It was probably about 1970, and my wife and took two friends out in San Diego Bay on our Pacific Catamaran (P-Cat), an 18' sloop rigged cat that apparently was done in by Hobie. While tacking, I essentially stepped overboard between the hulls. About this time an aircaft carrier was coming in - the reason I was tacking - and the cat with no one on the helm was heading directly on a collision course. My wife hadn't sailed much, and in truth I hadn't either, but she took the tiller and somehow was able to came back for me on a smoking reach. I was wearing a PFD and paniced, thinking was going to be run down because I couldn't submerge. I wasn't run down, and it took a couple passes before they were able to throw me a
line while underway. It was almost like a frogman retrieval - I grapped the
line and went almost instantously from zero to how many knots I don't know. I pulled myself hand-over-hand, finally climbed aboard and complimented my wife on her cool handling in proximity to the aircraft carrier.
She hadn't seen it until then, but there were a lot of sailors on the rail enjoying the entertainment.