HE DISLOCATES SHOULDER WHILE CLIMBING OFF AND COULD EASILY HAVE FALLEN INTO THE ICY COLD RIVER AT WATERMANS PARK, BRENTFORD.
Faced with a choice of sleeping in an alleyway or on this half-sunken wreck Gary chooses the latter – as previous videos here have shown.
Today (Saturday) Gary, 55, was on board as the tide came sweeping in and he seems to have left escape a bit late. He waded across the flooded deck and reached the ladder. But while trying to climb up he slipped and dislocated his shoulder. In pain, and struggling, he could easily have fallen into the icy cold water of the Thames where he'd have struggled to survive.
These pictures were taken 20 minutes later and indicate the height of the tide.
Police, fire and ambulance arrived, blue lights flashing and sirens wailing.
Firemen helped Gary on to dry land and then up the slope to an ambulance parked outside Watermans Theatre. He was wrapped up to restore his body temperature and the paramedics treated his shoulder.
Before he was taken off to West Middlesex hospital, an officer arrived from Hounslow Council. The council have been trying to stop him boarding the boat. This incident will no doubt increase their resolve. But it may increase Gary's too. He is single-minded and determined.
Gary needs shelter, and refuses to go into a hostel. He would like a small flat or something similar to the one he lost earlier this year in Acton, in the hope that a fixed address would help him find a job and live independently as he has most of his life. He is an intelligent, articulate person and attended Walpole Grammar School as a youth. But, as a single man, he is classed as low priority on the housing waiting list.
Without a solution, one fears Gary may be back at Watermans when his shoulder is better. He prefers this sunken, wreck of a boat to sleeping in an alleyway.