i had a little incident that shook me up a few years ago. I had only had my 5.5 for a little while, and was still learning how to sail it (big upgrade from my TheMightyHobie18)

We had just left a beach front tiki hut with food and drinks (Shells). the wind and waves were picking up as we left, but it seemed very manageable.

Belly full of great food, and a few rums in me, I jumped on the wire while sailing (west) out the Sand Key Pass. as i got into the gulf and headed north. my cat got turned around in a wind shift, and pretty fierce current change, and the boat capsized on top of me while on the wire.

I was getting tossed around with the surf pretty badly. I was trying to get my righting bag together but another cat was trying to give me some "assistance" from the water. he was trying to sail by me, grab the mast head, and lift it up a few feet. First attempt he ran into and got tangled in my spin bridal wires, second attempt he ran into my spin pole, third attempt he hit and dented my mast, 4th attempt he actually grabbed it and by then i had my bag full of water.

As the cat righted, the rudders landed and ended up in the water, and the jib filled with air ... the boat took off on me.

I held onto the righting line with all i had, and did a hand over hand climb back to the boat. I struggled to get on the still moving boat and was JUST able to get on the boat. I was completely drained of strength at this point.

Everyone around me (on other cats) was yelling that i was heading right into a wooden pilling (swim area markers off clearwater beach). When i tried to steer away, i found out that my main & travler sheets had wrapped around my travler car while capsized and i could neither steer nor unsheet. I frantically untangled the mess and was able to steer away at the last second.

the next hour or so home was a rough beat to weather. I was so drained, that i sailed main only, and not sheeted hard. This just made the wave action worse, and my spin snuffer basket would "dip" into the wave in front of me, bend down and then literally spring up and shoot the water into the air and rain down on me.

lessons learned:
Don't capsize
if that fails
furl the jib when righting (or sheet it hard to middle)
If your friend runs into your boat more than 1 time.. ask him to stop
don't wear loose fitting pfd in waves, esp when soaking wet
dont underestimate the tide running n-s when you are sailing e-w