Sad Day at Put-In-Bay

Saw that. Also read that it was a 330 Sundancer. Hope it wasn't somebody from here (not that it makes it any better). My wife keeps saying she wants to jump in with her life jacket on to see how it is. I told her a few times to do it while we are anchored and she says she would feel safer at the marina with the boat tied up. After seeing this she understood why I was saying that.
 
Sad. A reminder for all of us that the dock-side pedestal is the last thing that should be connected when getting into a slip. I suspect someone plugged-in the cord on the pedestal and powered the cord. Then forgot to get it connected to the boat and it somehow fell into the water in the confusion of docking and the dog falling in. Pure speculation of course but I could definitely see it happen anywhere.
 
Tragic. I've already emailed the article to my home marina, asking them to post the story on our bulletin board. Every year, there are a few members or their guests escaping the heat of the dock by jumping in for a quick dip. There is a "no swimming" policy, but it is difficult to police. There are many novice boaters that just don't see what the big deal is since nobody has ever had a problem... The concept of water that is safe last time may not be next time seems to escape them.

All we can do is help to spread the word guys.
 
This incident was sighted in an article of an 11 year old girl who was electrocuted in a similar way in Tom River, NJ last weekend.. Very sad loss on both accounts. According to the story she was floating on a raft and touched a boat lift and was shocked... Very sad.

To think when I was a youngster I swam in the back canal in Wildwood, NJ and never heard about such incidents. Other than getting bit by green heads, I never worried about anything else. I suspect that I was merely fortunate that the pier we docked on did not have electric to it nor did our little 22' cuddy need it..
 
It's my understanding that the boat and the pedestal have been cleared by the Coast Guard, with no issues that could be reproduced. I think they are looking at the possibility of a docked nearby boat having the problem. Very tragic chain of events.
 
This is a bigger problem is fresh water than in salt water. In fresh, your body is a better conductor of electricity than the water so the current tends to take the short route thru you to ground. In salt, the water is a better conductor so the current tends to flow around you. I had an issue memorial day weekened, fixed docks, big tides salt water. Someone wrapped up some slack in my shore cord and when the tide dropped extra low, the cord pulled out of the twist lock and thru the threaded ring mad ended up hanging in the air, until tide came in. Got to boat late before high tide and noted cord end now submerged about four feet, breaker not tripped. I shut off dock breaker and pulled cord up and thé boat end was as warm as a cup of coffee in my hand even after being in 70* water. Had we been in fresh water, that could have been very bad. I bought a new cord next morning and told manager what happened and told him to be sure nobody messes with my cord slack.
 
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