BS: Seafaring boating adventures stories

Subject: BS: Seafaring boating adventures stories
From: gnu
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 04:55 PM

Hope I covered "most" in the title for future thread searches.

Bobert's tale of running silent propmeted me to to start this thread.

We were on a lake in Labrador and the Splakes (half speckled half lake trout) started biting. We were having a grand time about a mile from the island where buddy's camp was. We caught our limit of 6 to 10# Splakes and buddy says, "We shoulda started back a half hour ago."

That's when I saw it. It was comin in fast and there were white caps between our little 14 footer and the island. He powered into the large waves and kittied the smaller waves to keep on course. I said to whatshername, "Put your glasses in your pocket and if we swamp, swim to shore and don't even think of trying to help anyone... just get to shore."

We made it to the lee side of the island, tied the boat to the trees, waded ashore and picked our way through the woods to the camp... cooked up the trout and had a grand evening of music and such.

Always wondered what would have happened if we had swamped and she had put her glasses in her pocket. I could swim like a fish and I could see the shoreline... >;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Seafaring boating adventures stories
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 04:59 PM

White caps on a lake in 14 foot boat. That's bad.

But is it as bad as blue-nosers on the liquor bellied up to 14 foot bar?

Subject: RE: BS: Seafaring boating adventures stories
From: gnu
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 05:01 PM

I left Nain, Labrador at 7:30PM in the game warden's boat. Nearly lost my life four times that night. But it's a long story. Somebody(sss) else should post some tales first.

Subject: RE: BS: Seafaring boating adventures stories
From: gnu
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 05:02 PM

I seen big black bars face to face, but never a 14 footer!

Subject: RE: BS: Seafaring boating adventures stories
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 05:13 PM

I don't have any really interesting stories. I was always pretty careful about the weather and we took care of our boats.

I almost threw a friend of mine out of his own 20 foot speed boat when he said he was out of gas in the middle of Conception Bay with a stiff breeze from south by south west. No oars, no radio, no nothing. Next land north by north east of there is Iceland, and it is not close.

It turns out he had to ten gallon cans of gas hidden in the forecastle. He stayed dry, but I was still pretty pissed off.

Subject: RE: BS: Seafaring boating adventures stories
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 05:18 PM

I fell in Niagra falls on the American side. But someone should post their stories first.

---

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Subject: RE: BS: Seafaring boating adventures stories
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 05:22 PM

Well, I was on the Mississippi helping my brother transport lumber to fix up a duck blind. We -- him, his wife, and I -- were in a 16 foot aluminum boat with a 7.5 horse kicker. As we carefully stacked the lumber on shore so he could come back later and do the building, I happened to notice a dead blue-black sky to the West, and on The River that means just one thing. I pointed and we started throwing the lumber ashore -- screw stacking it! His wife looked puzzled, then looked where we pointed and said, "Oh, it's going to rain!"

We ran full out back to the launch ramp, all the while wondering if we were going to make it or spend a Midwestern Thunderstorm cramped up under the boat on some island.

We made it to the launch, got the boat on the trailer, pulled the drain plug, got in the car -- and all hell broke loose from the sky.

As forty knot winds, horizontal rain, and every thunderbolt in the quiver of Zeus burst around us, his wife said, "Oh. I see why you guys were in a hurry."

Subject: RE: BS: Seafaring boating adventures stories
From: Micca
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 05:45 PM

