i like stories so let me tell you a story -- we were in eliz city nc and a nasty little storm was brewing and all the slip were full except one -- a boat came in and everyone went to help and the guy was bring it in but would not answer his
radio -- so as he got close someone got on the stern of one boat and yelled out instructions -- the guy turned and headed in but just as he was about to get in he cut the
engine and tide pushed him to far so everyone yelled go around again - he did same thing - someone yelled a bit more throttle next time and he did but way to much and as he nosed past the piling he froze and did not cut back on the throttle and everyone was yelling to cut the
engine - he did just before the hit the
steel wall very hard - one in we all tried to help and talk with him - he said he had just bought the boat in mass and headed south with no zero nada knowledge and was headed to fla with his wife 2kids a dog and cat - he was going to live the life in fla at a friends
dock in ft lauderdale -
he said his
radio quit working so i went below to take a look and it was a mess - turned out somewhere along the way a hose broke and it took them forever to figure that out and get the seacock closed but in the meantime everything got wet and the smell was not good - i began to check out the radio and turned it on and it worked - when i showed him he said oh you have to push and hold the on button for it to work
in the meantime some south african friends of ours looked at the
mast that was wavering a bit -- all the shrouds were lose - so they spent the better part of the day fixing it --
they told us their schedule and i asked how they were going to get down the
icw in the dark and their response was the icw was lite at night -
then they told us they were leaving the next day at which someone had a serious heart to heart as they were going to cross the albamara sound in a blow - not one person there would go out and we had a lot of ocean crossers there -
as for
money - they had money for
fuel and a little for
food -
oh i forgot one thing they broke an
anchor when they hit the wall - and did not not think they had another
anchor - an old guy there and i began to try and find them a used anchor somewhere - someone else was helping on another issue and found a new anchor in a
cockpit locker
at the end of the day we all knew there was a God that looks out after sailors for if there was not they would all have be a statistic --
one of the things we have done is adopt new folks and help them get south -- but we would never ever have helped these guys - we did not want to get involved with someone who could potentially become a statistic and sink their boat and had absolutely no knowledge -
in the end they with the help of a lot of folks they figured out they were way over their
head as they put it and decided to spend the
winter in elizabeth city - which they did - we all breathed a sigh of relief as we did not want to have to turn around and come and
rescue them
this is a long way of saying it is not that simple -- learn a bit before you take off - learn about the boat and seamanship and getting in and out and
anchoring ect ect ect