http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/ Stories on things that went wrong while cruising. Such tales can sometimes be amusing, but more importantly, the rest of us can learn from them. en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:25:11 GMT vBulletin 60 http://cdn.cruisersforum.com/forums/../ugala/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/ http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f108/stuart-fl-to-nassau-33256.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:52:41 GMT Could use advice on best route, where to clear Bahamas immigration etc. Any tips would be welcome Could use advice on best route, where to clear Bahamas immigration etc. Any tips would be welcome ]]> dsmpa http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f108/stuart-fl-to-nassau-33256.html http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f108/maiden-voyage-33228.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:12:13 GMT Or leaving Louisiana in the broad daylight After 18 months in New Iberia La. rebuilding this shrimp boat we finally pushed off. We tried a week... Or leaving Louisiana in the broad daylight

After 18 months in New Iberia La. rebuilding this shrimp boat we finally pushed off. We tried a week earlier but dropped a valve and cracked a head so we did an engine rebuild. I must say that even while the Detroit Diesel was grinding up it's own guts and spitting out the pieces through the exhaust it ran just fine, lost some rpm and belched a lot of smoke but kept right on chugging.

Left Vermillion Bay the first day to go around the Mississippi River outlet on the outside toward the Florida panhandle an had a fuel spill an hour out, ran aground the second day, hit some nasty weather the third day with stuff flying around the cabin since nothing was secured, and snapped my anchor cable the fourth day trying to pull it up. The snubber line held so I managed to retrieve the anchor with a chain.

Running aground was a hoot as the depth sounder was telling us we were in 93 ft of water, so I assumed we snagged a net or something that was holding us firm. I put on my full Jacque Cousteau drag and jumped in the water to do battle and landed on the bottom with water up to my tits. Our boat draws 6.5 ft so I knew right off this was not good. I did ease it off with no problem.

Anyway we're heading to Key West should you want to give us wide berth. ]]> lorenzo b http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f108/maiden-voyage-33228.html http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f108/tides-33166.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:03:20 GMT I bought a brand new motor boat from the London boatshow Two days after delivery I motored up the River Crouch (Essex England) and moored on a... I bought a brand new motor boat from the London boatshow

Two days after delivery I motored up the River Crouch (Essex England) and moored on a quayside next to a pub.

Aware of the tidal flow I checked the boat every few minutes;However at some point I must have left it 30 mins and it was hanging off the quay

Cut the ropes drifted with the trickle left in the stream, engine failed, went aground.

at high tide that midnight swam to boat and put it on a buoy centre channel

some local gents walked out on the mud at low tide stripped the electronics and mud spattered the interior

but I am still here ]]> slipstream http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f108/tides-33166.html http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f108/confession-32615.html Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:50:42 GMT So your not too dissapointed, I promise to have bigger screw-ups in the future. For now, I'll tell my tale of bad luck and I'm hoping that you can help me.

Today my boat came out of the water for winter :(. While at the docks, I was helping where I could (a lot of boat came out today). One Sailor was bringing his boat to the wall by himself and was headed for another boat and so I jumped :sprint:from the wall to his boat so I could grab his lines to toss to the hired help. That was fine until I walk to the stern of his boat to get his stern line. At that point, my iPaq fell out of its case and into the water. Its never done that before. It's in about 15 feet of (not clear) water and I would like to try to retrieve it. The loss of the iPaq itself is of little consequence (about 5 years old) but I would sure like some of the info that's on it back.
Does anyone have a good idea for a simple, cheap grapple/closing claw type device that they have made/saw/purchased. I know pretty closely where it fell in.

Any help or other ideas would be great.

Thanks,
Extemp. ]]> Extemporaneous http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f108/confession-32615.html http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f108/the-true-story-of-seven-twinkies-a-funny-story-32339.html Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:14:16 GMT [EDIT: If the original version, here, is too difficult to read, scroll down to post # 15 for a more easily read version. Same story, with paragraphs, spelling and grammar corrected, etc.]

