Anything scary ever happened?

[davewtsnape]

Sounds like a seal to me. Have heard them splashing into the water in the dark and in fog up creeks before. Spooky but friendly

[four winds]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I bet that tug was the pilot boat? Some Pilot boats are not small and in the fog with your adrenaline going it would be any easy mistake to make, you see a little boat alongside of a ship, and you think tug of course

Could be, at that position offshore the pilot could be returning to the pilot boat for the trip back to the Egmont dock.

[Dougtiff]

This is a story told to me year's ago by a couple in singapore, they were sailing West from either Tonga or Figi, it was night time and they saw [2 couples] a large bright light moving across the sky, stop, move again, ect., they were so frightened they went down below and locked them-selves in.

[Motif]

My two sons had the boat out 30 or so miles off the Queensland coast for some snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. Number 1 son was in the water while number 2 son kept watch. That's all fine but number 2 was also fishing and after about 5 minutes he looked up and had no idea where his big brother was. A frantic time was had by all until they were both reunited some time later.
That's scary stuff and shows just how easily things can go belly up if you're not careful.

[mowerandy]

Same experience as Capt Phil - I once nearly got torpedoed by a bloody dolphin! Night sailing alone, when you see that bullet-straight phosphorescent trail heading straight at your beam-end from a hundred yards off at around 30 knots, I was in the process of kissing my ass goodbye when it veered to the bow at the last moment...bloody dolphins.

Another time, walking down a lonely trail in the thick Australian bush after dark, I heard heavy footsteps paralleling me close by but out of line of sight. This continued for several hundred yards, stopping when I stopped, moving when I moved. Sweeping my torch about made no difference. There is a large flightless bird (cassowary) in those parts which can do a person a power of harm, so I was thinking my number was about up and I was out of options, so I charged the noise at full speed, crashing through the brush yelling my head off, thinking attack might be my best defense - nothing there, noise stopped...go figure! I ultimately figured that there is also another Australian bird (Lyre bird) in those parts, which can imitate any sound (absolutely any sound - natural or mechanical) and also seemingly 'throw' its voice. They can make you think some idiot on a dirtbike is doing donuts around your campsite just out of sight - I reckon this one was doing the footsteps, but will never really know.

[Kita]

Originally Posted by four winds

Hey Kita, frankly I'm not sure I am correct in what I posted.

In my minds eye I had you in the bay not offshore. Lots of deep water there before reaching the pass north of Egmont.

My statements were based on one short blast being a turn to starboard, and three short being astern propulsion. I think fog is a prolonged blast.

I missed the tug comment. I've only seen pilot boats that area. Didn't know tugs pushed the big boys all the way offshore.

It's quite possible it was a pilot but I don't think so, I was looking at it from the rear and I could just barely make out a silhouette of a man at the helm with the bow light in front of him & the front was higher than the rear so I just assumed that. ..Also that crew may have saved our butts anyway. They were in control,we were oblivious to them being there at all. I have wondered many times if it was just blind luck or they knew we were coming. I say that because we were heading south at five or six knots For many hours we were a consistent blip on the radar ,,I would hope anyway, we did have a radar signature up the mast but we didn't have any radio on ,no radar, none of that, we were just lucky. My gut told me to drop anchor and wait it out but you do with the skipper says. Luckily I learn from it and I'm still alive

[a64pilot]

I did a bad thing once, we were on a battle drill after midnight somewhere near San Angelo Tx. I could see in the FLIR some Cowboys coming down the road slowly in their old pickup, there were three of them and their Stetsons overlapped, the truck was going slow but weaving a little. I am sure they were coming back from some Honky Tonk and were drunk, about the time they started to round the corner, I scooted over them at about 50' altitude and turned on the searchlight. I know that all of the sudden to them it got really loud, a hellishly bright light and lots of wind and heat, then after a few seconds it was gone. I bet they still tell people about that alien encounter.

Fast forward a month or two and we again were on a battle drill, somebody called over on the radio saying what the hell is that over at 300 degrees or whatever the direction was.
Well it was a train, but a train at a distance is a truly strange looking thing when you see it in FLIR, so we decided to ambush it, got four aircraft headed straight toward it at again about 50' and on cue turned the search lights on, and again off on cue.
I think we may have woken up the train driver, as I assume out in the middle of nowhere they may have been sleeping.

[varkpilot]

I'd like to put you folks in touch with my publisher. This could make a great book!

[jeepbluetj]

I took a trip to Catalina a few years ago....

Ran out of water in the tank.
Ran out of booze. (Completely out... not even a crappy light beer to be found)
Ran out of wind on the way back, that usually isn't too bad but we were pretty close to out of fuel too.

Running out of booze was terrifying......

[Barney21]

Nothing to do with boats or water, Seems like a lifetime ago,(it was) I was competing in a offroad race in the Desert in Auz. Called the "Hattah Lakes Desert rally". There were 2 of us in the car we had managed to ingest a lot of sand into the engine and were heading back to the event headquarters,we were about 50-60Ks out and were nursing the car as it was a long sandy walk if it stopped, It is bright sunny day no dust clear for miles,just rolling through low scrub and desert gums. When on our left appeared standing on the side of the track about 10 metres away was a girl she was tall blond hair pink top and white jeans with high heels, there was no car or any form of transport anywhere, we just drove past neither of us said anything, (we had taken off our Helmets),we didnt say a word for about 15-20 mins, then I just said" did you see something" He looked across and said "if you mean the girl in the white jeans yes I saw her", we both had said nothing because we thought we were seeing things. We dont know anything else and we very rarely spoke of it.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by FilBrown

The only dangerous animal to be found in Wales is a sheep 😁

I thought the only dangerous animal feared by a Welsh sheep is a Welshman?

Later,
Dan
PS I used to work for a UK company and the lads seemed to have lots of jokes and conversations about sheep. Kinda worrisome sometimes...

[a64pilot]

Cmon now, tall, blond, pink top and white jeans,high heels, and you didn't stop?

[FilBrown]

True.
Did you know it was a Welshman who invented the condom in 1783 by using a sheep's gut?
An Englishman improved the design in 1785 by taking it out of the sheep first. 😁

[SV DestinyAscen]

Next time when you see a "torpedo" just remember that they're mainly on magnetic fuses and depth settings would more or less mean they'll go under your boat. One of those babies cost more than your boat

[ontherocks83]

The only time I was truly scared was when sailing on the Lake whilst peeing off the back of the boat in a soberly challenged state and seeing Blue lights speeding directly towards us from our starboard. The fear of catching a charge was so great that I was able to stop mid stream and calmly walk down below all nonchalant like to go finish in the head. Luckily he turned and headed off to a call somewhere else. Now that was fear.