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What is your worst saling experience that you lived to tell about?

5K views 26 replies 18 participants last post by  CBinRI 
#1 ·
What was your worst sailing or boating experience that you lived to tell about?

Thought this would be fun to read.

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#2 ·
Ran aground in a spoil area, in a major heavily-traversed shipping channel in the Mississippi Sound, at night, in 30 knot winds and 5 ft. seas, with all the sails out. Took about 30 minutes to get out of it. In hindsight, it was probably more like drama than an actual life-or-death situation, but it was certainly the worst experience so far.
 
#3 ·
I was sailing in a brisk wind and waves, a bit close to shore, getting ready to tack away when an especially large wave raised the stern enough to pop the rudder out of it's double pintle/gudgeon fitting--leaving me holding the tiller with the rudder now splayed flat on the water. The boat, without steerage did two 360 degree turns, blowing closer to shore, while I tried to reinsert the pintles into the gudgeons despite waves and boat going nuts. But I succeeded, did not run aground, regained control of the boat and sailed home.

Since then, I drilled a small hole at the bottom of the pintle to accept a wire ring below the gudgeon, which holds the rudder in place, so that won't happen again.

Amazing how quickly a lovely challenging sail can become really challenging!:eek:

Frank.
 
#4 ·
aquabay said:
What was your worst sailing or boating experience that you lived to tell about?
I came about too tightly in heavy weather, tacked into a strong gust heeling the boat over close to the spreaders. My wife was thrown across deck and afterwards almost killed me, but I lived to tell you about it.

Come on you guys, can't you see this guy's a spammer?
 
#5 ·
probably when I almost got run down by a motor boat pulling a parasailor ignoring the speed limits around the islands and then gybing for the first time ever in my little snark and almost capsizing, and getting hit on the head by the boom. not that it weighs very much, but it was still painful...
 
#13 ·
Many moons ago while a deckhand on an ex: Admiralty steam driven Salvage Tug we rode out a hurricane with a 10,000 ton ship in tow off the coast of Newfoundland.......I spent 8 hours straight at the wheel in the dark of night, it was interesting, especially after the storm passed and in the light of day the seas became even more confused....... I lived to tell the talemany times :)
 
#15 ·
I navigated a 51 foot teak sloop from Halifax to Bermuda/St/Thomas. After the 2nd knockdown, in 75 kts with 50 foot seas, and the cracking of the deck at the deckhouse, we called for a mayday. I got picked up by the HMS Sugartrader, a 651 foot tanker. The other 4 people, all Canadians, I never heard from again. I lost my sleeping bag and clothes, among other things on that sloop, Karinska. I guess that comes close to livingto tell about it.
Neal
 
#16 ·
dislocated shoulder, boat is upside down, 6 year old is treading water !!

a few years ago, i was with my 6 year old son sailing at creve coeur lake in st. louis, mo. we have an oday super swift (sunfish clone) and was tacking when we flipped. was new to sailing and still am :)
i had prewarned him that this might happen but everything would be fine. as we were going over, i told him to slip into the water and tread ( yes-- we both had life jackets) but i panicked (sp?) and tried to hold on with my problematic left arm.
needless to say, i dislocated my shoulder, AGAIN, but managed to pop it back into place while in the water. this is a reoccurring problem but not in the last few years.
by this time, the mast had wedged itself into the mud. luckily, i did not lose the rudder. after much huffing and puffing i was able to right the boat and helped my son back on board.
my problem now was to get myself back on while nursing a painful shoulder. after a few tries, i came to the conclusion that i had to use both arms.
like the idiot i can be at times, i ended up pulling hard with my left arm and dislocated my shoulder again.
after easing the joint back into place, we sailed back to shore where the days events were put on hold due to my throbbing shoulder.

my son, however, thought the whole thing was great !!
 
#17 ·
I think I posted this before somewhere,

Leaving late in the fall afternoon for Santa Cruz Island, Channel Islands CA, I expected a brisk transit with forecast small craft warnings and wind out of the NW, a favorable direction for a rumbline course to the east end.

Singlehanding my Hardin 45 is second nature, all controls lead to the cockpit, and I had a dependable autopilot.

