Hypothermia in Florida? By King Barnard
H
ypothermia is defined as something that can happen if you get too cold for too long and your internal mechanisms are unable to replenish the heat you’re losing. As your body temperature drops, characteristic symptoms occur like shivering and mental confusion, which happens to define the way I felt on a sail one winter in west Florida. I got wet from sea spray, and then—due to building winds over cold water—I got cold, and all that led to uncontrolled shivers. Regarding that mental confusion thing, some would say that’s nothing new for me, but when you add up all those symptoms, I guess I was experiencing the onset of hypothermia. That’s not supposed to happen on a balmy 72degree day while sailing in Florida. So here’s what happened. Bill and I were sailing his 34-foot Catalina from Cortez, FL—on the south side of the entrance to Tampa Bay—to join our second mates and a bunch of boating friends for a long weekend at “The Club,” an absolutely great boating destination on Treasure Island, just inside John’s Pass—an inlet north of the Tampa Bay entrance. The forecast at departure was low 70s, winds out of the north at 10 to 12, with seas 2 to 4 feet. John’s Pass is about 25 nautical miles north of Cortez, so with those northerly winds, we planned a northwesterly heading out into the Gulf through the channel south of Egmont Key (which lies in the center of the Tampa Bay entrance) to a point about 10 miles out in the Gulf, at which point we would tack to a northeasterly heading directly into John’s Pass. Good plan, but the weather changed. The winds continued out of the north but built to well over 20, and at times they were gusting over 30. As you know, winds and waves play follow the leader, and with higher winds came higher seas that quickly grew to 6 to 8 feet. Did I mention that this was February? Due to the unusually cold spell we had in December and January, the water temperature was in the mid 50s. So, higher winds over cold water quickly resulted in a cold,
62 August 2013
SOUTHWINDS
wet spray that was constant in the cockpit as the boat beat to the northwest. I hadn’t anticipated the weather to be cold, so I didn’t bring my foul weather gear. I had on blue jeans, a long-sleeve shirt and a light windbreaker, and over that a heavy fabric jacket with a hood. That’s all I had, and normally that combination would
keep me toasty warm. Fortunately Bill had his foul weather gear onboard, and once the winds and seas came up, he quickly changed. It wasn’t long before my fabric jacket started acting like a wick and became damp. All you need at that point is some wind, which we had plenty of, and you get this thing called wind chill factor. The cold created by my damp jacket passed cold right through my windbreaker and shirt. That was my clue to get out of the cockpit, go below and take refuge with Bill’s dog, Bilge Rat. Bad idea—because when you’re down below in heavy seas with the boat rolling and pitching, one tends to feel ill at ease, otherwise known as seasick. But I knew I had to get warm, so I gathered myself in the fetal position on the settee and I tried, pretended really, to nap as best I could. Even
though the boat was quartering well in some fairly heavy seas, down below it was unsettling. My eyes were closed as I fought off seasickness, when suddenly there was a loud crash and shutter that had me on my feet in a split second. I went to the companionway and looked up at Bill, who was at the wheel—he and everything in the cockpit were soaking wet, and water was running off the Bimini. He said we had just taken what seemed to be a 12-foot wave over the boat. That did it for me, and up into the cockpit I went to make a long overdue donation to the fish. I was still feeling cold, and by now, I was shivering uncontrollably and knew that I had to get out of the wind, so for a while I tucked up under the dodger, but with more sea spray, that only made my condition worse. I stayed there until we made the turn toward John’s Pass and once again, went below thinking that it might be better to be seasick than wet, cold and shivering. For purposes of telling this story, let’s just forget about that confusion thing. I realized I was battling the onset of hypothermia and knew I had to get warm somehow. Bilge Rat was really happy to have company, and we both curled up on the settee under the sail cover. Gratefully the northeasterly heading for the two-hour run to John’s Pass was not too bad and by curling up under the sail cover, I eventually stopped shivering. I think I actually slept for awhile and when I woke, I felt better and went up into the cockpit to resume my crew duties. By that time we were approaching John’s Pass and after clearing through the left bridge, we turned south into the Intracoastal where the winds and seas were relatively calm. Although I was still feeling a bit chilled, the warm Florida sun began to work its magic. Once we docked, I headed for a friend’s powerboat as I heard that hot chocolate was being served. I just can’t tell you how good that tasted, nor See HYPOTHERMIA continued on page 60
www.southwindsmagazine.com