In the early 90s I was on a stacked rig anchored about 1/2 mile off Invergordon.
One Saturday afternoon in the winter myself and Bob the electrician went ashore for ‘supplies’ and ended up staying in the ‘Calley’ bar all afternoon. By the time we left it was dark and very cold. We were a little too much for the drink and when we tried to get in the boat I fell in the water. I can still remember sinking down and looking up through the water and seeing the dock lights. I then started swimming up to the surface. Bob tried to pull me into the boat but could not do it. So I swam across to the Yokohama fender that the ferries tied up to and tried to climb out but it kept spinning it was a bit like a hamster’s wheel. Bob managed to put his foot on it a stop it spinning and I climbed out. I was absolutely freezing and by the time I got back to the rig my boiler suit was almost frozen solid, so it was straight into the shower to warm up. Whenever we went ashore we had to inform Invergordon port control we were taking a boat into the West Harbour in Invergordon. The next day when the OIM contacted port control, via radio, to tell them he was sending the boat into the West Harbour they said they saw us having a bit of trouble the previous evening, they had watched the whole episode on the dock cameras.
I can still remember sinking in the water and it seemed like it went on forever but was probably only a few secs.