3 hours into the 18 mile trip, the winds shifted to the W and picked up to 45kts and seas built to 15', now I'm going straight into it. I turned on the motor, rolled the mainsail, brought in the jib, put out the staysail and reefed the mizzen. No choice but to plow to weather or tack and head for Catalina, I chose the former. The winds picked up to 50kts.

3 miles west of the west end of Anacapa 2 miles from my destination, my knot meter read three kts, the plotting GPS showed I was moving backwards towards the Anacapa reef. Time to tack and head downwind. Autopilot off, wheel control on.......no response. Autopilot back on, 110 degrees to port .....no response. No helm control, and the rudder must have turned some, as I was now being blown towards the reef 3 miles away at 7 kts drift.

A call to the CG told me they were 1 hour away. Vessel Assit was 4 hours. I would be on the reef in 1/2 hour. I declined any assistance and set up a radio schedule with the CG.

With the calm that comes with certain disaster, I recalled an article in some sailing magazine where the same thing happened to cruiser, and he had used the mizzen as a steering vane and had steered clear of some obstruction. Kicking out the reef and letting out, the boat did an immediate 160 clear of the island and speed picked up to 12 kts. Balancing the two sails, I was on a compass heading for the harbor 15 miles away where vessel assist met me and towed me to my slip.
 
#18 ·
where to start?

ARHH where to start? At various times amongst sailors, beer, and rum this question often comes up. My reply is you can have your choice of one of these.

1. Getting caught in a tropical/hurricane force wind only 10 miles from our final destination, with no motor, navigational or electrical capabilities.

2. Getting bombed by the CIA/or an unidentified agency.

3. The pirate attack.

4. Crewing from Mexico to Florida for a person I had never met before, but who was highly recommended by his yacht club friends.

The hard part is of course that these are very long and complicated tales, and always seen more interesting if they are enhanced by a 10-year-old Anejo. So, the next time we meet in an Anchorage somewhere ask me the same question. There might even be a new drama to add by them!!!
 
#21 ·
Is it time for sundowners?

Hi&#8230; It's not so much a matter of holding out for the Anejo (in this case rum). It's just that the stories are as I said real complicated and have provoked discussions of firearms, confrontations at sea, and other not too pleasant threads and commentary. This of course was on a less well-informed message board <grin>. So until we meet in that perfect anchorage for sundowners I'm afraid the stories will have to hold.
I will add this however on the subject of romanticizing of pirates and wreckers. Way back when pirates were sometimes working for the government and sometimes just being pirates it may have been a more respected job choice. But, whichever the case these were groups of sailors out to do harm and steel from other folks. In my case we are not talking about Captain Jack Sparrow (?) We're talking about modern-day pirates. And when you think about modern-day pirates, just equate them to a group of gang bangers or carjackers.
 
#23 ·
A bit similar to Sasha's story - one nice quiet morning went up the mast to replace the wind vane, with the Minister for Sport, Recreation, Finance & External Affairs on the winch with the halyard attached to my alpine harness. Finished the job and called to be let down - "Can't" came the reply. She had backwound the line so tightly that God could not have released it - meanwhile jamming the other end in the masthead sheave.

Took off the harness, climbed down, sorted out the mess, climbed up to retrieve the harness etc, climbed back down. Of course by the time this all happened the ********* drivers had appeared and were racing up and down the channel making wonderful waves.

There is a sequel - Missus Boss tripped and fell over a day or two later and got a black eye. Her friends naturally assumed I had done it and invariably offered "serves you right"

I have other stories of near disaster, but this one amuses me most

Cheers

Alan
 
#24 ·
One day motoring back to the dock, lost raw water impeller. crosswnds in the channel blowing into my slip. easing into the slip ,water temp hitting 240, engaged reverse and the engine died. good thing this old boat had a heavly raked bow, it rode over the dock 2-3 feet in the air then settled back down,just scraped off a little gelcoat,and gathered a few wise remarks from the wide eyed bystanders. Art.
 
#25 ·
We knew it was windy but didn't understand what the two red and black flags meant when we took a Sunfish out into Norwalk CN harbor. We close reached out OK, but getting back in, downwind, was another story. The wind blew so hard the stern of the boat lifted out of the water. When the rudder lost purchase she broached. After 7-8 full crash & burns we hit on the idea of dropping the sail and using our bodies as sails. It was our second day of sailing, ever.
 
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