What's Your Strangest Boating Experience?

Aye, Aye Skipper!

I’m gonna have to be careful so as to protect the guilty on this one, but … what the hell.

I was hanging around my boat at the YC a couple of years ago and one of my neighboring boat owners on a 36ft sloop asked me to go off shore with him to pump out the head.

Blow Boaters are generally a thrifty self-reliant lot, and a pump out costs $40 at the slip at our YC. I’m thinking that to dump the tank is just his excuse to HAVE to go sailing offshore. Since I have spent most of my lifetime on sailboats, (18,000 miles at sea on sail boats) I find a pang deep in my heart when I watch sail boat going to sea without me aboard, so I said sure! We slipped the ropes and motored out of Pt. Everglades. I asked if the skipper wanted me to hoist the main and he said nah … he just wanted to motor out and “getter dunâ€. So I went to my corner of the cockpit and sulked at not getting the rags up and glum in thought that this was going to be a motorboat ride after all! …. We’d made our way out to legal distance in 2-3 ft seas, straight off the port and in the middle of the sea lane the Skipper prepares to go below to pump out the holding tank.

I take the helm and suggest we move off to the south out of the sea lane but he assured me his tank was only 15 gals and would empty in 5 minutes. The Skip directed me to keep the boat headed into the wind. As he went below … his diesel kicker began to cough … sputter and then died as a siren began to bellow. The skipper came back to the deck as I hear the pump jettisoning past meals and the odor was attacking my senses, he popped his head out of the companionway and asked me if I’d killed the engine. I commented back that it was a self shut down and the siren was either high temp or low oil alarm.

Sheesh, do I look like a fool that wants to sit in a puddle of sewage!

He takes back the helm and tries to restart the engine and I suggested we pop the hood and check the vital signs, to which he scoffs at the idea and the engine coughs back to life and he slips it into gear … and asked me to keep it idle and to head back to the sea buoy toward the port entrance as he went below to kill the overboard pump.

I suggested we use his boat like a sail boat and sail her in … to which he announces his roller furling head sail is broken … I said I’ll fix it to get it unfurled and we can douse on deck it in port … can’t he says, he’s only one sheet for the head sail, …. Okay, no problem let’s hoist the main and go in on main alone but hey we’re sailing right! I suggest not to be daunted by a silly thing like no sheets on a sail boat. …. He tells me his sail batten cars have been blown off and the main won’t hoist … Okay, I get it we have a motor boat … I get it … and the engine dies again … and the single arm throttle/gear shifter stuck in forward … locked solid. Things are not looking up.

Okay, let’s let the engine cool down and see what’s what, we can fix'er out here and motor back in .. I declared and offered to become the black gang as I follow the Skiper below below to spelunk … check the oil … okay …. Raw water sea filter clean … ummm the raw water pump is hot but so is the entire engine … I suggest we pop the pump impeller cover and put in a new impeller, no tool box, Okay I have a leather man I can get it off, to which the Skipper nixes because, no spare is on board … Ah Ha! we don’t have a spare. Now I’M NOT FEELING VERY SECURE IN THIS GUYS HANDS I TELL YOU TRUE! I’m assured by the Skipper it’s not the impeller because he just put a new one on last year. I felt more assured for sure.

Okay, I go back topsides first and looking over our stern I see a huge freighter steaming toward the port, maybe 3-4 miles off our stern and we are drifting smack dab into his course! We’re perfectly positioned to be skewered! I begin to get a little concerned that my afternoon is about to get more interesting as we’d drifted north and we were now closing on the shipping lane. My Skipper follows me on deck with a carpenter’s claw hammer to fix the shifter! To my exclamation "WTF", as tells me he finds the shifter freezes up a lot and the claw and hammer is required to lever pry out the safety button to free the linkage … what a sight this was.

So I ask him to call TowBoat US and get us towed to safety which he tells me he wants to try to start teh engine and limp in on a hot engine … to which I assured him he’d burn up the engine if he tried. None the less he beat the shifter back to neutral and started the engine. I asked him where his fire extinguisher’s were … life vests … All below decks! … Nope, nothing in the cockpit lazerettes to save the boat or crew! … As the engine kicks to life a burning tire smell begins to envelop the boat. Then black smoke starts to billow from the companion way hatch. I'm definately not getting a good feeling a bout this afternoons prospcted for a great sail.

