[Influence]

2 to 4 hours and they give up, no matter how cold it was I would have never given up.

That’s just a sad ending to a tragic story.

[oh8eleven]

no matter how cold it was I would have never given up.
Unless you've been through it, I suggest you can the false bravado.

[mysterio]

2 to 4 hours and they give up, no matter how cold it was I would have never given up.

I think it's pretty difficult for you to make that claim. Hypothermia and 6 hours floating in frigid water might make your thoughts not so clear.

[PurpleMan]

Yea, right.

[Ramius]

...no matter how cold it was I would have never given up.

We would all like to think so. But none of us knows for sure that hasn't been tested.

A few minutes in cold water is a long time. A few hours is an eternity. Hypothermia affects the mind as much as the body and it affects judgment almost like alcohol. People in this state aren't making decisions the way that they would under normal conditions. Nonsense may make sense when foolishness seems like sanity.

[1_Rain_Drop]

"2 to 4 hours and they give up, no matter how cold it was I would have never given up." I think you would give up, but not know that you have given up.

One summer I was up in Peekskill NY. It was a very hot day, a friend and I went to this creek that is extremely cold in one spot. I went in. It was freezing. As I was in the water, I tried to acclimatize to it. It felt being warm and cold at the same time. I must have been in the water for about 15 mins and had no intentions of coming out. It's as if I wanted to conquer the feeling of being cold. I wasn't aware that I was mentally lowering my body temperature.

All of a sudden I hear my friend yelling at me to come out of the water. He sounded urgent. I thought that maybe the cops were arriving because I was in a fishing area. So I reluctantly came out. My friend told me that I was turning blue, it scared him.

If it weren't for him, I would have stayed in the water much longer. It took me a long time to defrost, get the chills out.

One can never assume what one would do when in extremely cold water. The mind works differently. I was very surprised how irrational I was. At least I could have walked to shore, while the three that lost their lives, couldn't. :(

[elpadre]

the annals of sea tragedies are full of such stories. If you have never been in their shoes you just cannot imagine what goes on within a traumatized mind.