Don't want your name here?!!

[Latitude9.5]

crap, somehow that turned out to be a mini-novel, sorry

[Alan Wheeler]

No it isn't. Thanks, that was good reading.
Next!

[seaclusion]

I was comming in through 'Channel Five' in the Keys after an ugly ride down from Miami. It was cold (February), misty raining, and damp. Needless to say I was miserable. I had an eisenglass two part dodger (port and starboard independent pieces) so I put up the port side to block the spray and left the starboard side open. There were many crab traps in the channel and I was constantly dodging them.

I had been through this cut numerous times and was very sure I knew where I was and where I was going. After a little while my wife said, "What is that PVC stake in the water for?" I turned to look at what she was pointing at and was dumbfounded. The only PVC stakes in the area that I knew about marked a sandbar to the south of the channel and since I knew exactly where I was this stake couldn't be one of those. Well, a couple of seconds later as the boat slid to a stop I realized I was nowhere near where I thought I was and we were indeed stuck on that shoal.

After assessing what had happened I realized that; one, every time I had come upon a crab trap float I had dodged it to port thereby getting more and more south of the channel each time, and second, the mist on the port eisenglass obscured my view to the south so I didn't catch my drift toward the shoal.

Therefore, the moral of the story is don't sail where there may be crab traps in the water or you'll run aground because you're cold and the mist on the dodger is obscuring your view and you think you know the area so well that you don't have to look at where you are going. Or something along those lines.

Richard

Alright, since Thomas won't admit to any stories of his own, I won't tell on him. (This time)
I got wet the other night. Nothing like an impromptu swim in the harbor late at night. I was washing the transom. We are in process of redoing the deck (Yes, still) anth the taff rail is just sitting on deck. Along with lots of other unseaworthy crap. I caught my leg on something, lost my balance, and me, the brush, and the taff rail went swimming. Fortunately, since I was the second person to do this, (I will let Lakbay tell that story) I had tied the end of the dockline onto the rail, so it didn't sink. Getting wet is one thing, but swimming in this harbor is something that should be left to the drysuit crowd. It took two showers to get the smell off.

[Chief Engineer]

Other than sinking and fire.....I think if you haven't experienced the others
you haven't sailed enuf. I would have added "taking on water".

BTW "my fire" was a crankcase explosion on a Tug. Lobbed a chunk of Lower connecting rod bearing out the blowout cover on the side of engine. (where I had been standing 30 seconds earlier) 4-6 foot flame "woofing" out the side. No panic...shut down engine....little CO2.....
Lotta work to do on that Fairbanks-Morse. Suck/Squeeze/BANG!/Blow

Isn't that what those Fairbanks-Morse's do when they are running right?

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha All,
Well, finally some more good stories. Thanks Kai, Sea, Chief and Latitude. I have one diesel story and one losing a dinghy story to come but can't take the time right now. Have to get our yacht club newsletter out.
Kind Regards, --JohnL--

[Chief Engineer]

how their engine runs.

Before I went into business for myself, I was the lead mechanic in a yard.
One Saturday, I was working on my boat ( a rather rare occurence at times)....The Service manager came down and said "There is a guy in the lift well who can't get his boat started. Can you take a look Chief?"

So I go down to the boat...ask the customer to try to start it while I look on and about. As he trys to start it he is pushing and pulling on something.....I tell him to hold up. Climb outa the hole and say "what were you doing?" "Well", he says, "since I have owned this boat I have
had to choke the &^%$ out of it before it would start" "I see" sez me.
"Let me give it a go". I push the cable in. Engine fires up BAM!!!!!
puckita-puckita-puckita (2 cyl Volvo). As he looks on in amazement I say,
"Sir, that is your stop cable...diesels don't have chokes"

[S/V Elusive]

Scott? I'm sure that I relayed my "lost the dinghy" saga, and my going in the drink this last week, didn't have anything to do with sailing - a lot to do with a kayak, too much wine, and an awkward area to deboard the kayak. I haven't yet run aground (may it be a soft and deep sand bar when I do).

[Alan Wheeler]

Hey Chief, I look forward to many more of your stories, I bet you will have plenty with the yard experiance. But I am puzzled and need to ask. So how did the guy stop his engine normally????

[salty_dog_68]

I did a lot of stupid and reckless things while learning costal piloting in my teens and early twenties. I was fortunate enough to never lose a boat or a friend. I would like to share a few stories but they can be long so bare with me b/c you may find them enjoyable.

#1 "a real sinking experience"

I was about 19 and had just bought my first boat. It was a 17' Condor catamaran. It was an old POS that had tattered sails and leaked like a sieve, but it was MINE. Captain Shawn and I spent an entire Friday afternoon saililng the cat from Pass-A-Grille Beach(wher I lived) to Maderia Beach(where all the pretty girls were) so that we could play on Saturday. Saturday arrives and we are on the beach "workin' the magic." We pick-up these two scantilly clad beautiful women and they agree to go sailing with us. The conditions were perfect. We were having a relaxing and enjoyable cruise and there were two "hotties" in t-backs sunning themselves on MY BOAT. Life could not get better. Or so I thought. In spite of the good breeze the cat seemed a little sluggish. The next thing I noticed was that we seemed to be getting a lot more water than usual splashing up on the trampoline. That was the moment I realized I had beached the boat and taken the plugs out to drain the boat after the last sail then forgot to put the plugs back in!! We stuffed some cigarette butts and whatever we could find into the drain holes and barely made it back to shore. The girls were not impressed and let us know about it. As they walked away, never to be seen again, they said "thanks for the boat ride guys. It was a real sinking experience."