The Story of Seven Twinkies

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a faithful trip. That started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship. Jody Starr, myself and a friend of ours Nicole tried to sail my new 19ft Nacra Catamaran from St. Croix to St. john Friday afternoon. We wanted to go on vacation, but Nicole who lived over there was gonna pack and move to St. Croix. We were also supposed to meet our buddy josh at 9:00 Saturday morning in St. john. He was gonna fly over in the seaplane. Due to a night of extreme debauchery Thursday night, we were all in terrible shape and probably had no business getting nto a boat to try to sail forty miles across open ocean. Needless to say we did and on one of the most insane times of my life, we set forth sailing to St. john at 2:30 Friday afternoon. It should have only been a four-hour sail and would have brought us into St. john just as the sun was setting. We had four big bottles of water, but only a bag of chex mix and seven twinkies for body fuel. That's right, seven Twinkies. I was so hungover when I was shopping that that was all I got. It didn't matter anyway to me though because an hour into our trip I became very seasick. I don't know what your idea of a good time, but hanging off the side of a boat puking and getting hammered by waves is very little fun. Besides the fact that I was super hungover, I was amazingly worthless for a long time. We were making awesome time and the boat was flying. We were on pace to be there in three and a half-hours. It was ironic because just before we left, a friend of ours told us "wait until you get out into the dead middle." "What’s the middle?" I asked. The guy goes "its twenty miles out and a very lonely place." This last phrase was one of the first things I thought of after one of the main stays broke and our mast fell into the water and what we determined to be the exact middle. Twenty miles from either island with no sail, three bottles of water and seven Twinkies. We were cruisin along at a good clip when I lost attention and a gust of wind almost capsized us. I had fallen asleep at this point in the fetal position and the sudden jolt woke me up and made me nauseous again. It might have saved me though because as I was puking, I heard this loud pop! And the mast fell into the water right next to me. Only a minute earlier I had been laying pretty close to the mast. I guess that was good luck. My immediate thought was bravely enough, death. That obviously left my head half a second thereafter when I realized that no matter what happened, I could still see both islands and knew eventually we would hit one of them, hopefully. With Chuck's prophecy ringing loud in our heads, we sat down, I lay there feeling like a truck had hit me. We sat the in sort of stunned state of mind for over an hour just trying to get our shit together. Finally after and hour, at 5:30 mind you, we mustered enough energy to try to rig some sort of contraption to get us home. it was slow goings because all of us were feeling awful and we trying to huck finn our boat together. We got the mast out of the water, lay it on the right pontoon, and strapped it down as best we could. With the sail on its side, but up ion the air, we tied ropes to the top of a batten on the sail and tied it off to the left pontoon. This gave us some sail to work with, but was dragging all sorts of shit from the blowout that we couldn't secure. Bottom line is, we were going f...ing slow. Sailing, but going real slow. Apparently when Nicole gets nervous, she eats. We started sailing and Nicole ate the first Twinkie. If I had the stomach for it, I would have eaten one also, but unfortunately the Twinkie I ate before we shoved off was to be the last thing I ate for the next nineteen hours! In another bit of irony, Nicole and Jody threw the bag of chex mix off the boat right after we almost capsized because they freaked out and they had gotten slightly wet. Right before our trip had gone from a four-hour tour to god knows how long and excursion, we had just relieved ourselves of approximately one quarter of our food. We had no pot, no booze, their cigarettes had gotten too wet to smoke and we were stuck on a catamaran trampoline the size of (sniff), the bronco II, may she rest in peace. It was an interesting time. We decided to set sail back towards St. Croix because we figured if the boat was broken in St. Croix, we could deal with it there, but not if it was in St. johns. Everything started out all right and it looked like we'd be back to St. Croix between midnight and two in the morning. The rig we devised worked, but had its problems, but we all felt too bad to make any major adjustments. It was kind of cool because throughout the night, about eight rainstorms hit us. Each time it started raining, we would just pull the sail down on top of us so we would stay dry, then we would let the sail out and continue on when they ended. Not that I’m trying to give you any illusions that I stayed dry for any part of this trip. Besides the constant waves over the sides, we were in four to eight foot seas; the trampoline offered very little resistance to the water underneath which we likened to a saltwater enema. Fun maybe in a different circumstance, but in this case, we were pretty much soaked for almost the entire journey. As a matter of fact, Nicole spent nine straight hours, that's right, nine hours in a huge trash bag. It actually kept her very dry and a little bit more sedated. She was suffering heavy from nicotine withdrawal. So as we lay under the stars, not really getting any closer to the lights of St. Croix, Nicole ate another Twinkie. After the sun set at 7:00, we spent much of the next six hours drifting/sailing, and just staring at the stars. This was perfect for me because I felt ok if I was just laying there, so with Jody steering, we plodded on. It’s crazy the types of things that three people will talk about on a floating raft with no immediate chance of rescue. We spent much of it laughing and joking around and generally disbelieving our situation. Jody and I have spent lots of time together, but we just met Nicole two weeks ago and still didn't know each other too well. We had raged together and she can party her ass off, so we figured she was cool and she ended up handling herself quite well, all things considered. Almost every hour it seemed we'd get hid by a storm. All night, flashes of lightning and small crackles of thunder lighted up the water. Where we had been cruising along pretty steadily in the first part of the night, between about ten o’clock and two o’clock, we didn't really move at all. The waves were rolling under us, the wind was slightly blowing, but for some reason, we weren't going anywhere. It was frustrating because were probably only six or seven miles off shore when we stopped moving. we kept trying to convince oursleves that we were moving, but in reality, as Nicole continuously pointed out, we weren't moving a f...in' bit. by one oclock in the morning, after nearly eleven hours of sitting on this little ass boat, we were all starting to get a little nuts. Jody, due to his hangover had been borderlining dementia for most of the day anyway, but now was his time to shine. I can assure you that if ever in the history of recorded man there was a greater need for a taperecorder on this boat, I don't want to know what it is. we sang songs, babbled about all sorts of nonsense, and discussed what and how much we were gonna eat when we finally got to shore. We also collectively decided that we would take as many bong hits as we all could in ten minutes as a celebration of life. At one thirty, we're all laying close to keep warm and trying to rest. it was impossible to sleep because ineveitably, everytime you just barely got to sleep a wave would either thunder the underneath of the tramp or wash over the side and rinse your whole head for you. as we we're chillin, Jody hops up, looks out at the ocean, looks back at us and exclaims, "I just saw gary coleman!" well you can believe our surprise when we heard this being that i'm pretty sure gary coleman is on stage with some rap group like it is so popular with the midgets of today. at this point, Nicole ate was her fourth twinkie. It goes without saying that from that point on, the majority of our conversations revolved around gary coleman one