Having the **** scared out of you

I find that there are often dolphins when crossing Lyme Bay especially this season.
The dog always gives advance warning of them coming by barking and rushing on deck as he can hear their high pitched squeaks.
 
A number of years ago I was pootling around at 3 or 4 knots in Upper Loch Fyne on my IP24 going nowhere in particular when my depth sounder alarm started screaming. Now, I must have been in several hundred feet of water so I immediately thought “sub”. I came to a dead stop wondering what to do and had a good look at the water around the boat, but the light was such that everything was just reflected.

Completely at a loss, I grabbed the boathook and started prodding below the water and I immediately hit something which felt like metal. Ok, I wasn't very experienced and I was therefore genuinely worried about this complete mystery.

I motored away and all was well but on returning to my mooring off Minard I mentioned this to my neighbour who suggested that it was probably a school of basking sharks which had been spotted earlier, most unusual for this far up the loch.

I still don't know the answer but I can tell you that it is most un-nerving to hit something solid just a couple of feet below the waterline.
 
A lady of this forum was at Queenborough and her crew had gone ashore. She had a shower and as it was relaxed naked in the cockpit on the swinging visitors buoy. Reading the East Coast Forum she read that a new webcam had been installed on Queenborough jetty. That made her jump! Fortunately the direction of the tide was favourable.
 
Graham376 said:
Except when the side by side 2 trails are heading directly towards you from the direction of a warship on fleet exercises! Gave me a hell of a fright, thoughts of friendly fire.
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I've seen something similar at night off the Brittany coast. Two green streaks heading straight towards me at a high rate of knots. The next 10 minutes was quite enjoyable once I knew what they were, but the first 5 seconds was ... disconcerting, to say the least.
 
First time standing watch alone at night sailing from Gibraltar to Vilamoura. It was a pretty big sea and I was more than a bit nervous of being 'in charge'. Sat huddled in the curve of the cockpit I suddenly looked up and there was a large moist eye looking down at me! A dolphin was riding the wave which at that point was some 5 feet higher than the cockpit-oh boy did I jump. It's amazing how many scenarios can rush through your mind in the nano second before the truth of the incident hit......
 
MoodySabre said:
A lady of this forum was at Queenborough and her crew had gone ashore. She had a shower and as it was relaxed naked in the cockpit on the swinging visitors buoy. Reading the East Coast Forum she read that a new webcam had been installed on Queenborough jetty. That made her jump! Fortunately the direction of the tide was favourable.
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Do they have other buoys for visitors who aren't interested in swinging?
 
Imagine having been at sea for several days running downwind not having seen another ship or sail . . . . its the dead of night you're alone on watch feeling fairly drowsy only the sound of the sea and the hull racing through the water when you get a prod in the back . . . . . . . now that wakes you up pretty smartish . . . . . . . . flying fish have a suicidal sense of humour and timing
 
Scillypete said:
Imagine having been at sea for several days running downwind not having seen another ship or sail . . . . its the dead of night you're alone on watch feeling fairly drowsy only the sound of the sea and the hull racing through the water when you get a prod in the back . . . . . . . now that wakes you up pretty smartish . . . . . . . . flying fish have a suicidal sense of humour and timing
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;);)

we had a fright off the Lizard one very dark night pre GPS and even yachty Decca days as we approached Falmouth from Ushant, great splashings and phosphorescence all around us made me think my nav was off and we had strayed into the Manacles(?) …...then we saw the dolphins.:eek:
 
Told this before here, but. Off Corsica on rough estimate of position, in predawn, crew woke me to say he could hear surf. Got my attention..
Listened to the noises for a bit, thinking I would have made a massive cock up to be near land, it was whales. A bit later, in the light, we were in a large pod of biggish whales and feeling a bit vunerable. The closest one came was about 6mtrs and he was a lot bigger than us.
 
MoodySabre said:
A lady of this forum was at Queenborough and her crew had gone ashore. She had a shower and as it was relaxed naked in the cockpit on the swinging visitors buoy. Reading the East Coast Forum she read that a new webcam had been installed on Queenborough jetty. That made her jump! Fortunately the direction of the tide was favourable.
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Off topic but camera related.

When our daughter was a baby, she was breast fed. So we go into a cafe, choose a seat right at the end, away from other customers and facing away from them. Baby had her lunch.

On the way out, we notice the tv screen above the door, showing the cctv footage from the camera in that corner, with a nice view of where we were just sat.
 
ProDave said:
Off topic but camera related.

When our daughter was a baby, she was breast fed. So we go into a cafe, choose a seat right at the end, away from other customers and facing away from them. Baby had her lunch.

On the way out, we notice the tv screen above the door, showing the cctv footage from the camera in that corner, with a nice view of where we were just sat.
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Sort of tit for tat then.
 
The most scary moment I recall wasn't anything sudden or even very strange. Many years ago, four of us had chartered a yacht from Rhu on the Gare Loch. This was in the 80s, long before GPS and Chart plotters, and although I hadn't been there for a long time, I thought I knew the area reasonably well. We came out of the Gare Loch and suddenly I had a moment of complete disorientation - nothing was where I thought it should be! I quickly worked out my orientation and was fine, but those few moments when the world didn't seem to be where it should be were very strange. I should say that I normally have an excellent sense of direction and "location", so suddenly finding myself disorientated was very upsetting!
 
AntarcticPilot said:
The most scary moment I recall wasn't anything sudden or even very strange. Many years ago, four of us had chartered a yacht from Rhu on the Gare Loch. This was in the 80s, long before GPS and Chart plotters, and although I hadn't been there for a long time, I thought I knew the area reasonably well. We came out of the Gare Loch and suddenly I had a moment of complete disorientation - nothing was where I thought it should be!
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Caution: repeat anecdote.

A couple of years ago I was heading up Loch Fyne for Ardrishaig at midnight, using my usual sophisticated navigation technique of "turn right at Ardlamont, turn right again at that island with the wee lighthouse, head for the lights of Lochgilphead. After a moment's distraction I looked up and Lochgilphead was no longer over the bow."Damn", I thought, "off course a bit. Where is it?" No sign on either side of the bow. How big a turn could I have made without noticing. Like you I became completely disorientated until I realised, after about ten seconds, that the whole of the Kintyre peninsula was dark. A power cut up near Oban, it turned out, and the lights didn't come on again until we had found our way into Ardrishaig Harbour.
 
I have also had dolphins around the boat at night and heard the squeeling calls, never heard/been aware of, during day visits.

Once I was on a very large cruising cat, chatting to the helm, facing aft. As I spoke a bleeking great whale surfaced just behind the boat. By the time people grasped what I was gibbering about, and turned around, the whale had done a deft half roll and disappeared without a ripple on the water.
Of course everyone said "yeh right" "open another bottle" etc.

I suspect we passed over the bulk of the resting creature and disturbed it.
We were travelling at speed so it could easily been curtains for the boat.
 
Did you ever try to sell your pride and joy and discover what prospective buyers are willing to pay, find osmosis or received a quote on a teak deck replacement. From other people I know those are scary moments that one should try to avoid.
 
flaming said:
Last weekend I delivered the boat back to the Hamble after another fun Dartmouth week. Not a lot of wind and we left at 0330. So at about 0500 happily motoring across Lyme bay in the dark, sat on my own in the cockpit with almost no traffic around. Quite dull really and definitely quite soporific....

The suddenly a massive splash, right next to the cockpit. And another one, and this time I get wet...

What the....? Heart in mouth time, pulse going crazy, adrenaline flowing what is it? Did I miss something.....? Have we run something over? Grab the torch and flick it on.

No... It's a pod of dolphins playing next to the boat. Never seen that at night before, and it took minutes for my heartbeat to return to normal.
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we had some at night in fairly heavy fog crossing channel ushant to penzance 3 years ago. they joined us 5 miles north west of ushant TSS and stayed with us for 7hours till just after dawn . We had cabin lights on and I would swear they were trying to look in the cabin windows they were jumping so close. they were very good company in the night fog.( first week in oct crossing )
 
mjcoon said:
Always have a spare battery! ;-)
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We discovered that there is a battery-powered backup for the three-sector light at the end of Ardirshaig pier ...

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... but it's so pathetically puny that we only saw it from about 20' away as we rounded the pier end. And that was with no lights on land to distract us.
 
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