Taking some control of the situation I kill the engine and press the skipper to get to his fire extinguishers and get some Life vest son deck …

So here I sit 3 miles off shore, bound for Southampton, England in the Gulfstream current, on an “all show no go†sailboat with a skipper in denial over maintenance, safty, seamanship defiantly against calling for assistance, with an engine likely to be on fire with life vests and extinguishers below decks and forward of that threatening engine and a big A** freighter bearing down on us now ready to cleave us in two. Yes, this afternoon was defiantly shaping up to an experience.

There can be only one skipper on a boat, but it was time some one that had their s**t together acted to get us to safety and I took matters in to hand. Now, it wasn’t my boat and clearly the owner skipper was responsible for ship and crew, but he’d pretty much convinced me he was not going to get my a** out of his fix. I mutinied and sent the skipper below to find the vests and throw them on deck and to get his fire extinguishers on the engine and kill the source of the now heavy billowing black noxious smoke.

As I got on VHF Ch. 16 to the Coast Guard, vest begain flying onto deck, those cheapo vests still in plastic bags. I quickly reported our situation and asked for assistance with the freighter to get that Captain to veer off slightly to avoid us. The Skipper calls from below “NO FIRE,†just a smoking belt (pump over heated, seized and friction heated the belt it would have caught fire soon). After taking minutes to sort out a vest that would fit me while I man the radio, I requested Towboat US to respond promptly and come get us … I was questioned by the Coasties if we couldn’t just sail in to prot which I embarrassingly had to say we had sails but they couldn’t be hoisted due to repair issues and we couldn’t maneuver in time to avoid commercial traffic. With the fear of burning to the water line no longer top most in my mind and the freighter veering off to the south, and I was in a lifevest confirmed Towboat was responding to the call, I just wanted off this hulk before I had to swim miles to shore.

I had unlimited towing with BoatUS and the salver TowBoat US was “slapping leather†to get to us before Seatow did as Sea Tow had heard the distress and headed out to us on his own to lend assistance. The first guy there was going to get the tow contract for sure. As I set the MIC down the smoke smudged skipper emerged from below assuring me it was just a water pump ... and muttered out loud as to whether the battery might have enough power to spin the engine in gear by starter to move the prop enough to get us back ….

Without laughing out loud, I assured him we’d be at the dock in 45 minutes, he’d not heard the distress call I’d just completed and I told him about TowBoat being on the way. I’m now in disbelief he states he wants to call another towing company that was the salver for his towing insurance (a cheaper policy) to which I pointed to the rooster tail wake on TowBoat US, now a ½ mile out and smiled to my skipper, and told him the tow would be on me this time ( I knew he’d like that part, Boat US covers the insured member on any private water craft even if not owned by the member). I started to to get ready to be towed and went forward to the bow and cleared away the skippers dock lines and power cords strewn about and got ready to set up the towing bridle. Once the bridle was secured and the tow established we were out of harms way … I relaxed and sat back in the cockpit and watched the nonplused Skipper steer us home, smiling as we went. I had the feeling this was a common occurrence for my fellow club member … as he seemed to have this part of boating down pretty good.

I was sheepishly embarrassed to find myself being towed back to port and to the YC dock no less by tow boat on a sail boat with sails still furled over a water pump impeller … no spares aboard and the total tools available to undertake repairs were a claw hammer and my Leather Man multi-tool.

Needless to say … I’ve been too busy to help out this skipper when he calls for a helping hand.
 
Good Read - Thanks. Glad you're here to write about it.
 
Whew.

I think the boat owner managed to do just about everything wrong, both before and after leaving the dock. He was lucky to have you aboard.

Sadler
 
-heres a funny one.. so im out at caladesi island... i tell my wife to hand me the anchor so i can throw it in the water and set it.. so i allways have the rope coiled up nicely for a nice throw... so i throw the anchor and im backing up and it wont catch.. hmmmmm :smt017 . So i say oh well ill pull it back up and re try this... so i pull it up and its just a rope.. LMAO :smt043 somehow the hook came lose and the anchor was stuck at the bottom of the sea floor.. LMAO.. i dove into the water put the snorkel gear on and fetched it... re tied it and we were good.. :smt043 and i still have no idea how the hell it came lose!

-And another.. so me and my wife were out in the gulf so... we pull up to the dock and i jump out and i tell my wife to throw me the rope so i can tie it up.. i jump out of the boat and can you freakin believe it the dam boat drifted 2 feet away.. so im like sweety just throw me the rope before it drifts farther away.. and YES you guessed it she throws and misses and the boat drifts farther and .. Now she dont know how to drive the boat.. so YES you guessed it.. Amateur night at the boat ramp.. I dove in and swam to the boat and grabbed it and pulled it to the ramp!! tied it and was very pissed.. but kept my self together and didnt yell at anyone!
 
