Not a Place to Go Barefooted

A lot of folks like to shed their shoes this time of year, but as one person at West Neck Marina learned earlier today, you might want to think twice about doing that around the catwalks alongside a boat ramp. He ended up going to a local emergency room when he caught one of the cleats on the catwalk between his little toe and the one next to it.

Thankfully, he was with my friend, Wayne, at the time and got the immediate help he needed to get ready for the transit to an emergency room.

I personally witnessed one of these same cleats cause a young jet skier to take an unexpected plunge a couple weeks ago. The cleats, however, aren't the only dangers, especially if you're barefooted. Splinters from the wooden planks always are possible. I've also noticed some spike nails that are working their way back out of the planks. And, too, one of the plank ends is broken and sags when someone puts their weight on it.

My advice would be to have on some kind of footwear anytime you're around a boat dock. And it goes without saying: Always look where you're stepping.

I called and talked to the victim this morning (Monday, Aug. 19, 2013), and here's what I learned:

His injury doesn't involve any broken toes. Instead, his little toe tore away from the rest of his foot, which required the doctor to close as best he could with six stitches. The doctor also told him to take a few days off and gave him a prescription for Percocet to help manage the pain.

The real bummer here is that the victim had taken today and tomorrow off to do a little fishing. He was at West Neck yesterday so that Wayne could get his outboard running right. Now, though, he's forced to sit home and recuperate...and hopefully sometime this next weekend get Wayne back out there to work on his outboard.

The victim readily admits his problem is all of his own doing--he knows he should have been wearing shoes.