[salty_dog_68]

The next incident was a real eye opener because myself or one of my friends could have been seriously injured. this one is hard to write b/c it shows just how reckless and stupid I was at that age.

#2 "the bar"
I had recently turned 21 and was bar hopping with several friends on a 19' bow rider. We were in Pass-A-Grille channel heading north toward Boca Ciega Bay. It was about 2am and we were cruising at 25-30 mph in the icw. I missed a channel marker that marked a sand bar and hit the shoal at almost full speed. One of the occupants of the bow was litterally "tossed" out of the boat and onto the sand bar. We were all quite shaken but,fortunately, no one was injured including the boat. You don't even have to ask if ETOH was involved.


The next incident was absolutely the last time I forgot to put the plug in a boat I was trailering. I am proud to say it was over a decade ago.

#3 "birthday on the suwannee"
It was my birthday. I was living in Gainesville and a student at the University of Florida. I owned a 20' Larson Weekender that we trailered to local lakes and rivers. We put in at a ramp on the banks of the Suwannee for a relaxing day on the river. The ramp was very basic. There was no dock or moorings just a concrete ramp with sandy shore on each side. We had not gotten far from the ramp when Patty noticed there was some water in the cuddy cabin. I told her it had rained a lot that week and it was probably rain water and asked her to turn on the bilge pump. Seconds later I realized I had not put the drain plug in. Acting purely on instinct I turned the bow toward the sandy shore next to the ramp and floored it running the boat pretty far up into the sand. I was still in chest deep water at the stern of the boat when I put the plug in. Water got up just to the bottom of the starter but, fortunately, did not penetrate the starter. It took almost 45min for the bilge pump to pump all the water out. The rest of the day went w/o incident.

[salty_dog_68]

OK, I have time for one more bedtime story b4 I send you kiddies off to dreamland. I need to give some background info first.

background - on the gulf coast of florida during the summer time we get strong storm cells that are a result of the differential heating of the land and the water surrounding the land. these sever thunderstorms develope quickly, move fast, and are gone as quickly as they arrive. they are the reason that the tampa bay area is the lightning capitol of the WORLD.

#4 "don't stray to far from the boat"
It was a typical summer afternoon. Hot and sticky, like only the gulf coast can get. Myself and two friends were exploring an uninhabited spoil island near Pass-A-Grille Beach. I had beached my little bow rider, nose in, on "shell island" and shoved an anchor into the sand about 50ft up the beach. We were about half way down the island when the wind picked up and the sky darkened. I left my friends and started walking back towards the boat. As each minute passed the wind strengthened the sky got darker and I moved a little faster. I was only about 100 meters form the boat anchor when a powerful downdraft came roaring down on me and pushed the boat, anchor and all, off the beach and into deep water. So now I am sprinting towards the boat and without hesitation dive into the water and swim as hard as I can trying to catch the boat. Only the wind seems to be carrying the boat away from me about as fast as I can swim. When I finally did reach the boat I barely had enough strenght to haul myself onto the boat where I collapsed until I caught my breath. My friends and I had a good laugh about the whole situation. But ever since then, when exploring islands in the summertime, I never stray to far from the boat.

I do have a couple more that I will share when I have time. I hope that if you did not learn anything from my mistakes that at least you had a good laugh.

Salty Dog, Having made similar mistakes, and plenty of them, I am getting a good laugh Keep going...

[Alan Wheeler]

Well I was darn close to joining the ranks of "sunk at the dock" in the weekend. I usually go out to the boat every weekend, but I have been busy making stuff for it, so I haven't ventured out to the marina for three weekends. I arrived out there this weekend to find the main engine room bilge pump pumping water out. No problem, it does that every now and then from the drip from the sterngland. It's a 3000GPH pump, so it empties quick and stops. Well while I was working, I had realised the pump hadn't stopped. I waited a few more seconds and it was still running. Hmmmm, so I lifted the engine room hatch and to my horror, there was my brand new intake filter pouring water out the side of the lid. The lid had cracked almost entirely around. When this happend and so for how long the pump had been running, I have no idea. But the pump would normally well and truely keep up with the ingress of water and should have been cycling on and off with the bilge float switch. But the float switch had failed. thank goodness it failed in the on position, which is rare. Yep it was a Rule float switch. I have changed all five onboard over time and this was the last one, becuase one it was new 12months ago and two, it's a pain to get to. No more Rule switches on my boat. They just don't last. Now here is an interesting point, the Rule switches use silicon rubber seathed wires. But Silicon breaks down with oil. A little skim of oil floating on the bilge water surface and the wiring had broken down. Thankfully the bare wires shorted and left the pump stay on.
OK, so not long ago I fitted a swimming pool filter as my intake strainer. But the Polycarbonate screw on lid cracked for no reason at all. It was not screwed down tight, so I can not work out why. It does come with a red grease substance around the Oring and lid and I am wonderign if that stuff is not good for the polycarb, even though the maunfacturer says it is. It turns out, it is a very common problem for them to break exactly the same way on pool pumps, but they thought it was from Hydraulic hammering with the pump starting and stopping. Well I guess they can assume different now.
So next job is build myself a SST intake filter.
Fewww, close shave.