For a reason. I swim two kilometers every morning, and if the pool for some reason is too warm, that’s what really saps my energy, from overheating.
February, 40°F more or less, water temp unknown. Family was going down Ft Gibson Res in N/E Oklahoma between Snug harbor & White Horn Cove. Open 14’ aluminum boat.
I was sitting up on the side of the boat. 13-14 years old, no one had life jackets on, 1955-56 maybe.
Dad told me to sit on the seat. I did not move. He told me again, I waited just a little to long to comply. He knocked me out of the boat. Heavy coat, hat, gloves, lace up high top leather boots. He just kept on going down the lake.
I was just bobbing there waiting for him to turn around. He didn’t. Just kept going. Okay, I guess I really messed up this time so I looked around for the nearest land. It was about a thousand miles N/E of me, which was behind me compared to where I entered the water. Pulled my coat and boots off with much breath holding and struggling and started for land dragging my coat and with my boots over my neck by the laces.
Behind me, Dad with encouragement from Mom, I later learned, decided I had probably learned my lesson. He turned around and came for me.
Maybe 10 minutes in the water total? Seemed like an hour. I heaved myself over the side without any help offered, and sat in a seat. We turned and headed on to White Horn Cove. No extra clothing was there to be offered and I don’t think it would have been if there was. I got a bit chilled. We were there abound an hour which I spent inside the heated fishing dock. Was another 30-40 minute ride back to the cabin and was still pretty wet.
From then on, when Dad was there, I sat on a seat.
I do not remember being in a panic.
I do not remember how I knew to get the coat & boots off. Must have been taught that at some point.
Why I pushed Dad on this I do not know. All of us knew that Dad never told us anything three times. I guess my timing was just a bit slow that day.
So, yeah, I can do 3-400 feet starting clothed, after going overboard unexpectedly. Been there, done that. I am also now SCUBA open water & night certified. Rolled a few boats in my time and hated the orange life vests.
Folks were not as fanatical about water safety back then. We lived through it, many did not but they did not live my life or have my life experiences either.
My Dad would never have done this to one of my little sisters, they could not have made it. He know I could and seeing that lesson ensured one more lesson about doing what Dad said was learned by all seven of us kids.
I need the actual lesson. I was/am kind of a ‘gonna do it anyway’ type. Bawahhaahaha
Yes. I learned to swim in a spring-fed lake in Maine (i.e. cold), and swimming to my friend’s house (about 5 houses down the shore) was a regular activity.
Of course, although to be fair I’ve never swam fully clothed, if that’s the situation we’re in.
My wife and I do a lot of open water swimming in lakes and rivers, all over England and Scotland, and in some extremely cold water. For example, we had a lovely Christmas Day swim (8 deg C) on the Isle of Skye last year, and a long swim on New Year’s Day on the Isle of Harris (both fully suited & booted though). We have a 5km race in the Lake District later this coming summer (Buttermere) and regularly swim 2-3km in local rivers and gravel pit lakes.
On pool swimming, our local gym has two pools (one inside and one outside) and no proper swimmers can stomach the heat of the interal pool - two or three lengths and you’d be a sweatly mess. That’s great for us as we often have the outside pool to ourselves whilst the kids play inside - it’s still heated, but kept at about 25C, not the 31C of the inside pool.
Yes. 100m isn’t that far, and I’ve certainly swum further in cold ocean water; once upon a time, my swimming test involved shucking clothes while in the water, and I’ve swum competitively. Even now, though it’s been a while, I’d be comfortable swimming for half an hour straight in the pool (okay, stopping every couple of laps, changing stroke every few laps) - I’ve done that when I’ve been less fit that now. They’re not fast laps, but they’re consistent. For something like this, I’d probably default to sidestroke, switching sides when necessary.
At summer camp in the 1960s, we practically lived in the water. Plus we had those Red Cross skill gradations, where you had to do a distance swim as part of the deal.
So when I was in my 20s and 30s, when I’d done a lot of swimming recently enough that my body could swim a good distance if it had to, I’m sure I could have.
Now, 100 yards in calm, warm water would be exhausting, because I almost never swim very much nowadays. Even when I’m out of recent practice, I can push myself out the door and run a mile or bicycle 30 miles, but the swimming muscles are gone.
And yeah, cold water sucks out your energy quickly. If I have time, I can float/sidestroke and take it easy, but if the water’s cold, I don’t have time. Hold breath, shed clothes, get moving as best I can. (Trying to make a float out of the jeans I usually wear, if I’m wearing long pants of any sort, wouldn’t be worth the trouble.)
