November in the English Chanel is no place to be without a dry suit full stop, no argument, without it you may well die The water off the North East coast is even worse. Dramatic? yes but true. I have pulled divers out of the water in dry suits that leaked off Whitley bay 20 mins after surfacing and they were hypothermic (hyper or hypo). I also rescued a Diver who thought it cool to try diving with no hood in a thin wet suit in Loch Linnhe he couldnt stay under water for more then 12 seconds. Another woman we pulled out of the Irish Sea after falling off a boat and being tossed about because the guys on the boat she fell off couldn't control their boat enough to get any where near her. The swell effect will scare you to death if the cold doesnt, add to that trying to locate your wife kids or girlfriend in those conditions?
There is a damned good reason why military pilots go over water in a dry suit and if you can inflate that and put your sarbe on you have a pretty good life raft of your own while you are trying to sort out the rest . Being cold drastically numbs your thinking and your ability to act. Getting into a life raft becomes an major ordeal even more so coming after the trauma of hitting the water in what ever you were previously in. You go from nice and warm to near freezing in 4-8 degrees with the nagging feeling you are not going to survive and have to think your way through that. You will do it better if you are warm and dry. Do you put comfort first? Ask the guys who fly out to the rigs every day or every 28 days going to work and back and you have your answwer!
