Many years ago.....
We spent the better part of a nasty day hunkered down in the inner harbor of Dunkirk, NY on Lake Erie. We were on my brothers 26' foot wood Chris Craft where 8 of us enjoying libations all day waiting for the weather to settle. At 5 PM we felt it was good enough to run up the lake 20 nm to a popular watering hole. We were buddy boating with another cruiser at the time.
1/2 way up the girls needed a potty break, so off plane and into the water (such was the day). Our friends continued on. Almost immediately after getting back on plane we hear a loud boom and look into the cabin to see a wall of water coming through. I head down and start pulling out life preservers. When I run out of cabin due to the water I turn around and ask for my preserver, we were one short. I decided to grab the cooler, empty the contents and push my arms through the handles, it actually was a good float.
The boat sank within minutes, we had a 3' choppy sea state, the sun was setting and my brother had gone into diabetic shock. Not surprisingly, most of the crew was panicked as we were at least 3 miles off the shore and the water was cold (~64). While some friends took care of my brother, my wife and I started swimming towards a small fishing boat near shore. About half way there we noticed them moving towards us. They came up to us and picked us up but stated they could not fit 6 more on their boat, we insisted.
On the way back to pick up the others, the boater stated that they never saw us, what they did see was all the birds circling the food I dumped out of the cooler, they thought they were heading to fish.
By this time, our buddy boat returned, maybe an hour after we split with them. Since the small boat could not hold us we started a transfer in the choppy seas. Not a good idea and one of the gals decided to jump into the water just as the cruiser put the engines in reverse. She disappeared under the stern and popped back up on the side but had her achilles severed by the prop. Now we had to run back to port quickly.
To heap it on, our friends boat blew an engine running at full throttle back to the port, we limped in and had an ambulance waiting on the pier. All were safe outside of the achilles injury.
The boat was never found and I don't think I've ever moved a boat with more than one drink in me ever since!