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>> DOUGIE: I was unconscious - I mean the next thing I woke up and I was floating about in the ocean
and if it wasn't for the PFD I would have been... drowned obviously. Gone.
You're on your own; you've got nobody to help you. Things can happen out in a boat...
...as it did in my case. One day I went out and I'd actually just
been mending a set of creels and I said to my partner I was just going to head out
for about half an hour
to shoot off a fleet of creels and as you think, "Oh, it's only a kinda 30 minute job," you know,
and then you're life kinda completely changes.
>> CAROL: The day that Dougie had the accident
the weather wasn't brilliant but it was certainly, it was nice enough to be... to be going out.
>> DOUGIE: I went through the middle of the boat,
didn't go to either edge and all that happened was the boat took a flick,
and I'm honestly I just - you wouldn't believe it,
but anyway, I just went straight over, as if you'd clicked your fingers;
in one minute was in the boat, the next minute I was in the water.
And everything seemed to be slow, very slow; everything seemed to happen very slowly
So you're kinda going from the thing, "Yeah, I'll be alright,"
you know, "yeah, yeah, no worries, I'll get out o' here," you know,
"I'll sort it out; it's no problem, I can pull myself out; I can do this, I can do that" -
so slowly, you do that a few times and you attempt to get -
- you attempt to get out, and then things then all of a sudden
things start to think, "Oh no, I don't know whether I'm going to be able to to this," you know,
"I don't know if things are looking that good..."
I was amazed how quickly you get exhausted,
d'ye know; you know you you think "I can last a little bit;" you know,
"I'd last five minutes trying to get myself out."
I remember at one point hanging off the back when I lost, er,
lost grip of the boat, and I managed to get back on. I remember at that point -
(it was out of exhaustion; I couldn't hold onto the boat anymore)
- and er, but eventually I got the kinda energy to pull myself back and I had another
two shots after that, and after that point
I just thought, "No, I'm just gonna make my peace now; I'm not gonna get out o' this."
What I kinda decided to do was actually to lock my arms round the
rail on the side of the gunwale and I thought to myself,
"Well, at least, you know, people are going to find a body, they're not gonna be wondering
what happened tomorrow," you know.
For me that was the thing. My realisation - I really wanted
them to find my body, and I think it was just for the people,
my loved ones, round about me that they would have that
kinda, I s'pose end to the nightmare that had been for me.
At least they would have had the body.
A wee while later, the next thing, I get washed up the rocks.
I wasn't actually on Coll, I was on an island called Coll Sedeland Island which is just off of Coll.
and I thought, "Right, this is kinda ironic; I haven't drowned but I'm now gonna die o' hypothermia!"
>> CAROL: He'd gone out just to drop one fleet of creels.
He shouldn't have been that long, so I just got in the van and drove down to
the pier, the main pair where the Cal-Mac ferry comes in and
if he was out there I should have been able to see him from there - and I couldn't.
So then I started to panic, though then I came back up and I phoned
one of the other fishermen and then we went together down to the pier to have a look for Dougie -
- and was Kenny that spotted him. A really small person standing on the shoreline
waving his PFD!
>> DOUGIE: People think that accidents only happen in bad weather you know,
and that's - that's the wrong way to look at it you know. Accidents can happen anytime
and that's the advantage of wearing a PFD all the time;
it's because things can transpire quite quickly.
If I hadn't been wearing my PFD I wouldn't be here today, you know, so,
and if you've got it on, you're covering your bases. It's not hard to wear,
is not uncomfortable. As soon as you start wearing it and get into the habit of wearing it
you won't do anything without it.
The first thing I do when I get on the boat -
is I put mine on!
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