Well...since we're talking about serious life endangering experiences...
in 1931, I was returning from my 3rd coastal circunavigation in my Optimist, I had all 12 sails up..I don't want to exagerate...but I had at least 12.000 Sq. feet of sail up, when suddenly....a meteor fell 100 yards in front of me....
It built a wave that was more, much more taller than a Tsunami...it was in fact the only registered (so far), Tsunimamy...a Tsunami to the square...the king of waves...
The night before I had noticed that when I left port, 345 days before, I had forgoten to attach the rudder, and my keel was bitten by a vicious Killer Whale 23 days before, after I ran into the Orca at 300 knots boat speed, my average cruising speed...so there I was alone, in my 7 foot yacht, all that sail up, sailing at around 67 knots, in 123 knots winds....when....well the metoer hit the water..."Plop"....man you think Forest Gump was in deep S**T when he was piloting Apollo 13....this was much worse....this was the Larry the Cable guy goes to war seas.....
The impact was so violent I dropped my nail clipper overboard...I knew all my hopes of cuting the lines and ditch the mast were gone...no nail clipper....I knew I was doomed...I had ran out of butter, too....
The first wave hit me head on, I automatically went into an uncontrolable knockUp...yes...the vicious knockup...this is no mast in the water thing, no Sir.......this is when the wave is so big, it turns your sails upsidedown in the mast...its confusing....the clew becomes the tack, the head becomes the clew...and worse...the ropes get turned inside out...you are now sailing holding on to the ropes's core...and that hurts your hands....well hand..since I had broken the week before one arm, a leg, 13 ribs and twisted my ancle while grilling a steak in 300 foot waves...
It was scary..but I was not affraid...I followed SD's advice and had a whole bunch of paper plates to tell the Coast guard where I was....
Oh well...gotta go now....but to cut a long story short....in my knockup, the boat flipped longitudinally 23 times before it came to a stop, bow down...yes...my stern was mooning the moon, (can you do that??)...I was under water holding my breath for 45 minutes, when sudenly....the boat righted it self....I was lucky....my TV didn't get wet, and my extensive of alreadt filled SUDOKU puzzles was also dry....that day I crossed the Horn once more, and landed in the Azores, where I had a deliciuous Dolphin steak....