It’s hard to say whether I’d get to shore before getting overcome by hypothermia.
But then, I wouldn’t be caught out in a boat/canoe/kayak without a life jacket. Got that drummed into me at that same summer camp, and in those same Red Cross lessons.
Well about 15 years ago down in Branson Missouri there is a ride called “Ride the Ducks” where people ride in these amphibious craft that goes on land as well as in the lake. Well one time a tragedy happened. A few minutes after the duck went into the lake it suddenly sank due to an mechanical issue. None of the passengers were wearing life jackets and a couple people drowned.
So it can happen.
Maybe. Despite my mobility problems I can still swim OKish. I’m actually taking lessons to try to improve my stroke and it’s not that bad, really, though different.
I do tend to get bad asthma attacks in even slightly cold waters and that would be exacerbated by effort. I’ve never swum ten lengths without needing to stop all light-headed for an inhaler usage, and that’s in a pool (even a lake has waves and currents more than a pool), but if I really had to? Maybe.
And actually if I were on a boat I’d put my inhaler some where I could get to it so the chances get better. (Female swimsuits allow for this. Inhalers filled with water still work). Generally, if I’m on a ferry, fully dressed but remembering Zeebrugge, I stuff my inhaler down my bra while on deck. 
I float ridiculously well so that would help.
BTW, I should say that 10 lengths in my local pool = 330m.
When I was a kid I couldn’t float in the Great Salt Lake. Too skinny. It made my dad mad that I sank. Nowadays I could float just fine because I’ve gained enough fat.
Swimming is pretty tiring. If it wasn’t too cold I could make it. Probably backstroke.
It’s not a matter of body fat for me-I’m not skinny. At the gym an instructor thought I was just afraid of the water, and I said “Toss me one of those floatation worm thingees”. I put it in front of me and threw my arms over it, then lifted my legs…and went under.
I’m not a strong swimmer but could easily swim 300 feet. When I say “swim”, I mean dog paddle for a while, rest floating on my back for a while, dog paddle a bit longer etc.
I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve been dumped off in the middle of the lake and had to swim back to our test barge as part of an experiment. Granted, there is a chase boat nearby but I’ve never needed it. Most of these swims are in the 2-3 hundred yard range.
This makes me wonder about the potential advantages of higher body fat. It’s quite possible for someone to be physically fit enough to swim that distance despite being overweight. Excess fat could also increase their buoyancy and insulate against cold, couldn’t it?
Having swum in the 68 degree average waters of Puget Sound many times as a youngster, I think I could still swim as far as the OP decreed. I have been wading in recent years so still know what it feels like. I’m the kind of person who prefers to submerge myself in cold water all at once rather than gradually, so I think this would be an advantage. Finding myself suddenly in the water wouldn’t be as big a shock, I think.
Several years ago, I got down to my lowest ever adult weight of 140 pounds. I was surprised how hard it was to keep above water in a friend’s pool. It was something of a struggle, actually. When I was much heavier, it was so easy. I’ve regained some ahem natural buoying substance back since then so I think I would be OK and this point in time.
Still, it would be nice to be 140 again.
This.
As for “cold water” I got that whole walrus thing going on. My lard might stiffen up a bit from the chill, but I wouldn’t really notice until I was wrapped up in a blanket in front of the fire.
A May morning? No problem.
As long it’s May and we’re in Florida. Water’s not bad then.
May in Maine? I’m a redheaded ice cube.
The bra is a good idea. I keep my inhaler on my person, too; when I would go kayaking/canoeing/tubing in Florida, I wore the inhaler on a lanyard. Worked a treat.
I also get bronchiospasm with cold water.
This. 100m would be a piece of cake, even in temps down to 16-18C/60-65F. In the pool, 100m isn’t even a decent warmup distance for me. In 50F/10C water? I definitely wouldn’t bet my life on it. EDIT: And I do SCUBA diving for a hobby, in water temps down to 3-4C/below 40F.
Which is why the OP’s scenario isn’t relevant to me. I don’t enter a small boat (or canoe, or kayak, or… well, you get it) without wearing some kind of flotation device.
No. Like many, I can do that in a pool, but I once capsized a kayak and ended up in the water (it was either Lake Windemere or Lake Bala in the UK, I can’t remember which) and just froze. I had to be towed to the shore.