Think of a 1200 ton Cargo ship laden with Paper pulp, including deck cargo, on passage Bergen, Norway to Bowaters on the London River in March. A Westerly Gale sets in with darkness peaking at Force 8 on the 2nd watch out, (10 pm to 3am) and there is nothing between the ship and North America so the waves get a bit frisky and the white caps are wetting the paper pulp so it is sopping it up like blotting paper. At 2 am the watch below are called and are out on top of the cargo for the next 4 hours (No safety lines as there are no safe securing points )in Oilskins and rubber seaboots with very little grip on that horrible surface, using axes to cut the ties on the 2 ton bales of sodden paper and then sitting in a row on top of what they hope, are still secured bale and pushing with your feet to get them overboard then doing the same on the not saturated side to counterbalance, Oilskins are no protection as the spray gets into every nook and cranny and runs down your neck and waterproofs into your seaboots, All the time there is a real fear of a few good seas over and the ship would turn turtle!! So work continues without a break. And the Skipper, invoked the "Safety of the ship " rule and didn't pay the Called out Watch below for the extra work!!and loss of sleep etc., is that "adventurous" enough?? Strange how things are adventures in retrospect but Hairy dangerous situations at the time

Subject: RE: BS: Seafaring boating adventures stories
From: gnu
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 06:00 PM

Micca... you win! I got yer goose bumps reading that!

Subject: RE: BS: Seafaring boating adventures stories
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 08:52 PM

Does it count that I was on a cruise that ended early because of too much water around the boat (which was functioning perfectly)?

Subject: RE: BS: Seafaring boating adventures stories
From: Janie
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 09:39 PM

We set out from the tip of the Florida mainland, intent on paddling our Folboat through the Florida Bay Backcountry to Key West.

The first day out the weather was grand. We paddled southwest across Blackwater Sound, into little Buttonwood Sound, and on into Buttonwood Sound. There was just enough of a west wind blowing to make it worth paddling to the west side of the Swash Keys that divided the sound from Florida Bay proper to stop for the night. We had commissioned a large bag made of mosquito netting within which we could hang the hammock, but we still had to eat and take care of a few chores before getting in the hammock.   Mosquitos are fierce where the wind doesn't blow them away.    There was no dry land, just a few acres of Red Mangroves growing up through about 4 feet of water.

It was the first time we had used the hammock.   It stretched. Twice during the night we were roused when our butts sagged down into the water. We clambered out and tightened the hammock, and clambered back in again.

The wind had picked up considerably during the night. It was blowing about 20 knots by the time we paddled away, headed for the leeward side of the island. Our plan had been to paddle southeast out of Buttonwood into Florida Bay, paddle to within about 1/2 mile of Key Largo, and then turn and follow the western shore to the tip, where we would put ashore for the night. The wind was building rapidly as we came around the island, and by the time we ran out of island to be leeward of, it was blowing 35 knots according to the weather radio.

We'un's was in trouble.

A double Folboat is to kayaks as a Ford F150 with a topper on it is to a Toyota pickup. Beamy and stable, and capable of holding lots of gear (read weight), but not at all maneuverable, a high profile to catch the wind, and not even the faintest hint of a keel.

Did I mention we had neglected to put the spray skirt on? Did I also mention that we had replaced the nylon cordage from the rudder pedals to the rudder just before we started this trip. Did I mention how much nylon rope stretches when it is new? And did I mention we also had our 80lb lab mix with us?

It is obvious we survived, or I wouldn't be posting, but that is as near to an accidental death from stupidity as I hope to ever approach. We made it across 2 1/2 miles of open water, and literally were slammed into an old and very drunk couple's backyard dock. (They were also very kind.) There was a tie-up post on the pier that did not extend to the shallow sea floor. As we were blown up to the dock, we rolled down a wave that at the bottom was low enough to expose the base of the post. The bow of the canvas boat slid under the post. The next swell pushed us up before we could get clear, and drove the bow up into the post, impaling the boat on the post. By that time, I didn't care. I dragged myself up out of the boat with great difficulty, exhausted as I had ever been, flopped onto that cement dock and lay there like a beached whale.

Subject: RE: BS: Seafaring boating adventures stories
From: Charley Noble
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 10:14 PM

Janie-

Nice but you survived!

I think I've blacked out all my traumatic nautical adventures.

