# How to escape a water vortex **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 25, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-escape-a-water-vortex/723467 "2015-06-25T19:57:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-escape-a-water-vortex/723467/1 "2015-06-25T19:57:00Z")
(that should read How to escape, not Hot to escape) From this: What method would be best for escape? moving in the direction of the swirl, against it, outwards or inwards, or some combo of them. My Wag would be go with the flow at full power, using speed in the turn to help push you to the outside, then a diagonal run out (forwards/outwards) Do not need answer fast. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-escape-a-water-vortex/723467/2 "2015-06-25T20:17:40Z")
That’s going down a drain. There’s no way that a person could swim out of that. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-escape-a-water-vortex/723467/3 "2015-06-25T20:24:11Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > That’s going down a drain. There’s no way that a person could swim out of that. I didn’t say swim, nor person, just powered movement through the water. It could be a watercraft or a animal. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2015, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-escape-a-water-vortex/723467/4 "2015-06-25T23:31:36Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > My Wag would be go with the flow at full power, using speed in the turn to help push you to the outside, then a diagonal run out (forwards/outwards) Yes you may need the momentum from the speed of water + engine, to get up the slope. Perhaps centrifugal will help to edge you up the slope… A sudden turn to go straight up the slope would be quite dangerous, because the water going under the vessel is quite fast… And anyway the turn would put the stern at a bad position, how does steering and propulsion work when its facing up a rough ripply slope ? better to be parallel to the ripples, and carefully edge outward… ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-escape-a-water-vortex/723467/5 "2015-06-26T05:16:16Z")
Can someone give me a bit of a refresher on the classics? How did Ulysses do it? ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-escape-a-water-vortex/723467/6 "2015-06-26T09:20:54Z")
Here you go: > [@](#): > > He kept his footing on the raft until the very last moment, and just as it was pulled into the vortex, he leaped as high as he could upon the naked face of a rock, scrabbling for a handhold. He caught a clump of lichen, and clung with all his strength. He could climb no higher on the rock; it was too slippery for a foothold. All he could do was cling to the moss and pray that his strength would not give out. He was waiting for Charybdis to spit forth the tide again. > > The long hours passed. His shoulders felt as though they were being torn apart by red-hot pincers. Finally he heard a great tumult of waters and saw if frothing out of the cave. The waves leaped toward his feet. And then he saw what he was waiting for — his raft came shooting up like a cork. > > He dropped upon the timbers. Now he would have some hours of quiet water, he knew, before Charybdis drank again. So he kept to that side of the strait, holding as far from Scylla as he could, for he well remembered the terrible reach of her arms. [http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/mmarassa/mythology/cattle.html](http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/mmarassa/mythology/cattle.html) ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-escape-a-water-vortex/723467/7 "2015-06-26T10:57:52Z")
There’s vortices in Dublin? ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-escape-a-water-vortex/723467/8 "2015-06-26T11:43:36Z")
> [@D18](#): > > There’s vortices in Dublin? No. …and even [Lurgan](http://www.lovelurgan.com/images/gallery/36.jpg) is quite a long drive north… ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-escape-a-water-vortex/723467/9 "2015-06-26T13:29:35Z")
**Moderator Note** > [@kanicbird](#): > > (that should read How to escape, not Hot to escape) Fixed. ---
**Author:** ![Kelevra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/97f17d/32.png) [@Kelevra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelevra)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-escape-a-water-vortex/723467/10 "2015-06-26T17:33:47Z")
Here’s the story of [Lake Peigneur](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddlrGkeOzsI) in Louisiana. In 1980 the lake drained into a salt mine below it causing a vortex. One fisherman describes his escape. Plus cool video of barges being sucked in! ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-escape-a-water-vortex/723467/11 "2015-06-26T17:53:15Z")
My wild ass guess is that there’d be a few too many variables to identify a single optimal solution. For example, if you have enough power to point straight up the incline (that is, pretty much radially outward) and make really good headway, do that, allowing your craft to sideslip with the current (taking advantage of the centrifugal force). Obviously, if at max power, you’re not making any vertical headway, that clearly isn’t a solution, so you’d point downstream until you are. The simplest plan would be to head downstream at an angle, and turn inward or outward to wherever you’re making the most headway towards the periphery. The thing is, do it FAST because as you get closer to the center your chances drop dramatically. BTW, the usual advice about rescuing yourself in a rip current is wrong. The usual advice is to swim parallel to shore. Well, when you’re in a rip current, it’s usually hard to tell, other than the fact that you can’t manage to swim back to shore. Likewise, it’s hard to tell when you’re out of it, if you swim parallel. If instead, you swim at say a 45 degree angle towards shore, you’ll quickly both (a) swim out of the rip current and (b) find yourself closing in on the shore. (That worked for me, and it’s a good thing, because I was fricking wiped out by the time I realized I was in a rip current. I thought I was just unable to scale the 6’ waves breaking just inshore of me.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-escape-a-water-vortex/723467/12 "2015-06-26T18:04:07Z")
[Poe says cling to a barrel.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Descent_into_the_Maelstr%C3%B6m) ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-escape-a-water-vortex/723467/13 "2015-06-26T19:14:14Z")
Must be Northern Hemisphere, note the counter-clockwise motion?