Having the **** scared out of you

Had a moment yesterday coming out of Poole. We rounded the corner at the chain ferry to meet a humungous merchant ship coming in so everybody gets over the right of the channel. He went past so we moved back toward the centre over his wake. Then I noticed our depth was 3m...then 2m...then 1m. Moment of complete flap until I realise I am in the same main channel the humungous ship has just passed through and he was still floating. The penny dropped, the silt he stirred up must have been playing merry hell with the sensor. It don't half wake you up though :ambivalence:
 
Gunfire from a motorboat coming up fast as we approached a well-known spitway under sail; it transpired that it was a day angling boat on which the guests were firing shotguns for amusement on her way home – under autopilot, evidently, as she left us having to luff up to avoid collision. I did notice an informative, if small, warning notice about gunfire as she flashed past.
 
Nothing to do with boats, but as a youth with a couple of mates off camping in rural Surrey in about 1964 I was giving my two stroke James motorbike the beans down a country road on a moonless night. The speed crept up on a downhill bit to just over 60 MPH. The direct lighting was not much cop-It seemed as if I was catching the headlamp beam up. The single track road went into a plantation of mature pine trees. They were on both sides of the road, cutting out any light from the sky. The plantation was perhaps half a mile long. At about halfway the engine stopped dead.

Now, sitting at home under bright electric lamps, you might laugh at the fear that overtook me. At home, deep forests, Saurons Mordor, evil Orcs can be put to one side.

Having you motorbike stop, killing the lights on a night that was as black as a preachers hat in a deep, dark, black pinewood when Tolkiens book is fresh in your mind is a different matter.

Anyway, I got off and pushed the bloody thing as fast as I could towards the lighter patch 400 yards away, heart pumping and spine tingling.

At last I reached the end of the plantation and breathed a sigh of relief. Out of the woods, so to speak.

Just at that moment a voice said " Whats up boy? "

I jumped out of my skin, almost crapping myself.

Looking left, there was a yokel with a spaniel at his feet leaning against a five bar gate.

" Cor, you scared me mate! " I said, " Me bikes stopped. "

" Course it 'as son-yer plug leads 'anging orf................................. "

And it was!
 
Mine was one of my first cross-channel trips. It's dawn, just about light and the fog's come in thick, visibility about 100 yards and we can hear a ship's engines getting closer. And closer. And closer. Finally the ship, a small coaster passed in front of us, within comfortable view. To this day, I don't know if they deliberately missed us, having seen us on their radar, or if we were just lucky.
 
My first trip across the North Sea, years ago on a friend's boat. Around dawn, misty and murky, and we were tired. Small ship crossing our path uncomfortably close, we slowed or turned a little to ensure it'd pass ahead, and once it cleared we resumed our original course/speed to pass close behind its stern. Only in the nick of time did we see the cable stretching aft from it - it was towing a very low and wide platform, which was now coming straight at us!

It still gives me the shivers every time I think of it.
 
Heading south from Cadiz, thought we were outside the range, had heard the day's coordinates in Spanish and plotted them. Oops. Shells exploding 1/4 mile to seaward of us. One of my crew was an ex-tank driver - he was more frightened than the rest of us. I tend to be a bit fatalistic...
 
James Marinero said:
Heading south from Cadiz, thought we were outside the range, had heard the day's coordinates in Spanish and plotted them. Oops. Shells exploding 1/4 mile to seaward of us. One of my crew was an ex-tank driver - he was more frightened than the rest of us. I tend to be a bit fatalistic...
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The firing range comes into shore so no way past when live firing in that area. Details (lat/long, times, etc) on NAVTEX a few days before exercises.
 
Graham376 said:
The firing range comes into shore so no way past when live firing in that area. Details (lat/long, times, etc) on NAVTEX a few days before exercises.
Click to expand...

Should you foul the range they still carry on if you are inshore. The shells will go over your position and being practice rounds end with what looks like a parachute flare. The Range Safety Vessels tootles over and advises you to not stray further out.

No heresay, its happened to me a couple of times.
 
Giblets said:
Many years ago we were bimbling across the Channel with a couple of guest newbies on board. Concord duly 'boomed' as we expected causing one of the guests to drop to the cockpit sole and assume the 'crash' position! Turned out he was an ex pongo who had served in Aden where such action was normal on hearing a loud 'bang' whilst out on patrol. :D
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That reminds ...

.. I came back from the Falklands war on HMS Fearless. As an embarked forces Sgt I had been assigned to the Cook's mess (or whatever its called) as we wen't allowed to use the POs mess. This was quite good as they'd smuggled a load of beers on board at Stanley so we weren't restrict to normal rations.

