Your scariest boating moment ever ?

Well, you see reality is not interesting enough.

According to marco´s comment that was just a beach adventure....and amusing.

Never I met a seaman who would find battering on a reef or sandbank for 16 hrs. amusing. Nor one who would not undestand what "flying water" (not spray) up to the radar antenna on a 125ft vessel means. That was not less than 125kn of wind.

I thought I must not exaggerate the event, and the experienced ones would understand the real conditions.

Our engine, a 8 tonnes Diesel, left his bed and bent the 25cm shaft. Several small craft got scuttled and even a merchant ship of 200m LOA capsized and sunk, right within a few miles. All my seasoned crew, professional crew from the merchant fleet, was scared to death, all ten of them. People like marco would have puked their as5hole out i would bet.

Regards
Richard

 

Hurricane in atlantic markofthebeast typhoon in pacific.

 

Scariest ever was getting caught between a 44 foot CG boat and a ship's steel boarding platform trying to take off a heart attack victim in a basket litter from a tanker at sea. He was strapped in and we were paying total attention as we reached for him when our 16 ton boat rolled up hard and pinched me above the waist against the steel I-beam edge of the platform.... then rolled back. If it had gone 8 inches further it would have cut me in half. We took the boat around and tried something different after that.
Scariest ever I can remember today.

 

All is relative and subjective my dear Riccio...that is why everyone has his own "scariest moment" and it is not good to take the measuring tape out and call other people little. Furthermore and as a rule of thumb, let me tell you that what nature can throw at you is an amusment park compared to what humans do to humans.

Your value judgement is noted but irrelevant, as are all of your value judgement before. If you would confine yourself to contributions that did not include grandstanding you would probably be a nice person to talk with...and as for your bet .. hehe ... that is amusing too. Not puking isn't a measure of courage in front of adversity nor seamanship. I have seen people puke and wet their pants and **** them too yet gone to do things I would think twice before attempting. All is relative.

 

when i saw the trawler going away without me.
precision: I was not on the dock, I was in the water.

 

I consider your remarks uncalled for. Apparently, you aren't familiar with the fact that a large proportion of Will9000's posts, whether deliberately or simply because he's enthused about it, seem to promote his friend's boat. That history of posts is what Richard was referring to.

If you believe scary moments are subjective and not to be judged by others, perhaps you should avoid referring to a ship being grounded for the duration of a storm as 'an amusing little adventure.' It would scare the crap out of me... and I've survived a forty-foot fall from an oil rig, bounced down a hillside at 70 mph off a motorcycle, been stabbed, and been shot at a few times myself.

Nor are you familiar enough with Richard's life to count the scary moments he's had, much less judge them.

 

... my wife went to work early this morning and so I did the washing for her...unfortunately i hung out her undies the "wrong" way....you should have seen the look on her face...I thought that I was going to be keelhauled (my referrence to boats)..

 

That's as bad as it gets I guess.

 

Thanks everyone so far for sharing experiences with other members, some scary stories !
PS I am enthused about my friends boat therfore i tend to talk about it a lot.... normal.

 

Quite understandable. We're a bunch of grumpy old men sometimes....

 

Hey..everyone forgot to mention..The scariest moment in the life of any boat owner.....When they recieve the yard Bill !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I was sealed in the engine room fighting a loosing battle against an out of control fire when the captain made the tough call to discharge the CO2 system. My breathing apparatus was empty and I couldn't breath. I died and the captain felt terrible but he saved the ship and the rest of the crew. It must have been one hell of a decision he had to make, poor guy.

Fiction of course, but as a captain, it would be the hardest decision I'd ever have to make.

-Tom

 

Lucky you who got better!

 

Welcome, and do not take it personal please. We understand that you felt to share what you call scary. It was in fact idiotic, as another member already mentioned. Irresponsible and not professional.

Of course such a topic goes easily out of control, because everybody feels different, and everybody has just his own scale to measure.

It was not my intention to insult you. If you feel I did, please try to accept my apologies.
Just in the light of real life deaths at sea, I found the "thrill" which can be called scary, not appropriate, in comparison with some, or several, of our members own experience at sea.

My
Regards
Richard

 

Thank you for that.

Not sooo fictive as one would think.

When we battered on the sandbanks as told in a post above, I had to send someone on deck, to fill the generator tank. That was a temporary mounted gen on the foredeck, providing power just for this one trip to the yard.
It was the only el. power source. If that would have failed, the crew would have lost the ability to survive. Light is the first source of hope and survival. (after breathing of course)
I could have brought them through with frozen toes, and giving up their belief, but not in the dark. Electricity (light) was a requirement of substance, regardless of the bilge pumps.
The one I sent to do the job, was well aware of the possible consequence. And he had no good chance.

When I had to redraw my first reply, I would say, the scariest moment was, when he asked me, "me?", and got the reply "yes, You have a chance, a small one, fill it up"


Dunno how many here really have had these extreme experiences. And the net is a place to make easy claims, but believe me, I do not whish anyone to come in such situation.

Let me say, please, I do not want to show up, I just want to pass the true life stories to our successors.

Regards
Richard