What's Your Worst Sailing Experience ?

[bruce smith]

I have been hit twice by hurricanes at sea in my 34' ketch.
Lilly , in 1991, I think, North of Bermuda, in a cold gulf stream eddy. The year before " the perfect storm" movie.
Then, just a few years ago, "Sergio" , while 200 west of Acapulco.
But, neither were "sailing experiences:, we laid a hull for both.
Gales and squalls "can" be exciting, given searoom. The sound alone of a hurricane is terrifying.

[zeehag]

Originally Posted by bruce smith

I have been hit twice by hurricanes at sea in my 34' ketch.
Lilly , in 1991, I think, North of Bermuda, in a cold gulf stream eddy. The year before " the perfect storm" movie.
Then, just a few years ago, "Sergio" , while 200 west of Acapulco.
But, neither were "sailing experiences:, we laid a hull for both.
Gales and squalls "can" be exciting, given searoom. The sound alone of a hurricane is terrifying.

not going there--is why i sit em out in places i stop to visit....

[bruce smith]

Sergio, 2006, hit us on 17 November,17 days out. After I had sat out the summer in the Bay and the fall in San Diego. We left San Diego on Halloween, hurricane season over. It was the latest west coast hurricane ever.
Coming down the east coast in the fall is a crapshoot. Sit out too long, you may have winter storm rogue waves!
My boat is in land storage in Antigua now, I sit em out from 5000 miles away.

[youmeandthed]

knockdown by a rogue wave on the Caribbean Sea 150 miles from San Andreas at 4am, pitch black, cabin full of water, wife pinned into corner of cockpit by the wave, I get woken up by hundreds of gallons of sea water in my face, steering cable breaks.

We attached the emergency tiller, and the autopilot was a linear direct drive, they were ok so kept heading 300 miles to Panama.

[sailorboy1]

while heating water on day 1 of a 4 day trip..........ran out of propane............now THAT is a bad sailing experience!

[svBeBe]

Worst Sailing Experience?

1) Force 9 for 4-5 days in the Bay of Bengal.
2) Having a charter boat anchor nearby

Bill

[westsail374]

Coming south in November 1977 in our Westsail32 Kristina, we arrived off Daytona Beach at about 4 am. As we had not entered or left there before (and our cruising guide advised that there were sand bars that changed position often making channel markers unreliable), we decided to wait until dawn and watch the fishing boats leave before trying entry. A good thing we did so, as we observed them keeping well to one side then the other of the marked channel, which had some rather big switchbacks in it at the time. There was a 15 knot wind from the east and large swells (5-8 feet) behind us as we began entry. We were happy to have observed the fishing boats' exit, since we had no problems where they had gone. We touched bottom - rather hard - a couple of times, but entered all right, despite the skipper's sweating brow. Five minutes after we had reached calm waters, the diesel quit. In my worries about water depth, I had neglected to switch from the almost empty fuel tank to the full one. We were just five minutes from what quite possibly could have been a very bad outcome. Lesson learned: checklist before all vital maneuvers in restricted waters. Prayers of thanks uttered.

[thompsonisland]

Not life-threatening, but...

Got dumped in the Charles basin dinghy racing in Boston. I weighed all of 110lbs, could not right her. We were assisted by the launch but let me tell you, you DO NOT want to be at eye level with the water surface in the basin. When I was a crew coxswain in high school, we once won a race in CT, and the coach said the crew couldn't throw me in. Basin is even grosser.

[captainstubbie]

Sailing Lake Superior. Anchored in 18' of ccccccccold water. I dropped the ONLY bottle of rum overboard....full...it sunk. Crew said the captain always goes down with his ship.....ccccoldest dive down the anchor rode I have ever made. When I was topside again I was an 'innie' not an 'outie'!!! :-)

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by captainstubbie

Sailing Lake Superior. Anchored in 18' of ccccccccold water. I dropped the ONLY bottle of rum overboard....full...it sunk. Crew said the captain always goes down with his ship.....ccccoldest dive down the anchor rode I have ever made. When I was topside again I was an 'innie' not an 'outie'!!! :-)

<snicker!>

[sabray]

Left block island in heavy fog. The dense fog was supposed to lift, it did not. Loran did not adjust to the longitude change and correct to new stations.Spent hours circling to find buoy's. Dead reckoned into rock away inlet. Dropped hook inside a channel marker. Holy **** that current was running. Bent my cqr. I was way tired and found a better place to anchor up
In dead horse bay. Weird to see these places now in the news and devestated.

[Captain Jeffry]

First really bad experience was 1971. I was 16. Helping to bring home Columbia 50 Quierida II from Mexico race. Left Mazatlan with a few other racers with no weather to be expected. Ted Fox sailing master. Headed to Cabo and WHALOPPED with (Signet wind speed was pegged at 60) 80kts+ from the north and biggest seas I have or will hopefully ever see again. No storm sails aboard, no drogues, no nada. Double reef was too much when we hit 40+. No triple reef. Main down, #3 still hanked on and lashed to deck. Bare poles. Engine would not carry us up and over a single wave. We tried for 2 hours. Get half way up and slide down. Waves were huge regimented walls. Terrifying.
Laid a hull for 14 hours and took our knockdowns in terror. Heard maydays on the vhf earlier from boats behind us. Hatches blown off.. bad ju ju. Our DR had us 100 miles south in the blow and we headed north not to miss the Cape all together. Solid cloud cover, no sights possible till we got to La Paz.. Headed south to Cabo. Sailed the boat home to San Diego with dbl reef main and #3. Engine was hit and miss, mainly miss. We were the only boat to make it to Cabo out of the 6 that left behind us. No losses. Cal 37, Quazar, was hurt bad. Got to San Diego 14 days after Cabo stopping once in Abreojos and Turtle Bay for rest. Kept the engine for anchoring mainly. 4 total crew aboard. Ted and two of his older buddies from Great Lakes.. Scared the crap out me. Knew I was going to die.

Another worse was late August last year delivering a Catalina 38 from Long Beach to Seattle, around Punta Gorda and Cape Mendocino with 45+ sustained breeze, dense fog and of course the lee shore. Completley un forecasted event. I do not go out with weather like this on the forecast. Took me from 1700 hrs to 0600 hours for the 14 nm stretch get around both Gorda and the 5 mile buoy off Mendocino. Limped in to Brookings. No damages. 21 days from Long Beach to Lake Washington. S/V Peregrine. GREAT BOAT!

[sabray]

Best sail,

Annapolis to virginia gorda.
Had clear weather and short crew. Got clobbered eastern edge of Gulf Stream. Low pressure with 80 knots knocked us. Nasty nasty but the crew were good. I kinda felt like I had sailed as much as I could and wasn't sure I needed do much more. We lost one day doing circles and still made St Lucia in 10 days.

[Captain Jeffry]

Originally Posted by svBeBe

Worst Sailing Experience?

1) Force 9 for 4-5 days in the Bay of Bengal.
2) Having a charter boat anchor nearby

Bill

LOVE the Amel! Great boats!

[Captain Jeffry]

Originally Posted by sabray

Left block island in heavy fog. The dense fog was supposed to lift, it did not. Loran did not adjust to the longitude change and correct to new stations.Spent hours circling to find buoy's. Dead reckoned into rock away inlet. Dropped hook inside a channel marker. Holy **** that current was running. Bent my cqr. I was way tired and found a better place to anchor up
In dead horse bay. Weird to see these places now in the news and devestated.

Good ole' days of Loran and DR! Good show!