Maybe in the morning.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Seafaring boating adventures stories
From: EBarnacle
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 10:24 PM

This here really happened:

A fellow member of Sebago Canoe Club and I were relaxing and watching the water blow by, as the wind was doing about 30 knots in Paerdegat [pronounced pa de gat] Inlet. A couple of young women we did not know came by, having let themselves onto the grounds with a key.

They asked for an assist bringing a canoe down to the water. When we asked them whether they know what they were doing, they told us that they were skilled canoeists and were the guests of another member, with his permission to use the facilities.

We shrugged our shoulders, made sure they were wearing their PFD's and walked away. As soon as they were off the dock, they were in trouble.

Duncan and I got out a couple of boats and towlines and went to get them. We caught up with them about half a mile later, after they had managed to bring themselves into the lee of a streambank.

After we got a line on their canoe, we started back to the club into the teeth of the wind. They did not even assist by paddling to take some of the weight off the tow.

When we got back, we found that the member who gave them the key was not authorized to have guests, as he was not a qualified "senior" member. The two women had been out in canoes a couple of times and thought they know everything about canoeing. They had recently joined the American Canoe Association, again enhancing their self image as skilled canoeists.

After escorting them off the property, we wrote up a report which got the member's privileges and his membership removed for lack of judgement.

We were lucky.

Subject: RE: BS: Seafaring boating adventures stories
From: Janie
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 11:20 PM

I look forward to hearing some tales, Charlie.

My Dad was a helmsman on Texaco tankers during WWII. For him, a country boy from West Virginia, those were days of excitement but not fear. Everything from hitchhiking to New York to be sure he got a berth, watching the ball drop in Times Square in 1944, to wrapping his legs around the steering post to keep from getting washed overboard during a hurricane, to navigating "torpedo alley" off the USA coast was grand adventure. He still doesn't have a sense of the peril he was in. When asked about any sense of peril, he shrugs and says, "When you are 17 or 18 years old, you think you are invincible. I was never scared. I thought bad things happened to other people, but never to me."

He only started talking about his maritime experiences about 15 years ago. He talks about that time of his life with considerable nostalgia.   He grew up near the Ohio River and talks about how, after the war, he would listen to the whistles of the barges at night, and think maybe he wanted to go back into the Merchant Marines, or at least work the river barges that plied the Kanawha, Ohio and Mississippi.

He might have done it, too, if he hadn't met and become smitten by Mom. (63 years later, he is just as smitten!)

Subject: RE: BS: Seafaring boating adventures stories
From: Janie
Date: 26 Oct 10 - 12:40 AM

EBarnacle,

I can sympathize with you and with those girls. Many scary or uncomfortable situations my ex and I found ourselves in on the water stemmed from lack of experience - but at least we knew and readily acknowledged we lacked experience.

And Gnu, sorry for my last post, which was thread-drift. Ignore it, folks. Worked too late and drank one glass of wine too many to exercise discretion.

Subject: RE: BS: Seafaring boating adventures stories
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 Oct 10 - 08:21 AM

This story goes back to when I was growing up in the fishing village of Robinhood, Maine, back in the early 1950's:

When one of our local fishermen disappeared one night many years ago, the neighbors all expected that he had drown tending his fish weir. Cal was well known as a drunkard and everyone one knows that messing around with a skiff in the dark and drinking is looking for trouble. When Cal didn't show up the next morning the neighbors began the search, looking for his skiff which was eventually found up the cove, washed up and grounded on the far shore. But there was no sign of Cal except for a half empty wine jug. Well, some continued to search along the shore while another group began dragging the grappling hooks through the weir. Long about evening Agnes, Cal's wife, heard a gentle knock on her back door and when she opened it there was a crowd of her neighbors standing there looking glum. She asked them if they had found Cal and the crowd parted down the middle and there was Cal stretched out on the cellar door, drown dead, his body covered with starfish, crabs and one big lobster. Agnes looked down at Cal, looked at the crabs and lobster, then looked at the crowd around her and said, "Well, boys, I guess we better strip off the take and set him again."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble