One of 'those' Days

[sarafina]

man. THAT day put a crimp in my everything...

Now I know WAY more about outboards than I ever wanted to... so it's all good. Days like that are learning curves and that which does not kill us makes us stronger...

And since Himself and I managed to not kill each other that day it's all bonus ; -)

[anjou]

Originally Posted by tropicalescape

Whats a "Prat"?

Prat is also an Olde Englishe worde for 'Buttock' but in modern coloquial usage it signifies one who isnt the full shilling

[anjou]

Originally Posted by Geoduck

Once I backed out of my slip from Summerfields in Ft Lauderdale into the New River, put her in forward, gave her some throttle and the shaft & prop decided to leave the boat - of course they didnt get far - jaming the rudder hard over to port. Then here comes the Jungle Queen! I managed to drop the anchor before I got washed up on the beach after being run down by the paddle wheeler. Luck was on my side - I was able launch my skiff and tow myself back to the dock. Got into my scuba gear and went down & fixed the problem.
The moral to this story- NEVER LEAVE ON FRIDAY! (it's agood idea to check the set screw on the shaft coupling once in awhile too!)

One guy I worked for many years ago wouldnt start a new job on a friday.
We would either work late on a thursday night to get started or it had to wait for Saturday

[hummingway]

Coming into a slip one day it was a bit breezy and I said to my son who had sailed with me that day, "you know we really should go in bow first", and then proceeded to try to back in. Of course the wind picked up and my bow zigged instead of zagged so I proceeded to the, ever narrowing, end of the dock and spun to head back. At this point the breeze was about 15 knots and pushed me closed to the adjacent dock. At fellow there asked if he could help and I yelled, "yes, push my bow off", which must have been been transmogrified by the wind into, "tie my bow off" since that is what he did. At this point I was able to calmly walk forward and let him know that what I was trying to do was get into my slip at the other end of the dock, if he would be so kind as to cast off for me.

Of course this was Sunday so their was a very receptive audience sharing my pleasure. I did put her in, bow first, on my next try.

[Mexdon]

New Boat 26ft Moonraker, neatly tied up to pontoon, first sail, early morning departure. Ask new crew to release aft mooring line...the one virtually permanently attached to the pontoon....belongs to the pontoon/marina. Return from releasing front mooring line from cleat to cockpit put boat into reverse release the spring to run from centre cleat on the pontoon and pull it aboard as we reverse away into nice clear channel. Just as we are in the middle the spring neatly aboard and about to do a reverse turn and then head out the motor dies. Dead...turns over in neutral but dies when I engage drive. I have no idea. All sorts of helpful shouts from others along the pontoons. Then I see it. The aft mooring line tight over the stern attached to the cleat. Into the water with mask....20 plus feet of mooring line wrapped tightly around the saildrive prop. I cant stay where I am and cut it off so I take a line tie it to my tow hook on the bow and swim back to the pontoon and pull the yacht slowly back to our departure point. I spend the next hour cutting the line off the prop then have to go and buy a new mooring line for the marina attach it to the pontoon and prepare to leave for a noon departure. Lesson learned....be very specific when giving instructions and then check. I never worked out how my crew managed to detach the virtually permanent line from the pontoon....must have been a hell of a struggle.

[hummingway]

That reminds me of another story. I was going sailing with a buddy in his boat. We often did this and so had a cast off routine. He cast of the bow lines from the deck would walk back to the helm and I would walk the boat out using the sopring lines then jump on board when we were about half way out of the slip and the wind couldn't cause problems.

This particular morning I had started walking the boat out but it was windy and I wasn't making sternway so I suggested to my friend that he put it in gear start to help but we still weren't making progress so he revved up the engine. Still nothing.

Yes indeed. We were trying to take the dock with us, there was still a bow line tied up. Colour us embarassed.

[VirtualVagabond]

Originally Posted by hummingway

Of course this was Sunday so their was a very receptive audience sharing my pleasure. I did put her in, bow first, on my next try.

Huh...! Being punished. Shoulda been in church!

[Nostrodamus]

Why does it always happen to me?

Ok I originally put this post up but now it has happened again!

Today I was washing the boat down and jumped onto the pontoon. The plank broke and there I was stuck with one leg in the water unable to get out. The pontoon plank was no more and I ended up with a gashed and swollen shin.

Why me or does everyone say the same?

[hummingway]

Originally Posted by Nostrodamus

Why does it always happen to me?

Ok I originally put this post up but now it has happened again!

Today I was washing the boat down and jumped onto the pontoon. The plank broke and there I was stuck with one leg in the water unable to get out. The pontoon plank was no more and I ended up with a gashed and swollen shin.

Why me or does everyone say the same?

If mankind had modern sailing craft earlier in our evolution I am sure we would have evolved well padded shin bones. My are usually gashed and bruised from barking them on something.

