Are full down ladders that are designed for boats expensive ? My Nautic star came with one, used it a cple times.

My neighbor was sitting on his back porch a couple of years ago . He heard someone yelling from the middle of the lake. He went down to his dock, and could see
a pontoon boat with no one on it , He finally saw the boater in the water. He lowered his boat and made the rescue. The fellow was exhausted, but with help,
made it onto Rick's boat. In the mean time , the pontoon had drifted all the way down to Brookshire's recreation area. The grounds keeper saw the
unmanned boat and retrieved it. Same story , the fellow jumped in to cool off ( no life jacket) , it was fairly windy and the boat drifted way faster than the man could swim.
I feel certain Rick saved a life that day.

Be careful out there

MO

Glad you made back in that is scary at least you put a life jacket on . I knew a guy that jumped out of a pontoon on Livingston years ago and got a cramp and the wind blew the boat away from and he drowned .

Everyone be safe. I hate hearing the helicopters hovering over the lake!
Glad you are safe Dennis.

Mr. Dennis...

Glad you are OK! Now that we know you are ok, this is very entertaining and a good life lesson... thanks for sharing!

I have always said that God takes care of children and fools... and I have been both. This might qualify?

take care,

Ken

As mentioned earlier, tilt trim is very powerful, if you straddle/sit on cavitation plate, you can trim up to full horizontal with many motors. At that point either scooting up over motor head or stepping off onto transom will work. Keep this in mind if someone is injured and you can't help them aboard also. Used this method once to help lift a boat trailer that dropped off edge of ramp and hung up on axle . Rope to each corner of trailer and up over cavitation plate, trimmed up and it was just enough to get wheel back on ramp. We were there scratching our heads a long while before we MacGyvered it out!
Glad your story had a happy ending Dennis, would sorely miss your detailed reports

Glad for the happy ending and thank you for the passing of wisdom and lessons learned.

We are all very happy you figured it out. You did one thing right that probably saved your life, you put on a life jacket. Even with a ladder it is very difficult for us mature fishermen to get back in a boat. If you decide to cool off in the future please motor into the shallows first. You just pointed out to me that even though Rob and I wear auto deployed life jackets, if one of us would go into the water it would be very difficult to pull the other one out and we would have to rope into the shallows to get back in.
As you pointed out a ladder or rope will push back under the boat and unless you have a lot of strengh it is very difficult. Does anyone have a solution. Is there a rigid ladder?

Scary situation. I am willing to bet many folks lost their lives in a similar situation. Especially those who did not think to put on that life jacket just in case!

I have to say props for being out there fishing at your age. What a blessing. I would be so lucky. And still tough enough to take on 100 degree days with the Rona. I am half your age and the heat gets to me after even a half day if I am not really mindful of drinking water, taking it easy, taking a dip, loose and light colored clothes, the big hat etc.

Sounds like you learned some good lessons and gave several others something to seriously consider that will result in them being safer on the water... man overboard test season is here. We should all do a few (controlled/safe) tests...so if something happens you dont have to think. You know the drill.

God bless you sir and be safe!