Being Wet Kills, Fast!©

 

 

“You’re in hot water!”, the Oxford Language dictionary defines this phrase as you’re “in a situation of difficulty, trouble”, everyone knows that, right?¹  But in the wilderness, how often are you threatened with hot water?  Probably not that often.  In the wilderness the phrase ought to be changed to, “you’re in cold water, and being wet kills, fast!”  And don’t forget the “120^o Rule”, for more on this read “The 120 Degree Rule ©”, HERE.

 

Being wet or in cold water can kill you, as it quickly causes hypothermia, a condition where your body can not produce or conserve enough heat to survive.  But what can you do to prevent this condition from progressing to the point where you die?

 

There are two major ways that someone in cold water loses body heat -- conduction and convection.  Conduction is when body heat is lost directly to the environment by direct contact and convection is when body heat is lost by moving water or air.

 

Conduction...

 

Convection...

 

Dress in layers...

 

Just like dressing in layers can protect you from the cold on land, it can protect you if you end up in the water.  The layers will help keep the body-warmed water near your skin and prevent it from drifting away because of convection, as long as you stay still, that is.  Also, keeping your head covered with a hood or a knit cap will help keep you warm and increase your survival time.

 

Don’t swim for it!

 

Because of convection and conduction, in cold water you cannot stay alive long by treading water or swimming for it.  In cold water survival situations, swimming, or treading water, simply hastens your death by hypothermia.  This is because, as you swim or tread water, blood is forced from your core to the large muscles of the upper body and limbs, where it is quickly cooled by conduction, as it flows through the arteries close to your skin, and by convection, as you move and force the water to flow past you.  And even if you are treading water slowly, just enough to keep afloat, you will cool about 35% faster than if you floated motionless.

 

By wearing a flotation device and remaining still, rather than swimming, you can increase your survival time by about 33%.  Also, in a cold water survival situation, don’t use the drownproofing technique of lowering the head into the water and then gently raising it to breathe², because by getting your head wet you will cool 82% faster than if you floated with your head and neck above the water.

 

The hands have it...

 

As you get colder, and the temperature of your hands drops closer to the water temperature, the dexterity of your hands will drop off quickly.  The colder the water, the faster this happens.  In cases of total body immersion in water that is 32^o F (0^o C), you can lose hand dexterity in less than a minute!  Your hand dexterity is first affected when your hands skin temperature drops to 55 to 65^o F (13 to 18^o C).  At a hand skin temperature of 50^o F (10^o C), you will experience numbness and diminished feeling, your ability to tie and untie knots will fall by 25% and your grip strength decreases by as much as 50%.

 

If you are in the water and you can get out by quickly by getting to land, or by boarding a raft or a boat, if one is available, do it as soon as possible, before your hand dexterity declines.  For the same reason, once you are in the raft, or out of the water, you need to carry out all necessary survival activities before your hands get too cold.

 

Windchill...

 

Building a shelter, or erecting a canopy, or spray shield on a raft to protect you from the wind is crucial.  Because if your clothes are wet, and it is windy, you will lose body heat 240 times faster than if your clothes are dry. 

 

And don’t forget to put some type of insulating material underneath you when you sit, to lessen convective heat loss to the ground, or the water below the raft, depending on whether you have made it to shore or are out on the water still.

 

Also, remember to keep your head covered at all times, because you can lose a considerable amount of your heat to radiation and convection from your head.  Huddle close together with other survivors to conserve body heat if there are any.

 

Remember being wet kills, fast!

 

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Building a WWII Emergency Sustenance Vest, Type C-1, Part Three©”, where we will talk about how to build a survival match box like the DuPage Path-Pilot Compass camp.

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Notes

 

¹ Oxford Languages, HERE

 

² The drownproofing technique is a warm water survival tip, to use to conserve energy when you are not wearing a personal flotation device.

 

Sources

 

 

Coast Guard, Department of Transportation, A Pocket Guide to Cold Water Survival, CG 473, September 1975, https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QafxNJBmiIml6O4jiudRpr2rz8pLfodQOiq-4gZNh4xa5uIN_rq05C2yAes1AYw67Ziq189QaQaFDHBHE0SJivfCxjMW1DReANLjFqw1qX6jEl2mz1HPKXj4BRQJv8zAOcO6oDE70Dcv__VE2uPh4tEqLSzMxDRiWOv3p6ssyQjE2bevJMX7-Ol2KDtIPQVcVuaJudJMLaOOuSUVs8qYS1Nlaxnm47GVOCXLR79KzL6nV3R0zZG4DxRt9hoYrIRGugXm6RVfbU2gxeix7JLKbxpvQsNB9w, accessed May 1, 2022

 

Oxford Languages, https://www.google.com/search?q=your+in+hot+water&oq=your+in+hot+water&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30l7j0i390i650l2.4735j1j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8, accessed May 5, 2023

 

Warren, Elizabeth G., SSGT.; “Hypothermia Missing in the Atlantic”, Flying Safety, November 1983, pages 12-15, https://books.google.com/books?id=gDd8qzWSi4YC&pg=RA1-PA7&dq=airplane+crash+survival&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjWz5PUgMb9AhVVEVkFHTulDlI4FBDoAXoECAIQAg#v=onepage&q=airplane%20crash%20survival&f=false, accessed May 6, 2023