Good deeds you have done

[thinwater]

Only once have I been towed in. I was pulling a guy off an entrance bar, and one of his crew threw the line into my prop. And they left me there. I was getting ready to sail in, which was going to be a challenge given the wind direction, when a stranger from my marina threw me a line.



When we got in I went to thank him and buy him a beer, when he said "No need, I've watched you tow people in." Karma works. I bought him the beer anyway. Why not? Now I have another friend.

[sailon46]

After Irma and Maria three weeks repaired the scratches inflicted by Maria and sailed from St. Croix to the BVI. For these that know the area Willie Ts was on the beach and I was the only boat in pirates night. On the way I caught trolling a nice size Mahi. I filleted it and share it with Foxy and his clan at JVD. They were eating goats and iguanas when I got there.
Ernie on the Mary Jane

[GordMay]

My Good Deed

A guy arrives at the Pearly Gates and St, Peter asks him to relate a good deed he had done.

The guys thinks for a moment and says, “Hmmm, well I was driving down a road and I saw a giant group of hoodlums harassing this poor girl. I slowed down, and sure enough, there they were, about 20 of them abusing this poor woman.

“Infuriated, I got out my car, grabbed a tire iron out of my trunk, and walked up to the leader of the gang. He was a huge guy; 6 foot 4 inch, 260 pounds, with a studded leather jacket and a chain running from his nose to his ears. As I walked up to the leader, the others formed a circle around me and told me to get lost or I’d be next.

“So I ripped the leader’s chain out of his face and smashed him over the head with the tire iron. Then I turned around and yelled to the rest of them, ‘Leave this poor innocent girl alone! You’re all a bunch of SICK, deranged animals! Go home before I really teach you a lesson in PAIN!”’

St. Peter, duly impressed, says, “Wow! When did this happen?”

“Oh, about three minutes ago.”.

[seabreez]

Originally Posted by Jammer

Warm my heart by sharing stories of nice things you've done while on the water. Gve away water, give goods to people who cannot afford them, give someone a tow, ...???

I was a Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary (CCGA) for 31 years finished in 2012, and stopped counting at 716 rescues in many parts of Canada, The Great Lakes, The Rideau system, St Lawrence River from Lake Ontario to Newfoundland, The Magdelan Islands and east coast, Boston, Marco Island, the Gulf of Mexico, Dominican Republic, Cuba. Most of the rescues occurred in Lake St Francis. Others were done on holidays, travelling by boat, or in training when on training missions for the CCGA. In Canada, being an Auxiliary meant that we were not paid. It was volunteer all the way. The CCGA would reimburse us for the fuel costs. And we were not allowed to accept payments. So of course, there was a lot of thank you(s) and some we developed great friendships, and then you got the ones that never said thank you, We did it for the helping the community. Many times we were asked why we did this? I always shrugged it to we feel good helping others. During all these years we also found many that have drowned by boating accidents to going through the ice snowmobiling of fishing etc... During these recoveries, I developed a technique to plan to locate to recover. I have trained many police, firefighters and others. Now, I respond to departments that require assistance when someone goes missing. I have now located 32 missing persons and still counting. I usually locate within an hour or so and I let the others recover. On one case, the boy had been missing for 14 days and when I arrived on scene, within an hour we had located him. On another case the girl was missing 23 days. I tried to get involver on the 9th day. The police refused. I told the police where the girl was. On the end of the 23rd day, I was called and again gave the police the coordinates. On the morning of the 24th day they went to look at that spot and within the hour the girl had been found. I do not charge to locate or to provide assistance. And I usually foot the bill for the fuel costs. I do it for the families... for closure... I have that expertise if you can call it that. The hardest thing I have to overcome is that when someone goes missing and you want to assist with such an expertise, police department are very hard to convince that I can help. The police departments that accept my help are very grate full that I stepped up to help, and they appreciate it. Getting inside a police perimeter is impossible. Many time I tell the police where the missing person is and they do not believe it. Then when the locate is done I am brought in to answer questions... on how did you know? This happened three times. Some police now know, but I locate some times by phone. Sometimes cases are miles away, and I can assist over the phone. But still I have a hard time to convince that I can help. Now I shrug it off when I cannot help. I only wish I could pass on this knowledge... someday...

So... [QUOTE=Jammer;2801304]Warm my heart by sharing stories of nice things you've done while on the water... I hope I have warmed your heart and the biggest thing I have given was life to many and hope to many more.... Regards.

[twig]

Was moving my cradle to a new marina last year and a guy asked to borrow my trailer to move his so I let him use truck and trailer. He went 500 miles, I thought he was going to next town. We went out to dinner when he got back and didn’t even buy my dinner.

[19thol]

Was over at the boat one day messing around, my buddy came over and said there was a waverunner under one of the docks. He called the cops thinking it was stolen, it was not as far as the cops knew. They did figure out who owned it, it turned out to be one of the owners daughters friend. They left it tied to the dock because her trailer was being repaired. Of course when the tide went out and then back in, the waverunner was under the dock, half submerged. About an hour later the girl shows up and says her Dad was bringing a trailer to pick it up, but she needed to get to the ramp. I ended up towing her to the ramp with my sailboat, and had to use a brand new dock line to tow her, and left the line with her because I didn't want to wait till her Pop showed up. All was good but never got that brand new dock line back.

[Chuck Hawley]

Two highly abbreviated Good Deeds:

Returning from Cabo in 1983, I spied a familiar boat anchored off a small island about half way to San Diego. It was a couple who were delivering a race boat back to the States, but their engine was kaput, and they were facing 400 miles of beating to weather without the engine. They had a Bukh diesel, and we had a Perkins 4-236. They paddled over, we paddled back, installed our fuel pump which turned out to be the same damned pump, and they had no further problems.

