Let me be the first to say, I'm delighted you are still here to tell the tale. And if your humour is intact remember "any landing you walk (swim) away from is a good one".
As you are a mod here, I'm sure you will recall this is a subject I've posted on many times as a ex sea survival instructor.
Anybody who flies light aircraft over water and does not heed your advice (or mine) is just plain dumb.
Your post above should be a sticky imo.
and whilst this may appear immodest, the subject it just too damn important so here is the link to my post/thread
http://www.pprune.org/private-flying...-survival.html
and here is an extract from that post, which perhaps PILOT DAR, you could help ram home.
However, like almost every article I ever read on this subject it simply does not convey the shock you going to be subject to when you hit very cold water at very high speed in a very hostile and completely overwhelming environment. Almost every time I read these articles, I find myself thinking, yeah, you’ve never done it mate.