Coolest/scariest flotsam

[edvol44]

What is the coolest and/or scariest floatsam you've seen? Gotten any nice stuff? Ever run across a derilict boat/ship? Ever been hit? Ever found ambergris or know anyone who has? Ever sunk dangerous floasam? I'm imagining opening a shipping container or something I dunno. I dunno if this is in the right section but I imagine one might navigate away from them primarily so as to avoid a health and safety issue so I put it in this section.

[LeaseOnLife]

Does this Fish Attracting Device count ? there are a few, when sailing from Yap or Palau to the Philippines

[sailorboy1]

The worst so far that I've SEEN was a big section of dock. The thing about it was is was so dark colored I could barely see it to start with and as I got closer I could that 90% was just under the water. I only saw it because I was headed right for it, like normal. had it been dark it wouldn't have been fun.

[goboatingnow]

I once came up on deck after a deep sleep at night to be greeted by the flames etc from an offshore Gas platform, I thought for a second we had been invaded by aliens. does that count?

dave

[boatman61]

A 60ft tree complete with foliage and roosting Pelicans 20hrs out of Panama City...

[jackdale]

I watched a piece of fishing net go under the boat on the Maui-Vancouver run last summer. After having a similar piece take out our transmission in 2000, I was relieved to escape unscathed.

Our crew saw a 1'X1'X15' piece of dock.

[Kettlewell]

How about a 15-foot hammerhead shark swimming in our boat's shadow as we crossed the Bahama Banks? Five minutes later we plowed into a mass of floating seaweed that completely fouled the prop, necessitating a trip over the side with a knife to clear the mess. Needless to say, I made fast work of it.

[Dos Gatos]

Retrieved a few round japanese fishing floats coming back from Hawaii. One was a large glass float with netting and the others were plastic. The orange/red plastic floats make great anchor markers.

[onestepcsy37]

we were crossing to the bahamas. left west palm headed for memory rock. about ten miles from the banks we suddenly heard a thud-thud-thud as something big went right under the boat. my first thought, having just crossed a busy shipping lane, was '40 foot submerged steel container that fell off a passing ship'. i looked behind me to see a pretty big shark - maybe 9 or 10 feet - thrashing the surface behind me. must have been sleeping on the surface. i checked below to look for any leaks but found none. thank god for a thick hull (csy 37) and a full keel...

[Capt Phil]

We were unfortunate enough to find a body in one of our seine nets during a set off Village Island in the PNW one morning. Not a pretty sight... it was one of the villagers who had gone missing off his skiff a couple of days before in the area. RCMP from Alert Bay tied up our boat and crew for several days while they conducted their investigation. They concluded that alcohol had played a major part in the accidental drowning. Be careful out there, particularly if you're alone! Phil

[nigel1]

Not really cool, or scary, but a bit worrying, was coming back into Porthmadog (North Wales), through a narrow and quite shallow channel, carrying about 2 to 3 kts of tide, when I see to one side of the channel 3 objects in the water, at first I could not make them out, but as I got closer, could see it was 3 young girls aged about 5 to 10.
They had walked from the beach around to the small town along the sandbanks, and were returning as the tide came in. They were in a bit of a state, trying to hold on to each other, and were not even crying out.
Got the boat turned around, went back up past them, dropped the anchor, fell back on the chain, and managed to get all three back onboard.
After getting back to the mooring, dink ashore and walked them back around to the beach. Parents had not even missed them

[goboatingnow]

Studies have shown that people in distress in the water do not shout. The person drowning is the quiet one


Dave

[Lagoon4us]

2 life jackets we found in a bay on Long Island Whitsundays in 1978, covered in green ants and stank very very bad, there had been a cyclone 3 months earlier with some boats missing. Not nice!

[SkiprJohn]

Glass fish floats between Hawaii and Washington State. Very cool.

Large logs vertically bouncing up and down in the water in the PNW. (deadheads)

Whales passing from port to starboard under the boat at a depth shallow enough to see them on the leeward side of Molokai. Not flotsam but an unsettling sight.

[boatman61]

Whales are really cool... especially when they come over to say Hello...