Emergencies Aboard: Fire, CO and Cold Water

Prerequisites

• The required safety gear for your boat, from USCG Required Safety Equipment.
• How to make Mayday and Pan-Pan calls, from US VHF Radio & Distress Calls.
• Basic man overboard recovery, from Man Overboard Procedures.

Learning Objectives

This lesson covers the emergency part of the ASA 103 Coastal Cruising standard, and prepares you to brief a crew on a bareboat charter in ASA 104 Bareboat Cruising. By the end of it you will be able to:

• Survive cold water, and treat hypothermia and heat illness.
• Explain the fire triangle and fire classes, and fuel a boat safely.
• Spot and prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.
• Take the first steps after grounding or flooding.
• Choose between a towing service and the Coast Guard.

Cold Water: Shock, Swim Failure, Hypothermia

Cold water kills more people than most sailors expect, and not mainly through hypothermia. The National Weather Service warns that cold shock can be as dangerous in water of 50 to 60°F as in near-freezing water, and that the gasp reflex can be triggered by water as warm as 77°F.

Cold-water immersion happens in stages. Many instructors use the 1-10-1 rule of thumb to remember them. The times are rough guides, not a stopwatch:

The lessons for a sailor:

• Wear a life jacket. Most people who die in cold water drown in the first few minutes, before hypothermia has time to set in. A life jacket keeps your airway clear through the gasp and after your arms stop working.
• Dress for the water temperature, not the air.
• If you cannot get out, adopt the HELP position (Heat Escape Lessening Posture): knees drawn up to the chest, legs together, arms tight to your sides. With others, huddle together.

Hypothermia: Recognise and Treat

Hypothermia means a core temperature below 95°F. It can follow immersion, or just a long, wet night watch.

Signs, from mild to severe:

• Shivering, cold hands, clumsiness, slurred speech.
• Confusion, drowsiness, poor decisions, memory loss.
• Shivering stops. This is a bad sign, not an improvement.
• Unconsciousness, a slow pulse and slow breathing.

Treatment aboard:

1. Get the person out of the wind and into the cabin. Handle them gently, especially if they are severely cold, and keep them horizontal.
2. Remove wet clothing. Dry them and wrap them in dry layers, blankets or a sleeping bag.
3. Warm the centre of the body first: chest, neck, head and groin. Skin-to-skin contact under dry blankets works. Wrap any heat packs in a towel before use.
4. Warm, sweet, non-alcoholic drinks help a conscious person. Never give anything to drink to someone who is not fully conscious, and never give alcohol.
5. Get medical help. If the person is unconscious or confused, treat it as an emergency and call for help on VHF. Even if they seem lifeless, start CPR.

For more on first aid afloat, see Medical Care at Sea.

Getting a Person Back Aboard

Lifting a heavy, cold, waterlogged adult over the side of a keelboat is hard. Practise it.

• Get a line on them first. A throwable device or a sling-type device on a line keeps them attached to the boat while you plan the lift.
• Use the boarding ladder if the person can still help themselves. Stop the engine or put it in neutral before anyone goes near the stern.
• Use mechanical advantage. A halyard led to a winch, or a tackle on the boom, can lift a person who cannot climb.
• Lift horizontally if you can. A severely chilled person can collapse when lifted upright. A loop of line under the knees and another under the arms, or a scramble net, helps keep them flat.
• Never send a second person into the water unless they are attached to the boat and wearing a life jacket.

Fire: The Triangle, the Classes and the Gear

A fire needs heat, fuel and oxygen. Take any one away (cool it, smother it, or shut off the fuel) and it goes out.

Classes of fire (US labelling):

Most boat extinguishers are dry chemical units rated for B and C fires, often A as well. Never put water on a fuel or electrical fire. Water spreads burning fuel and conducts electricity.

USCG rules in brief. The details are in USCG Required Safety Equipment. The key points:

• A boat with a cabin, closed compartments or a permanently installed fuel tank must carry extinguishers. A 26 to 40 ft boat with no fixed system needs two 5-B units, or one 20-B.
• Boats of model year 2018 and later must carry date-stamped 5-B or 20-B extinguishers.
• Disposable extinguishers must be removed from service 12 years after the date of manufacture stamped on them.

Fighting a fire:

1. Shout "Fire!" and get everyone into life jackets.
2. Shut off the fuel or gas at the source, and switch off the electrics if it is electrical.
3. If the fire is in the engine compartment, do not open the hatch wide. Fresh air feeds the fire. Discharge the extinguisher through a small opening or fire port if you have one.
4. Aim at the base of the flames and sweep from side to side.
5. If it is not out quickly, make a Mayday call while you still can, and prepare to leave the boat. The full abandon-ship sequence is in Fire, Flooding, and Abandon Ship.

Fuelling Safely

Gasoline vapour is heavier than air. It sinks into the bilge and can explode at a spark, which is why the fuel dock and engine start-up are the danger points.

Before and during fuelling:

• Shut down engines and the stove, and switch off anything that might spark. No smoking.
• Send passengers ashore, and close hatches and ports so vapour cannot drift below.
• Keep the nozzle in contact with the fill pipe to prevent static sparks.
• Do not overfill. Wipe up any drips at once. Spilling fuel into the water is illegal, as covered in US Boating Law & Pollution Rules.

After fuelling a gasoline boat:

1. Open everything up to air the boat out.
2. Run the bilge blower. The Coast Guard's required warning label on gasoline boats says to run the blower for 4 minutes before starting the engine.
3. Sniff the engine compartment and bilge. If you smell gasoline, do not start the engine. Find the source first.

Diesel is far less explosive than gasoline, but it still burns, and a diesel spill is still illegal.

