Locked-Up

[sokkum]

A solo sailor who sails the seas and estuaries of N-Europe told me the following story:
He left the dutch coast from IJmuiden port on a sw wind, hoisted the sails, passed the piers and at the moment he turned on the autopilot his motoralarm went off. Now this type of sailboat use to have the waterfilters direct accessible from the locker in the cockpit and he suspected some debris came into the waterfilter. So he opened the locker, stepped into it reaching for the waterfilter and then....BOOM...the hatch came down caused by a big wave from a passing ship and you know the type of fittings on the outside that will automaticly close. Beeing trapped in the darkness of the locker in a sailboat steered by the autopilot heading for the Scottish coast and unable to leave his very uncomfortable position he was overthinking his stupidity.

Fortunately he found an escape by crawling through the engine room over the engine that was still warm so he had to wait for an hour (!) meanwhile sailing through the very busy coastal waters to let the engine cool down.
Now being a guy with a huge investment in our world famous brewery (the green bottles) according to his stature, he managed to climb over the engine entering the cabin bleeding all over his body - but he survived only to get stranded in a storm a month later near the island of Norderney, but that's another story.

He now has a real big claustrofobia problem he told me.

[witzgall]

Yikes - I never thought about that possibility. I will be replacing that worn bungie cord that holds our lazarrette hatch open post haste!!!!

Chris

[imagine2frolic]

I had a lazerette fall down on me while hanging upside down in that dark hole. It took some real effort to get out of the situation. I always now tie off anything that might close over the top of me. I think they call it experience?.....i2f

[Blue Stocking]

And here I am, thinking I am the only person loony enough to do this.
The staple section of Bluestocking's hatch latches are now held on with wingnuts for this very reason. I was however on the mooring when this happened to me, and I had pliers to remove the nuts , as I was doing maintainance in the locker at the time

[barnakiel]

Experience - yes - the ability to avoid mistakes. And we acquire it by making mistakes ... ;-)))

Had cockpit locker hatch whack me on the head more than once!

b.

[imagine2frolic]

The lid fell down over the back of my thighs. I couldn't go forward, or backwards. I had to roll over, and then actually continue down into the ABYSS to free myself, and then raise the lid. Of course like a dummy I struggled for a while trying to go back, or forth before I realised to just roll over.......i2f

[Chattcatdaddy]

I forget which forum I read it on, but it happpened to one fellow while at the dock. I think a few screams and noise attracted some passerby and he was set free. Its pretty unlikely that it could happen but there is always a chance if the lockers lock on closing (which most seem to do).

[Chief Engineer]

I had that happen to me....the lid was held open by one of those spring things.

I too had to crawl over the top of the engine and out thru a forward hatch.

I certainly am glad we have no memory of birth....

[anjou]

If you leave the Dutch coast in a SW heading, how do you then aproach the Scottish coast?

[bstreep]

Ok, funny, sort of related story:

I'm from South Texas. As you might know, EVERYONE from South Texas hunts whitetail deer. So, one November Friday afternoon, I was driving down a road on the 2000 acre ranch we used to hunt, and on my way to my hunting buddy's deer blind. He asked me to bait his blind for him (yeah, we don't hunt for deer in Texas, we FISH for deer). It was a beautiful fall day, in the upper 60's. But, there was a cold front coming, with below freezing temperatures expected. I was wearing a short sleave t shirt. As I got out of my truck (a 5 speed standard) and reached for a sack of corn in the back of the truck, the truck rolled on top of my foot.

I was stuck. The engine was running, and I had no way to get my foot out from under the truck wheel. My buddy was expecting to get to camp around midnight, but if I wasn't at camp, he would have thought I just didn't make it to hunt that weekend. My cell phone was in the truck cab. After about a half an hour of trying to free my foot, the temperature had dropped into the 40s, and the wind was blowing about 30. I had a knife, and I'd managed to cut the side of my boot open, but still coudn't free my foot.

Finally, I managed to SLIGHTLY roll the truck forward and backward enough to get my foot out of the boot at the same time the pressure was slightly released.

That night it got into the mid 20s, and the wind blew all night. He's have found me the next morning at 5:30 am when he went to his blind to hunt.

[SabreKai]

had something similar happen on my first boat, A Grampian 26. I wiggled my way into one of the cockpit lockers so I could tighten up some nuts on the toerail, and the lid slammed shut. (the wood post I used as a prop came loose when my elbow hit it or something as I was twisting n turning.)

Thankfully this was in the fall, so it wasn't too hot in there. I had no way out, the only way would have been to wriggle feet first forward to the companion way steps and kick the removable bulkhead until the two sliding bolts tore thru the 1 1/2 teak frame. Tedious, and expensive.

The saving grace of the whole thing was my girlfriend who was coming down anyway later that afternoon, so I took a nap. She showed up and was aboard for about half an hour when I woke up and started talking to her from behind a sealed bulkhead.

Anyway she took pity on me and finally let me out.

Of course that was in my young and svelt days. I'm a lot bigger now and the lockers are a lot smaller. I can't fit in any of the ones on Espie, and Sabre Dance has a 24x24 lazarette hatch that I lash open to the stern rail.

Sabre
98 days n a wake up

[sokkum]

Originally Posted by anjou

If you leave the Dutch coast in a SW heading, how do you then aproach the Scottish coast?

That's not in the story - i wrote "on a sw wind"

[sww914]

I bought a boat for a real steal of a price, it seemed too good to be true.
The previous owner was still in the lazarette, most of him.



















OH, you know I'm kidding!