[VirtualVagabond]

[QUOTE=Nostrodamus;785430]Why does it always happen to me?

Ok I originally put this post up but now it has happened again!

Today I was washing the boat down and jumped onto the pontoon. The plank broke and there I was stuck with one leg in the water unable to get out. The pontoon plank was no more and I ended up with a gashed and swollen shin.

Why me or does everyone say the same?[/QUOTE]

Nope... we all got together and appointed you the nominated accident victim. It makes our lives sooo much better.
Thought you wouldn't notice... sorry!
But it's only a 5 year deal and then you can join the inner circle and we'll find a new sucker...

[FearfulGirl]

Oh jeez. I've had SO MANY of those days, but here's one:

I remember when we set out to cross the Pacific on our Valiant 32. We said an emotional goodbye to everyone at the dock, and our first stop was Catalina island. We pulled into Two Harbors with our boat looking all rugged and ready to cross oceans. We'd spent 3 months preparing the boat and we had brand new solar panels, jerrycans of water and fuel lashed to the deck and a shiny new liferaft. It was our very first night as floating vagabonds. We arrive just as it was getting dark and hard to see. The harbor master called us over the radio: "Whatever you do, don't get between a boat and his buoy." Well …*we instantly ran the boat into someone's mooring line. Like IMMEDIATELY after the harbor master warned us. Our boat came to a jerking halt, which sent the poor guy's boat bouncing around. Luckily, the line didn't snag in our prop.

We felt like complete idiots.

That was just the first of many, MANY clumsy errors to come on our two year ocean crossing.

We had all the gear and no idea.

[Ishmael]

About a month ago, I was coming back into the mooring field in the day sailer (no outboard). I had already dropped the jib, and was pinched up as high as I could go with a clear shot at my mooring IF I could manage to stay on that heading. Then I see a 100' behemoth creeping slowly across my bow (port to starboard) up ahead - on its way to a mooring. I didn't want to cut behind him because I'd end up down wind of my mooring (I know, what can I say...I'm lazy and I'd been out for about 6 hours - ready to call it a day). I decided to head up into the wind until he passed, then I could resume my course.

With the wind approaching 20 knots, I quickly realized that wasn't going to work, so I fell back off to pass astern of the huge yacht. I quickly accelerated right toward his starboard side (midship), and I pulled the tiller hard to windward - NOTHING! I kept going full steam ahead. I quickly realized that my kick-up rudder decided to "kick up" all on it's own. I pulled the line to get it back down and released the mainsheet as fast as I could to run downwind along his side - with AT LEAST a whole 5 inches between us - until I got past his stern then tacked back toward my mooring with my heart in my throat. It had been such a lovely, realxing sail up until that point. I had gone about 22 miles (round trip) and visited Muskeget Island before all this.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by FearfulGirl

Oh jeez. I've had SO MANY of those days, but here's one:

I remember when we set out to cross the Pacific on our Valiant 32. We said an emotional goodbye to everyone at the dock, and our first stop was Catalina island. We pulled into Two Harbors with our boat looking all rugged and ready to cross oceans. We'd spent 3 months preparing the boat and we had brand new solar panels, jerrycans of water and fuel lashed to the deck and a shiny new liferaft. It was our very first night as floating vagabonds. We arrive just as it was getting dark and hard to see. The harbor master called us over the radio: "Whatever you do, don't get between a boat and his buoy." Well …*we instantly ran the boat into someone's mooring line. Like IMMEDIATELY after the harbor master warned us. Our boat came to a jerking halt, which sent the poor guy's boat bouncing around. Luckily, the line didn't snag in our prop.

We felt like complete idiots.

That was just the first of many, MANY clumsy errors to come on our two year ocean crossing.

We had all the gear and no idea.

Clearly, the harbor master had night vision goggles ...

hmmm... seriously, has anyone ever tried that? I was out sailing with friends last night with a very light wind, and in the protected channel, FLAT water -- and no moon. It was REALLY hard to see those channel markers.

[captain58sailin]

One fine and blustery afternoon, I took my not yet then Bride, and 2 of her friends on a skiff ride across the bay, for her birthday celebration, she had on a very lovely dress, as we made our way across the bay, the day breeze came up and we found ourselves in a following sea. I was going too fast for conditions, but felt confident in my ability to handle the skiff. We came off the face of one swell and bashed into the back of another one and the inertial force caused her to rise up off the bottom of the skiff and to my amazement and flipped overboard. Even in the summer time the waters in Kachemak bay are quite cold. I immediately threw the tiller over to swing the prop. away from her and took off all throttle, which killed the outboard. Focusing closely on making all the right steps to restart the engine with one eye on her, I returned carefully and much chastened, to pull her from the water. We continued on to have a nice lunch. Maybe that was why she waited 25 years to marry me.