Carbon Monoxide

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colourless, odourless gas produced by engines, generators and some heaters and stoves. The CDC warns that CO can build up under the stern deck or around a swim platform and kill within seconds there.

Where it collects: in the cabin and cockpit when idling or motoring slowly with a following wind; under canvas enclosures; around the transom and swim platform; and from a neighbouring boat's generator when rafted up.

Signs: headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, chest pain and confusion. They look very like seasickness or too much sun. People who are asleep or drunk can die without waking.

What to do:

• Fit a marine CO alarm in each sleeping area, and test it.
• Never let anyone swim or hang on the swim platform near a running engine or generator.
• If someone shows symptoms, get them into fresh air at once, shut down the source, and call for medical help.

Running Aground and Taking On Water

Running aground. Most groundings in sand or mud are a nuisance, not a disaster. The first steps:

1. Stop. Check that nobody is hurt.
2. Check for damage: look in the bilge and at the keel bolts for water coming in.
3. Work out the tide. On a rising tide, you may simply wait. On a falling tide, act fast or prepare to settle.
4. Try to get off the way you came on, reversing gently. Heeling the boat, by moving crew to the side or swinging the boom out, reduces a keelboat's draft. Hard reversing in sand or mud can choke the cooling water intake.
5. If you cannot get off, set an anchor towards deep water to stop yourself being pushed further on, and call for a tow.

Taking on water. First, find out how fast it is coming in, and from where.

• Start the bilge pump and get the crew working the manual pump too.
• Check the usual suspects: through-hull fittings, hoses and hose clamps, the stern gland, the cockpit drains and the engine cooling system.
• Plug holes with softwood plugs, rags or cushions. Tape or a sail over the outside can slow a large leak.
• If the water is gaining on the pumps, make a Mayday call while the radio still works. Prepare the life raft and grab bag.

Calling for Help: Towing Service or Coast Guard?

The Coast Guard's search and rescue priority is distress: a risk to life. For problems that are not life-threatening, the Coast Guard normally passes the job to commercial assistance towing firms, such as TowBoatUS and Sea Tow.

If things get worse, upgrade your call at once. Never hold back a Mayday because of cost.

Heat Illness

Heat exhaustion shows as heavy sweating, cool and clammy skin, weakness, cramps, nausea, headache and dizziness. Move the person into the shade, loosen their clothing, cool them with wet cloths and give them small sips of water.

Heat stroke is a medical emergency. The National Weather Service lists a body temperature above 103°F, confusion, a throbbing headache, hot red skin that may be dry or damp, and a rapid, strong pulse. Call for medical help at once, on VHF if you are offshore. Get the person into shade and cool them with water and wet cloths while you wait. Do not give fluids to someone who is confused.

Prevent it with hats, shade and plenty of water.

Worked Example: A Cold Spring Sail

It is May on the Chesapeake. The air is 70°F, but the water is still about 60°F. Your crew is wearing life jackets.

1. A crew member slips on the foredeck and goes over the side. She gasps and swallows water, but her life jacket keeps her head up.
2. You call "Crew overboard!", throw a floating line and turn back, with a crew member pointing at her.
3. You stop the engine before you reach her. She holds the line but cannot climb the ladder: her hands no longer grip.
4. You lift her with a halyard on a winch, keeping her as flat as you can.
5. She is shivering and confused. Below, you strip off her wet clothes, wrap her in a sleeping bag, and give a warm sweet drink once she is clearly awake.
6. You call the Coast Guard on 16 for medical advice and head for the nearest marina.

Common Mistakes

• Not wearing life jackets because the air is warm, when the water is cold.
• Rubbing the arms and legs of a hypothermic person, or giving alcohol.
• Opening the engine hatch wide to look at a fire.
• Starting a gasoline engine without running the blower and sniffing the bilge.
• Treating CO symptoms as seasickness.
• Calling Mayday for an engine that won't start, or delaying a Mayday because of a tow bill.

Summary

• Cold water kills through cold shock and swim failure, long before hypothermia. Wear a life jacket.
• Treat hypothermia gently: dry, insulate, warm the core first, no alcohol.
• Fire needs heat, fuel and oxygen. Class B is fuel, C is electrical. Never use water on either.
• Carry date-stamped, unexpired 5-B or 20-B extinguishers as required, and replace disposables after 12 years.
• After fuelling a gasoline boat, run the blower for 4 minutes and sniff before starting.
• CO is invisible and can kill quickly. Fit alarms and keep people off the swim platform.
• Use a towing service for non-emergencies, Pan-Pan for urgency and Mayday for distress.
• Heat stroke (above 103°F, confusion) is an emergency.

Check Your Understanding

1. In cold water, what usually kills first: hypothermia or cold shock and swim failure? Cold shock and swim failure. A life jacket protects against both.
2. Which part of a hypothermic person's body should you warm first? The core: chest, neck, head and groin.
3. Why should you not open an engine hatch wide when there is a fire inside? The rush of fresh air feeds the fire.
4. How long does the USCG warning label say to run the blower before starting a gasoline engine? 4 minutes, then check the bilge for fumes.
5. Your engine won't start on a calm day in a safe anchorage. Who do you call? A commercial towing service such as TowBoatUS or Sea Tow, not a Mayday.

Sources

• https://www.weather.gov/safety/coldwater
• https://weather.gov/safety/heat-illness
• https://archive.cdc.gov/www_cdc_gov/media/pressrel/fs050224.htm
• https://www.cdc.gov/carbon-monoxide/about/boating.html
• https://www.uscgboating.org/recreational-boaters/fire-extinguisher-faq.php
• https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/46/25.30-20
• https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/33/183.610
• https://www.uscga-district-7.org/pdf/operations/maritime_sar_assistance_policy.pdf