In crew-overboard situations, you first have to find the victim, make contact, and then recover him or her. There are a number of products marketed for use in those efforts. The two crew above, attempting to retrieve a COB, could make good use of a retrieval device like the Lifesling or a Quick Launch Safety Ladder. Note the great distance frow the water's surface to the deck. In a situation like this, the rescuers should be tethered to the boat as well.

Warren Brown was reminiscing: "That was the only time I've been frightened at sea. I’ve been worried. I've been nervous. I've been in hurricanes. But that was the only time I've ever been truly frightened."

The great Bermudian voyager was referring to the time one of his crewmembers was swept overboard from his 62-foot Sparkman & Stephens sloop War Baby (ex-Tenacious, ex-Dora IV). Before selling War Baby this year, Brown and his boat had voyaged to Spitzbergen, Antarctica, the Galapagos, Eastern Europe, and many points in between. Looking back recently, Brown reveled in his memories—except the one of a black night during one of War Baby's milk runs, a Newport-Bermuda Race.…