We were anchored for the night in Port Graham in lower Cook Inlet, Alaska. The boat is a fiberglass 48' long-line halibut boat. There are about 40 other bigger and smaller halibut boats anchored with us, waiting for the 24-hour halibut 'opener' for that region of Alaska.

About 1 am a gale comes up and whips the anchorage to froth. Boats are pulling anchor left and right. Everyone stumbles out of bed, engines start, and the fending off begins.

The trouble was, some of the boats were 'Russian' boats. Boats owned and manned by US citizens, Alaskan residents, that originally came from Russia and are still more Russian than American. They're also called 'the old believers'.

Those old believers believe in firearms, for sure. While most of us would yell at a boat heading our way to get their attention, those Russians would SHOOT AT THEM. AT THEM. Of course that DID get their attention, but it also increased the tension dramatically. What a bunch of crazy F's.

Luckly the gale blew out after about a 30-40 minute shootout and we all reset our anchors. This time each boat also had a human on watch the rest of the night.

No one was hit by any of the MANY rounds fired, but neither did we get any fish that next day. The Inlet was too rough for all but the largest boats (+60'-ers) to get out far enough to get the keeper halibut.
 
I was with my friends on their 40' Luhrs, we were anchored up for the night at Cape Lookout lighthouse in North Carolina. This area comes to a point and the outter banks forms a hook that you can get inside and find protected waters. A buddy and I stayed up late after everyone else went to bed. The moon was full and it was very plesant till a little bit of a squall rolled through. It came and went and the full moon was out in front of us and it was still raining behind us, we were on the flybridge facing the stern when our eyes focused on something in the rainclouds behind us, it sort of resembled a jet trail left by airliners, but it was in a perfect arch. As we kept looking we started to notice colors in it. We looked at it through the binoculars and could faintly see the colors of the rainbow,,, A Lunar Rainbow????

A few days later I asked astronomy.com about what I saw and they confirmed that, yes it was a Lunar Rainbow and there are about 2 reported sightings a year, and this was the first!!!
 
I was delivering a 31 Cabo up the coast one year with a buddy, one morning we were running along at 30 knots or so, I was below cooking eggs in a frying pan. Next thing you know the boat literally stops, like stuck in the mud. Without missing a beat I swung the pan up in the air and sideways to keep the eggs from sliding out. We sat there for a little while having some coffee and eggs while the tide came in. My friend has a horseshoe up his arse so the boat was fine, we kept on motoring on a full stomach. We took that boat up and down the coast multiple times. Actually met my wife on it. Lots of great memories. My buddy always tells that story about the eggs staying in the pan.
 
I was delivering a 31 Cabo up the coast one year with a buddy, one morning we were running along at 30 knots or so, I was below cooking eggs in a frying pan. Next thing you know the boat literally stops, like stuck in the mud. Without missing a beat I swung the pan up in the air and sideways to keep the eggs from sliding out. We sat there for a little while having some coffee and eggs while the tide came in. My friend has a horseshoe up his arse so the boat was fine, we kept on motoring on a full stomach. We took that boat up and down the coast multiple times. Actually met my wife on it. Lots of great memories. My buddy always tells that story about the eggs staying in the pan.
 
When I was 19 years old myself and 3 friends rented a boat in the North Channel. We had a rented a 28 foot sloop. In day two we were heading toward the west to get a good well know anchorage, however also on the west horizon we saw a huge black wall that was a massive thunderstorm heading toward us. We had a second anchorage that was not that great but could hold us in a pinch. We took shelter and stayed the night. We set two anchors and one did not hold but the other one caught on a rock on the bottom and the rock held the boat. Not ideal but it was all we had.

The next morning we took off for our primary port and it was a great day - windy, sunny just great. I was on deck without a chart and my friends were down below putting on sunscreen and one friend was looking for the chart. I really should not have been sailing without knowing what the bottom was like. After a few minutes of asking for the chart I heard a very load 'BANG' and then three more 'BANG, BANG, BANG'. We hit hard and were now stopped on about a 20 degree heel and I mean stuck.

After some thought we took the two anchors and set them off the stern and used the jib winches to pull the boat off. On hindsight I think that was a poor choice as the anchor lines were are tight as a guitar strings.

We did get the boat off and as far as we know no damage was done, the boat did take on some water after that for the rest of the cruise.
 
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