Ronald is right. panic is your worst enemy.

I've gotten wrapped up in stuff going over, and had a boat start to come over on me, being cool and keeping your head about you is the key.

The other is knowing how to crash, either picking where you are going to go sliding through, or grabbing onto something so you don't go whistling through a mess of lines is important and it comes with experience. I don't know the details, but I can imagine if she got hooked on that stuff, she could have just as easily planted a foot against the mast, which I've done plenty of times myself. The other thing I do is cling onto the hull like a spider monkey. Doesn't help if you're on the wire, but sitting on the boat it usually works. Then you just slide down the underside of the boat to the hull thats in the water.