A Rant . . . OK, a Moan

[trinescape]

Fishwife would you now look at your crew differently ,i mean i suppose if she said all the right things to your questions you would be none the wiser but after this experience you would be extra carefull understandably when taking on extra crew i wonder how often this sort of thing happens and who else this ''person'' has affected

[fishwife]

For those who may be unaware I'm not a man though I'm sure some people just assume I must be because I skipper my own boat.

P.

[trinescape]

Fish wife apoligies for posting wrong gender i wondered what David Old Jersey was on about with this pot smoking reference sorry my bad
cheers andy

[anjou]

Why would any sane, normal, experienced person who should know the dangers at sea be so irresponsible and deliberately turn off a fuel valve? That is sabotage and cruelty to engines and that alone would have got her a one way ticket from me.
Add to that, her other actions which endangered you and the boat and it proves she had a screw loose, especially the smoking in bed and dropping a call to police.
You cant always be an instant judge of charactar but next time you wont be so accomodating and lenient.

Originally Posted by fishwife

I love your style, wanna come cruising

I don't think she actively sabotaged the engine, she was fiddling. It was only having a checklist for an engine failure that helped me find the problem quickly. Start at the beginning of the fuel path etc. I knew a valve couldn't have turned itself off so I reviewed the engine room camera records which get recorded on a virtual endless loop. There she was, opening and closing them, playing with the valves. It could have been far worse if she'd closed the fuel return valve.

P.

[Ocean Girl]

Originally Posted by fishwife

Not a friend, an acquaintance who will surely get hell when I get back to the UK.
trinescape: She was on the boat for 36 hours before we departed and I didn't have any alarms sounding in my head. I did give her a good quizzing about her knowledge and she demonstrated that she could navigate and knew her way around a boat.
P.

She is familiar with boats and still behaved that way? darn dangerous crew! I don't play with my own fuel valves let alone go play with someone else’s (peanut gallery stay silent). Very scary that you didn't see any signs, what about your jerk acquaintance? did he seem "funny" recommending her? and I hope "get hell" you mean kick his arse, or better yet demand he take miss bad news for a cruise, yea, a nice long cruise...let him play "find the pot before the customs guys do". Glad you are ok, you handled this very well, you are a class act Paige.
Erika

[fishwife]

Originally Posted by trinescape

Fishwife would you now look at your crew differently ,i mean i suppose if she said all the right things to your questions you would be none the wiser but after this experience you would be extra carefull understandably when taking on extra crew i wonder how often this sort of thing happens and who else this ''person'' has affected

Crew on a motor cruiser like mine is always a problem. For a while there was a group of us, life long friends and it worked really well. The beginning of this year my best friend passed away after fighting cancer. Then another member of the crew had a really bad car accident and is still fighting her way back to fitness. She may never make it back to where she is happy to cruise.

So when you need crew, you ask around, try and get someone who knows what they are doing, comes with a recommendation. Then you check them out on the boat. If all seems well, then you take them on.
I don't know that I'd do anything differently on the recruitment side. I'm definitely going to be more pro-active on getting rid of someone who shows out as a problem.

P.

[mintyspilot]

Originally Posted by anjou

Why would any sane, normal, experienced person who should know the dangers at sea be so irresponsible and deliberately turn off a fuel valve?

Maybe she was looking for somewhere to hide her cannabis? Poking around, opening and closing things, etc.

[anglooff]

Horrendous !!!!

It almost beggars belief. I think I met her mother about 25 years ago. Thats a story for another day.

Words fail me…sorry that your courtesy was so poorly returned.

But it could have been so much worse.

Regards

Alan

[fishwife]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

Snip.. Glad you are ok, you handled this very well, you are a class act Paige.
Erika

Thank you for the vote of confidence Erika. Unfortunately I think I handled it very badly. As already suggested, I should have dis-embarked her in Gibraltar because I knew then that I wasn't going to trust her to keep watch on her own. I had decided to send her home after discovering the computer problems but she managed to set fire to her bed before I'd acted. I'm second guessing myself, I've been doing it for days, thinking how bad it could have been for the rest of the crew. Roll on England when the crew will share a bottle of something strong and put this behind us but not forget the lessons learned.

P.

[Intentional Drifter]

Originally Posted by anjou

For the price of an anchor, I would have disposed of her when she sabotaged the engine.

Hell, I'll donate one of mine! Been wondering what to do with that old CQR anyway.

This is one seriously sick person. And the old boyfriend/"friend" isn't much better. Seriously, with friends like that....

In all seriousness to the Mod crew, the suggestion about some sort of crew vetting service/area is a very good one. It could be done in such a way that the database is not publicly available/accessible to the net at large, but a CF member who wants to check out someone could PM a mod who could then run the check and PM back to the requestor. This could be done for both positive and negative recommendations.

Sure it would be some trouble, but could be of major benefit, both for securing trusted crew and avoiding the big problems.

I just shudder to think how close Fishwife came to having a really long nightmare. Bad enough as it was.

ID

[anglooff]

Horrendous !!!!

It almost beggars belief.

Words fail me…sorry that your courtesy was so poorly returned.

But it could have been so much worse.

I believe I met her mother about 25 years ago but that is a story for another time!

Regards

Alan

[Mi2ndWind]

Don't beat yourself up about it, yes it sure could have been worse, but who among us can truly see into the heart of another? When it comes down to it we have no real way of knowing what someone is all about without spending alot of time with them. I'm sure you handled the situation(s) correctly for what you saw at the time they were happening. My first thought about that "aquaintance" though was that maybe the cannabis was his and she was just the mule. Her notifying the authorities about it was possibly her/their way of getting even with you for the loss. And if that is the case, it might be better to avoid this person in the future instead of confronting them. People in that "business" tend to not be so understanding, and have unfriendly friends. Just something to consider, no matter how tempted you may be (I know I sure would be) to clout him a good one! Cheers from Lake Superior!

[Gadagirl]

I'm just speechless. What a horror!

[AquatiCat]

Paige, you sound like an awesome and understanding captain who did not realize that the girl was a druggie. The sleeping on watch combined with "I'm sick" was a big clue, a couple of days out. The MIA at Gibraltar was another. Got to go with the "ditch her at Gibraltar" crowd, therefore, although leaving her stuff with someone trustworthy would be iffy: most likely wait for her to show, then give her her bags and see the baggage off, without letting her back aboard. If she doubts all her things are there, she can just unpack and inventory at dockside. And finally, giving her a ticket back was decent. More than she deserved, but worthy of your own sense of decency. Thank you for the cautionary tale. You have a camera recording everything in your engine room? Ooh, that is so cool!

~ACat

[FxdGrMind]

Dear DOG! You have the heart of an angel. A true "Nice" person, not a flaw to your soul.

So good to hear you are back underway and making it home. I can't fathom the un-imaginable difficulties that she could have brought down on you and the rest of your crew.

As for turning her in to the authorities once you get back. I'd think twice. The law is "Blind" and I would be worried what lies she would tell to skate... and leave you holding the bag.... The law is not always the true Equilizer/level judging system that we all would like to believe. With her luck... you might end up in jail rather than her.

May your future travels, be nothing but Bliss, as you have paid the dues to the travel gods a Million fold over. They OWE you, HUGE!