Quote:
Originally Posted by rognvald
Has the OP, or anyone, established that this actually happened to him or is it a theoretical topic of discussion? If it happened, then he had no business being 500 miles offshore without knowing the location of every through-hull. This also is an indication that some, if not all, have never been serviced or checked. This knowledge would be the difference between sinking or saving the boat. Good luck and safe sailing. |
Yes. We all know this story well.
Sailor wakes up in forward V-berth because his hand, which is dangling off the
bed, gets wet from a sudden inrush of
water over the top of the boards (almost like there's no space under them). He wakes slowly and stumbles into the
saloon. He doesn't stoop down to taste the water because as he looks around he sees water gushing through the side of the
hull just behind where his
VHF is located. He rushes up onto
deck to discover that a
shipping container has rammed sidewards into the aft stb quarter of his
Catalina, and somehow THAT didn't wake him up, but water tickling his fingers did (prostate issue?).
After doing silly things like sailing the boat around so he can jump off his boat and onto container (mid ocean) without a life jacket while holding nothing more than a painter, he tries to save the
VHF by pouring fresh water over it. He patches the hole in the hull. Never starts the
engine for some reason, bails the water out by hand....
After attempting to hail somebody on VHF by calling, "this is an SOS!" he decides that his masthead
antenna has become randomly disconnected. While shimmying up the
mast on a
single line he realizes that a major storm is coming. Instead of prepping the boat and shortening sail etc. He partakes instead in a quality shave. After somehow going
overboard and swimming back to his boat underwater in a storm he realizes his boat is sinking following a
capsize caused by a beam sea, brought on by him going below while leaving the boat without
helm control and powered by barepoles alone.
After an endless list of basic seamanship gaffs he abandons ship to his
liferaft, taking no water with him from his boat.
Eventually, after a few days of taking 'sun shots' at various points of the morning, afternoon and evening with a
sextant (and no almanac), the use and method of which he taught himself for the first time in the
liferaft, he decides to set fire to his liferaft to catch the attention of an already passed container ship... probably because he realized that knowing your position while in a unpowered vessel has little point.
He dies in a ring of fire. The end...
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