Once we'd crossed the equator things started to relax and when we got half way across the Bay of Biscay we were having a few beer when the missile attack siren went off. There was a look of horror, faces drained of blood and people started to move very quickly. After what seemed like 5 minutes but was probably less than 5 seconds we were informed it was for exercise.

It didn't stop there, when I'd had some leave and rejoined my unit in Germany I was just about to enter the Sgt's Mess when a couple of German air force jets screamed overhead. I did hit the ground with that one, much to the amusement of my colleagues.
 
I had an exciting moment on a YM prep course earlier this year. We were beating up the Solent by night, towards Portsmouth, and were just crossing the deep-water channel towards Ryde when I elected to pull down the second reef. The conditions being rather bouncy, I delegated two people to keep a lookout—one in the Portsmouth/forts direction, and the other, the instructor (whom I knew personally as very competent, if something of a practical joker) towards Southampton. We proceeded to heave to and reef, which took longer than might normally be expected owing to some rope tangles. The lookout in the Southampton direction had reported nothing, when I gave a quick sweep of the horizon. Some way above us I could see a red light, a green light, a couple of white lights in line and three reds in a vertical line... we tacked the jib back and got under way at once, and I asked whether this was some sort of joke (that he'd not notified me). "Oh, don't worry about that, she'll miss us easily." At this moment night turned to day as the tanker swung her searchlight upon us, before switching it off as we passed by her port side. He was right...we did miss her, but it was somewhat shakily that I continued to Portsmouth.

Much as one often can't avoid delegating a look-out, I've been more wary of it in such crowded/light polluted waters since!

As a lighter aside, I was then given the "entertaining" night pilotage challenge of weaving my way up to Port Solent, through the unlighted beacons. As attempts were made to cajole the searchlight into operation, we made our way along with my bright head-torch at about four knots, and finally radioed Port Solent marina, only to discover that it was closed for the winter for lock work...I tend to call ahead by phone nowadays.


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A further thought—a common theme of interest in accident reports is cognitive over-load of the skipper resulting in either loss of situational awareness or failure to recognise other dangers in good time. I have long considered it part of responsible seafaring to study MAIB reports and try and eke out flaws in my own operations, and this is a good example... see the much-discussed report into the recent Clipper grounding off Africa for a case of sail handling delays causing an accident rather than merely an opportunity for an instructor to give one of his pupils a bit of a wind-up!
 
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I was told this scary story whilst out sailing this morning. We were heading out towards the SW tip of Lanzarote near the lighthouse which prompted my mate to tell the tale.

A few days ago, a local chap was around there in his small motor boat, outboard driven, doing a spot of fishing. The sea round there can get a bit bumpy when the wind gets up so he decided to make some homeward bounders. Problem was, of course, his engine wouldnt start. Its on the edge of a mighty ocean so he wisely asked fror some help. Dunno the chain of communication but there is a safety boat always in attendance during the day at the local art museum dive site. A chunky work boat. This went to his aid and towed him in.

Turns out he had not noticed the choke was out! Popped back in when alongside, engine starts, alls well.

Scary part. He has got the bill....

1000 Euros!!!!!!!!!! :ambivalence:
 
In the Singlehanded Transpac, I was 3/4 way to Hawaii, under spinnaker, and of course all alone, sitting right on the bow with my feet dangling just 6 inches above the water. I saw a shadow pass by, but didn't think much of it. Then another shadow. Then, not more than 24 inches below my feet, a HUGE BLACK thing swam right underneath my toes. I jumped up and ran back to the cockpit. There were two of these HUGE BLACK things circling the boat. By huge I mean 12 feet long or perhaps more. After a minute I saw them riding a wave next to me. It was only after I arrived in Hawaii that I found a poster identifying many types of fish. These were False Killer Whales. This photo will give you an idea of how I felt.
False Killer Whale.jpg
 
Dolphins, or they might have been porpoises, suddenly look very BIG when view from a sailing dinghy instead of a yacht.
The other year, I borrowed an RS600, before the start of the race, there were several dolphins (?) quite close to the start line. A couple of them started following me. I had to tack, made a mess of it, ended up in irons, reversing past bemused dolphins, or they could have been porpoises, either way they were bigger things than I want to capsize on top of!
 
Thinking I was invincible and falling asleep heading through Nash Passage . I had man flu but had to get the boat back to my co- owner.
Boat and I were on auto. I woke up in the dark, under the influence of night nurse, to the total chaos of being a bit off course and in the bumpy bits. A focussing few minutes to determine my location and take action.
Never mentioned this to anyone, too embarrassed.

But if you aren't scared you are not at the top of your game. But it was very puckering.
 
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