way or another.I regret that the five of us weren't given the same ammo in a similar situation because the potential for the funniest comedy ever was clear and present. it turned out what he saw was the deep black crest of a huge wave. in reality it looked more like a buffalo we decided, but gary coleman had already made his way into our lives. we also saw some wierd cosmic flashes. they were circular and appeared like flares or fireworks, but they obviously weren't. they were strange and we're still not sure how to explain them. we also wondered again if anyone would come and help us. we had told josh that we would call him when we got to St. john to say we were ok. obviously that phone call never got made. while there was still daylight, we tried to signal a plane with a mirror but to no avail. once at night, we thought we saw lights off a boat, so we took ten pictures with the camera towards the boat, hoping the flash would signal them. neither tactic worked, so we drifted/sailed on. as fate had it, as we were hitting a low point, the wind from a prevailing storm picked up and we started to make some ground. our rig was hurt though and were still dragging lots of shit. were too tired and beat up to do anything about either situation. unfortunately at about three thirty, Jody proclaimed that he couldn't really control the boat anymore and were sort of sliding towards the west end of St. Croix. If we had missed St. Croix heading back, our next piece of land would have been mexico. we were sliding because the winds close to shore, we were only about three miles out, were forcing us west instead of letting us point to the bay we wanted to make it to. Nicole ate what would twinkie number five out of a possible seven. tell me that's not some kind of twinkie record. I know everyones wondering why we didn't just get on our vhf radio and tell people our situation, well in a gross miscalculation that will never happen again, we were traveling without one. it was a lesson that we learned the hard way, but not too hard. by four oclock, the rain had ended and the wind from the storm had ravaged our rig. we were so exhausted that Jody asked me to take the tiller for a bit so he could get some sleep. i hadn't slept either, but in my state of sea sickness, i had lay around dormant most of the time while Jody had been trying to sail the boat. although we were in the caribbean and the water was really warm, being wet for long periods of time makes you really cold. we all wore our life jackets for warmth the whole time and when we finally tried to sleep we had to use the jib as a blanket and we pulled the mainsail down over us like a tent. all we could do with boat at this point was to keep it heading towards town in the middle of the island and hope we wouldn't drift too far west. this was my job starting a four in the morning. I sat up on the edge of the boat, holding one side of the sail down that was covering Nicole and Jody. Jody had told me that all he needed was half an hours sleep and he'd be ready to go again so i agreed to take first watch. it was actually a very peaceful early morning and as four thirty came along, i figured i could go til five. it sucked because we were only about two miles from land, but we couldn't get there. in fact, at that point, we were too tired to even try. Jody and Nicole slept as well as they could with the occastional wave hitting their domes on the aforementioned saltwater enima treatment. at five i was just about ready to get Jody up because i was feeling terrible again, but i looked over at him and he was in a full body shiver after a wave had just hit them both. It looked like he needed more sleep so I decided to push on til hopefully six. it was just about then that i got sick again and threw up off the back of the boat for what was probably the twentieth time and thankfully the last. i enjoyed a beautiful sun rise as i was getting ready to finally catch some zzzzzzzzz's. i got Jody out of his sleep, handed him the tiller, took his spot under the sails next to Nicole, who would enjoy another shift of sleep. I begged him not to wake me until eight, but at seven thirty the sail got untied and swung off of us and into the water on the other side of the boat. it appeared to signal my awaking. it was a nice morning and as Nicole slept, and Jody steered us towards salt river, i hopped in the water and started to resecure the rig we had set up the day before. this time i was feeling better and had renewed strength because i knew it wouldn't be long til we were finally back on land. We secured the mast down much better this time, took all the dragging stuff out of the water and used two ropes over two battens to give us more sail area. It worked awesome and at eight, we woke Nicole up and started actually sailing towards shore. it was a huge relief to finally be moving after sitting in irons for so long. once Nicole woke up and shook out the cobwebs, she's apparently not much of a morning person, especially without a cigarette. by eight thirty, we were flying towards cane bay, really our only last possible place to stop before Belize. once we knew we were gonna be fine and on shore withtin the next two hours, we sat back and chuckled at all the crazy shit that had happened.about a half mile from the beach, we finally saw our first boat. this dive boat came up to us to see if were ok. we told him our story and said were fine to get in on our own. they left, but twenty seconds later they turned around and started heading back towards us. we decided that if offered we would accept a tow. just before we saw the boat, we had all been talking about how little we wanted a beer for some time. in another bout with irony, the dive boat returned and didn't offer us a tow, but the three greatest bud lights the world has ever produced. there was zero hesitation when they were offered, even though we had just dismissed alcohol seconds before. ah beer how do i love thee. we couldn't quite get to shore sailing because the wind had all but died, so Nicole and i hopped in the water and dragged us in the remaining three hundred yards. the ground under my feet was one of the best feelings ever. we dragged the boat up on to shore and crawled to the bar to get food and make phone calls. as it turns out, josh still went to st.john and was waiting for us in the bar as we were sitting in st.croix. much to our dismay, the bar wasn't serving food, so we bought two bags of chips and most importantly cigarettes for Nicole. we dragged our beaten carcasses back to the boat, dismantled what was left of it and strolled down the street to another restaurant. we had all decided what we would eat when we finally got off the boat, but at the restaruant, all three of us got philly cheese steaks and of course in the true sense of the island, frozen Bushwackers. since we had embarked from the east end of the island and were now on the west end, we cajoled a poor couple sitting at the bar with us to bring us home after we ate. after hearing our story, they agreed to drive us after we ate. it was a thirty minute ride that we were all awake for a total of five minutes of. As our cheese steaks got set in front of us and we were about to delve into them, we laughed about the last things we had eaten, Nicole with her five, Jody with his one and the last poor twinkie that got lost off the boat. this my friends is the grand story of how my boat got named SEVEN TWINKIES. fin ]]> sailone http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f108/the-true-story-of-seven-twinkies-a-funny-story-32339.html http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f108/smart-thing-done-while-doing-something-dumb-32299.html Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:03:26 GMT Our club is set up to rent a crane for mast takedown. This morning it was blowing about 25-30 knots straight into my slip. The wind gradually built... Our club is set up to rent a crane for mast takedown. This morning it was blowing about 25-30 knots straight into my slip. The wind gradually built up til it was blowing 30-35, gusting to over 45. They continued the mast takedowns, and we were having a hell of a time getting boats out of their slips against that tailwind. Several of them that had to reverse out of their slips ended up getting caught by the wind, and bouncing off other boats. Some damage, thankfully no people hurt.

