What's Your Demon ?

[brutb]

MarkJ


" When I first got this boat I used to do Figure of 8's in astern around a couple of mooring balls. Its good fun and helps get the hand of a new boat. Looks a bit weird to passers-by. [/QUOTE]"


Do you still do this to impress the girls and assorted new boat owners. LOL

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by brutb

Do you still do this to impress the girls and assorted new boat owners. LOL

Appearing insane doesn't impress the girls I know. They don't like comptetition

[jrd22]

Going into an unfamiliar, tight marina. With lot's of prop walk (fixed three blade prop) and a fair bit of windage up front, it's highly unlikely that the boat is going to actually go where I want it to if there is any amount of cross wind and I need to reverse out of a waterway. I need to buy more fenders.

[Skip20]

Treading water, watching your sailboat self-steer away from you. To twist the knife, make it a sunny afternoon and a gentle trade wind . . .

[vintageray]

You all are talking real demons that we all share. When I read the title of the thread, I thought of smaller type demons, like leaving the valve on the head in the flush position, flooding the head and filling the shower sump with sea water. You'd think I'd learn already. ...... Gotta go pump the shower sump again.

[tropicalescape]

Originally Posted by Skip20

Treading water, watching your sailboat self-steer away from you. To twist the knife, make it a sunny afternoon and a gentle trade wind . . .

Yea!I was thinking the same...boat sailing away..I was diving on the Marianes trench collecting top shell and we were using a vinyl covered bag as flotation for a net and when it got to heavy we would stick the regulator in the bag and give it a blast to compensate the bouncy,I happened to look up and saw the anchor at 20 ft from the bottom and the boat was headed for the phillipines w/unexperianced hands on deck...the man I was diving w/ had to ditch his gear and swim for the boat.He caught it as it was rounding cocos island more than a mile away.The kids on the boat had pulled on the outboard so much that it loosend the screws and the damn engine jumped off the boat when we were going in...came back the next day with the Chamooro(people from Guam)fellow and he went right to the spot and recovered the engine .Helps to have Island warriors to fight those demons.DVC

[Dkdoyle]

Wow oh yes I do share that demo.

[S/V Antares]

Lightning, when you (Mast) are the only thing sticking up for hundreds of miles.

[sabray]

About 2 am with water pouring over the decks and the boat doing the jersey shore bob. I got this idea that the anchor was going to come loose and what a mess that would be. Clip in get soaked it's tied off proper. 3 am did I tighten down the hose clamps in the head sink after taking the thru hull apart. Check. Then about 4 I start wondering about the gennies shieve pins. Now I'm anchored so I'll check them. On it goes. Serenity is constant vigilance.

[conachair]

The cooker.

Very wary of getting horribly burnt offshore.

That and lightning.

[nautical62]

Docking also - it's not uncommon for me to go a month or two without ever pulling into a marina.

When out cruising the two things I worry about most are engine failure I can't fix and sometimes a catastrophic rigging failure (usually when it's really blowing).

I feel things like plumbing, electrical, etc. I can either fix myself of deal without.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by nautical62

Docking also - it's not uncommon for me to go a month or two without ever pulling into a marina.

That's not a demon. After 3.5 years I've never pulled into a marina! Just to a face dock, not in between those nice tight rows of boats!

[IdoraKeeper]

I agree regarding marina manuvering. I have learned to handle Idora in situations where I can plan...it is entirely probable that she will not do as I wish if I have not had an opportunity to plan. It really helps to get a line on a stationary object to help her back to starboard or spin her counter clockwise.
I had a close call with a propane leak last year...exploding would certainly suck.

Todd

[adrac]

Hello, New guy here....Anchor dragging (boat, wife, and myself ended up on a beautiful sandy beach once after the lee side of an island became windward). Definitely Crossing foggy shipping lanes, if I keep my boat AIS is my next project...... Pulling into a slip at a crowded marina used to be up there until I learned to maintain just enough momentum for steerage and how to use the prop walk... Best thing to do is try to be calm and laugh at your mistakes my favorite comment used to be "nothing a little compound wont take out"....

[Bash]

I had to face one of my demons years ago when I was working as a dive instructor in the Yucatan. Although I was working for a resort in Playa del Carmen at the time, I had a chance to fill in for another instructor for a day over in Cozumel. Drift diving. I had always towed a dive flag when leading a drift dive, but this new company told me not to worry, that the skipper would just follow our bubbles.

To make a long story short, when we surfaced we discovered that the chase boat had lost us. We were being swept out the Cozumel channel toward Cuba, which was 90 miles away. No chance of swimming back to the island.

After drifting on the surface 30 minutes, I had everyone ditch their weight belts and tanks so that we would ride up higher out of the water to be more visible. Ten minutes later, a sportsfisherman motored by a few hundred meters away, and we all blasted away on our whistles. He heard us before he saw us.

It turned out that he was actually looking for us after having heard the mayday from our dive boat. If you're ever wondering why I never have anything bad to say about stinkpotters, now you know: I've been rescued by one.