Second, headed to Santa Cruz Island with some buddies and co-eds, we were about 5 miles offshore when we saw a flapping sail in the distance. It continued to flap, so we bore off and sailed about a half mile to what turned out to be an Alpha Cat 18. The three guys on board were hypothermic, had only one life jacket, and could not get the boat to tack. We took them in tow, brought them aboard our Cal 2-30, put one of our guys in the cat to steer, and towed them by motorsailing back to Santa Barbara. It took about two hours with the little A4 straining to buck the headwind. We delivered them to the harbormaster for observation.

Now one where I was at the receiving end:

Coming back from Hawaii in 1983, the 10,400# keel fell off my* boat in 12,000 feet of water. The boat didn't capsize, but did heel over sixty degrees or so. I radioed to some other race boats who were being delivered back to the mainland, and they immediately turned around and offered to stand by while we figured out if the boat would capsize. The two or three boats (Checkmate was one of them) offered to reverse course and sail back to Hawaii (300 NM) to make sure we arrived safely. We turned down their offer, but it was extraordinary generosity.

Chuck Hawley

*Not actually my 67' boat, but I was the boat captain. The boat, Charley, was owned by Nolan Bushnell.

[44'cruisingcat]

Over the years you do lots of stuff.

We've towed boats into anchorages, given water, fuel and antibiotics to people who needed them, just the other day we towed a yacht off a sandbank.

We once tried to rescue people off a sinking yacht. We weren't able to, fortunately a volunteer rescue service was.

Stuff goes wrong, we could all need help at some stage.

[scobane]

Like a dummy, my dinghy came loose off the southern coast of Vieques as I was nearing Sun Bay. As I was trying to furl the main, the plastic pulley at the end of the boom broke and wedged the out haul line - I found out later. So we are trying to rescue our dinghy with the main half way in in rolly seas. I snagged the line with a boat hook, but it jerked it right out of my hand. Fortunately, a couple of Lobster men came to our rescue- retrieving the dinghy and hook. Before pulling away, they chucked a couple of lobsters into the cockpit that I quickly put in the cooler on the side deck. Think about that for a minute - not only did they come to my rescue, but also give me some of their catch. I boiled them that evening - served with parsley’d potatoes.

[philiosophy]

Help well and often. Your day of need will come sooner than you imagine.

[19thol]

not a good deed, more of an instant karma. We were motoring in the channel next to sunshine skyway bridge, only a few feet wide, and very shallow on either side. We were passed by about a 50 ft. motor cruiser, about 8 inches from our port side going about three times faster than us, sending water over and into the cockpit. Obviously they knew what they were doing because they were getting a real kick out of it. Now my brother who was with me is really getting upset, I say, calm down, it'll all come back to them someday, not knowing that day would be this one. About 15 minutes later we pass them, beached out of the channel, trying to push and pull a 50 footer off the sand. Later while waiting for a bridge to open, we see towboat head over to them, then leave them there, karma is surly a bitch.

[billgewater]

That which you want for yourself, seek for mankind. Or versions of. To be found in nearly all the considered philosophical musings.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you is a much more personalized local concept.
How far you extend your kindness to others largely defines us. Kindness to family members hardly rates as it is simply self interest. To neighbours, is a step up. To occasional strangers is even less likely. To a starving uneducated child in another country becomes, for most of us, irrelevant. In some of the most conservative privileged environments imaginable, kindness to those of a different religious or political stance is nearly regarded as a sin.
For those who travel, what you often observe is the kindness of strangers.


I understand Montanas take that Good deeds are funded by human capital. However many good deeds are done by those with no capital at all. Altruism.

Doing a good deed is not an expenditure but rather a gain for both the recipient and giver.

Here endeth .....

[Fore and Aft]

I see it like "Pay it forward" I have been the recipient of some very kind acts and I like to do the same for people. It always seems to come around in circles and I am sure I still owe more than I have given.
Cheers

[Kenomac]

Our good karma bank account gets topped off every day while we're at work in the hospitals, so in the unlikely event we need to make a small withdrawal while cruising, willing, kind people have always showed up to lend a hand. We always do the same without ever expecting anything in return, which is the way it should be.

[kayakerChuck]

I usually help.

I've run towards marina fires to cut dock lines to shove boats out of the way of the flames. Lost some hair on my arms. I've towed many, in various stages of floating/sinking, with everything from my kayak to jetski, sailboat, and many different powerboats. We've helped a few hikers who were "walking the shoreline" when shoreline turns to several miles of cliff. Walking out before dark wasn't going to happen.

We've taken a few panicked SCUBA divers aboard, reset a few mooring bouys. From my kayak, we have helped many, rescued many, and prevented a few fatalities.

All in a day's boating, right :-)

I've been on the receiving end a few times, too. The best story was about 30 years ago, GF and I had to drive from Portland, OR, to San Francisco to catch a flight home. We spent the night at Crater Lake because- Crater Lake! We got there as the sun set, gave away all of our extra food & stuff- figuring we had to leave early in the morning anyway. We got up the next morning and decided it was too pretty to leave.

We called the airlines and car rental places & extended our stay for a day. No problem, we can find breakfast or a store for food. Wrong. It's pretty lonely there, especially late in the season. Ooops. About this time a couple came by & gave us a couple of GIANT vegetarian California rolls- enough to feed us for a day. Thank you!!