With a full keel and a wicked prop walk, I get no steering in reverse at the best of times, so I would have ended up with my stern swinging to port, caught by the wind, and crunching one plastic boat and a brand new shiney aluminum trawler. Espie is steel, weighs 15,500 lbs. It wouldna been pretty.

So, I had a chat with the club dingy driver who came by. He got the dink, came up, grabbed my stern line and acted as my rudder til we got about 100 feet to windward. Put her in neutral, took my line back aboard and off we went. Piece o cake. :thumb:

Off to the crane, mast came out sweet as kiss my hand, and back to the slip we went. A straight down wind approach with 30-35 knot tailwind. Got a little over cautious and came to a dead stop with still 10 feet of slip left.

Aside from it being below freezing with the wind and rain, a pleasant little jaunt.

It is always wiser to admit your uncertainty and get help, than to remain silent and end up crunching someone elses pride n joy. Or maybe even hurting someone. I have to admit, I'd rate this mornings exercise as about a number 5 on the pucker scale. But I also have to perhaps admit perhaps I ain't as dumb as I thought. :D ]]> SabreKai http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f108/smart-thing-done-while-doing-something-dumb-32299.html http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f108/worst-storms-32265.html Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:56:02 GMT I was wondering if you guys would share when and where the worst storm you ever had to go through was? I was wondering if you guys would share when and where the worst storm you ever had to go through was? ]]> miketmbt http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f108/worst-storms-32265.html http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f108/yard-to-make-money-32233.html Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:37:01 GMT :( the best proven way (by many people I am told now) is to start a yard producing sailing yachts,_* when you want to get rid of your money:devil: ... :( the best proven way (by many people I am told now) is to start a yard producing sailing yachts, when you want to get rid of your money:devil:

Have just spent 5 years on the above and can confirm this works.......:banghead: ]]> Xpets http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f108/yard-to-make-money-32233.html