A great day....until

SUNDAY was a great day on the Aire & Calder until we reached Pollington Lock when No 1 son dodged a pile of dog muck walking up to operate the lock and his foot went over on a hole hidden in the grass. All we hear is a large splash, look round and No 1 son is nowhere in sight, writes Drew Hudson.

After what seemed an age up he pops and starts swimming to the boat.

Training kicked in

MOB [Man Overboard] training I had not thought about for years kicked in; put boat upwind of MOB, stop engine, drop ladder from bathing platform and help him climb in.

No panic and MOB out of water into cabin and getting wet gear off in about five minutes.

Then you start to think that though we had sent son for swimming and lifesaving lessons as a youngster so he knew about swimming while clothed and could get to the boat, but what if he had hit his head going in. It could have been so different.

Fitted boarding ladder

This is the first boat in 40 plus years of boat ownership that has a fitted boarding ladder, I have no idea how I would get a 14 stone teenager back aboard without it.

There are no escape routes from water until inside of the lock.

Our life ring is mounted too far forward to be used in a hurry, effectively useless.

We have four modern automatic life jackets on board, why if we don't use them? It was a lovely day what could go wrong.

I hope we remember this day for a long while.

Wear those life jackets

While sat back at the marina looking around and relieved we had got away more or less unharmed, then I realised none of the narrowboats have boarding ladders.

Yes a narrowboat has a low freeboard, but do you realise how heavy a fully dressed soaking wet adult weighs, how would you get a MOB back aboard? Please think about it and have a plan before it happens, Oh, and wear those lifejackets you have stored in a locker.