Upfront warning: I'm tooting my own horn here by announcing the release of my latest sailing book, Suddenly Overboard: True Stories of Sailors in Fatal Trouble. Published by International Marine/McGraw-Hill, it is now available from the publisher and online bookstores. Despite the title of this post, it's not a huge disaster story like The Perfect Storm but a collection of short stories of sailors who experienced disasters and, often, became fatalities if they weren't rescued first. The stories are told in dramatic narratives, not as lessons, but they are all true, and all of us sailors can become much safer on the water if we realize how many ways there are for something to suddenly go wrong. The book is the culmination of several years of research into all sailing fatalities and rescues reported by the Coast Guard as well as in news reports and personal interviews. One of the most startling things I discovered in this research is that it's not the big stuff like storms or collisions or sinkings that put most of us sailors at risk - but the everyday situations we experience every time we get on a boat. For example, more sailors die while anchoring or docking their boats than from storms at sea, usually at times when they least expect trouble. There are dozens of ways to end up suddenly overboard, but knowing how it has happened to others makes us safer ourselves if only because we're paying closer attention. Beyond this, I hope you find the stories also a plain old good read.
