may have instinctively let out my breath upon impact too. I don’t recall. If that was the case, that explains why I sunk so fast with only about 15 lbs of tools slung over my shoulder in a small West German gas mask bag. Low body fat from 7 years of M/A’s training didn’t help my buoyancy either.

Falling into murky water at night it is difficult to ascertain the proper direction to the surface. There is no sense of plumb and horizontal if you cannot see or feel the bottom nor surface. It’s one shimmering green-gray haze 360 degrees. You could probably let go of a tool to let fall to the bottom, but within a second you would probably lose visual perspective to no availing remedy of the soon to be crisis.

As I peacefully began to swim off into the direction I believed was the surface, a thought came to me...

...Despite the breath shot out at impact upon the sailboat above, I better consider... letting a little more breath out, and following those bubbles back to the dark surface of the night sky.

Six months prior to the accident I began a two breath a minute exercise for two or three minutes before retiring to bed after work. I would watch The Los Angeles Light beacon at the edge of the breakwater and harbor entrance. It turned 360 degrees ever 15 seconds. I used it as a bright to dimming to bright beacon for timing each inhale for 15 seconds, and exhale in 15 seconds. I believe this breath control practice also helped me overcome panic under water. Taking cold showers 11 months of the year was an older discipline I had dropped over ten years earlier. Still So-Cal cold water was no stranger to me, hence no further shock value.

I was under water for a good ten seconds or more. The family was saying goodbye as I hit the dockstep. When they sent the check for completion of the work, there was an extra $300 to replace the Sangean ATS 909 SWR that took the salt water bath with me.

When I arrived at the surface they were dumbfounded I was not panicking or cussing. Just fumbling with the radio to get the batteries out before I shorted her out. Oh well. If the cost of our lesson was simply one old dock step and one SWR-R, I think it was a good life saving lesson we’ll learned.


What mistake did I make that could have proved fatal besides getting out of bed that morning?
 
ainitfunny

ainitfunny

Saved, to glorify God.
L.A.B. said:
On a similar cant.

If you ever fall deep into dark water at night you have to consider this experience.

October 1999 I was finishing up an installation on a sailboat for a sailing family that was taking the Y2K issue to heart. The last minute tedious details of waterproofing the many holes for the deck rail installation took me an hour past dusk into the darkness. Collecting up my tools and stepping off the vessel onto dock step I felt it collapse like a set of stacked dominos under my weight. Instead of attempting to reposition my feet, I just went with my 45 degree headlong / neck impact into the bulkhead of the sailboat berthed next door.

In Muy Thai fighting, one form of blocking is to place your hand over your ear as you raise your elbow in a plane to block impact to the neck through top of head. It works for going head-long sideways into fixed objects too.

As I plunged into the marina saltwater my first reactive instinct was to close my eyes. I closed my eyes. I may have instinctively let out my breath upon impact too. I don’t recall. If that was the case, that explains why I sunk so fast with only about 15 lbs of tools slung over my shoulder in a small West German gas mask bag. Low body fat from 7 years of M/A’s training didn’t help my buoyancy either.

Falling into murky water at night it is difficult to ascertain the proper direction to the surface. There is no sense of plumb and horizontal if you cannot see or feel the bottom nor surface. It’s one shimmering green-gray haze 360 degrees. You could probably let go of a tool to let fall to the bottom, but within a second you would probably lose visual perspective to no availing remedy of the soon to be crisis.

As I peacefully began to swim off into the direction I believed was the surface, a thought came to me...

...Despite the breath shot out at impact upon the sailboat above, I better consider... letting a little more breath out, and following those bubbles back to the dark surface of the night sky.

Six months prior to the accident I began a two breath a minute exercise for two or three minutes before retiring to bed after work. I would watch The Los Angeles Light beacon at the edge of the breakwater and harbor entrance. It turned 360 degrees ever 15 seconds. I used it as a bright to dimming to bright beacon for timing each inhale for 15 seconds, and exhale in 15 seconds. I believe this breath control practice also helped me overcome panic under water. Taking cold showers 11 months of the year was an older discipline I had dropped over ten years earlier. Still So-Cal cold water was no stranger to me, hence no further shock value.

I was under water for a good ten seconds or more. The family was saying goodbye as I hit the dockstep. When they sent the check for completion of the work, there was an extra $300 to replace the Sangean ATS 909 SWR that took the salt water bath with me.

When I arrived at the surface they were dumbfounded I was not panicking or cussing. Just fumbling with the radio to get the batteries out before I shorted her out. Oh well. If the cost of our lesson was simply one old dock step and one SWR-R, I think it was a good life saving lesson we’ll learned.


What mistake did I make that could have proved fatal besides getting out of bed that morning?
Click to expand...

From that story, I hope you were NOT led to increasingly believe that you are your own Savior, BY YOUR OWN STRENGTH, WISDOM, EXPERIENCE, TRAINING, ABILITY AND EQUIPMENT.

If so, then you have not yet experiences the full consequences (and yes death) of THAT, gravest, error.
I would not have said that except you expressed NO gratitude to God for surviving that experience.
 
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