Phoenix of Hamble
Active member
Interesting post from Vreny on the East Coast forum, that I thought would be missed by lots of folks... so cross posted here.....[ QUOTE ]
Highly entertaining but also very worrying encounter on the way home, we were mooching along at about 3 knots over the ground, goosewinged and poled out no. 2 about a mile west of the Swin Spitway, in a lovely evening haze (so no land to be seen) when I heard the droan of a speedboat approaching. I was just about to moan about all the wash it would create and disturb our pleasant evening when it slowed right down.... I smiled, waved and said thanks in amazement at their consideration when then subsaquently pulled along side and asked for directions to Burnham, just as if they had stopped a pedestrian in the street and asked the same question. They chuntered on saying how they were trying to get back to Maldon but suddenly everything had gone shallow .
They were now low on fuel and had decided to head to Burham, unfortunately they weren't too sure where that was, and their solution was to follow us!!! Using my somewhat limited knowledge of speedboats I guessed that 3 knots wasn't their optimum cruising speed so we suggested that we could give them some GPS co-ordinates... but they had no GPS, ok, so Pat suggested I write down a list of compass bearings to the bouys to get them back.... but they had no compass either. For that matter they had no charts, no VHF, if they had a mobile it was out of range, and they did not appear to have any other clothes than the shorts they were wearing. On further investigation they did have 5 litres of reserve fuel and an anchor, so I drew a chart for them, pointed them in the right direction, and said that if they ran out of fuel to put the anchor down and we'd keep an eye out for them. But to save the reserve fuel to get them into the marina if we had to tow them.
Jees, that would have been a long old trip back with Vreny towing a speedboat.
When we later caught up with Full Circle he had spotted them on Corinthians pontoon re-fuelling.
You hear about these stories but we are still amazed at the stupidity of some people. We really struggled to keep a straight face... perhaps we shouldn't have bothered trying and given them a piece of our mind along with the hand drawn chart.
[/ QUOTE ]and follow up from FullCircle[ QUOTE ]
Postscript:
The two guys onboard the 17ft Binliner were taking the boat to BYH and catching the train home, as they had frightened themselves a lot.
They had come from Maldon to Burnham, but tried following the coast line home, but guess what? The tide had gone out, and they said they kept running aground and became disoriented in the poor vis conditions and decided to try and find the Ray Chennel buoy, which wouldnt have done them much good because they had no compass to give them a track.
They did look suitably embarassed and did say they would never try this again.
Absolutely amazing
[/ QUOTE ]
Well.... what can you say.....
Highly entertaining but also very worrying encounter on the way home, we were mooching along at about 3 knots over the ground, goosewinged and poled out no. 2 about a mile west of the Swin Spitway, in a lovely evening haze (so no land to be seen) when I heard the droan of a speedboat approaching. I was just about to moan about all the wash it would create and disturb our pleasant evening when it slowed right down.... I smiled, waved and said thanks in amazement at their consideration when then subsaquently pulled along side and asked for directions to Burnham, just as if they had stopped a pedestrian in the street and asked the same question. They chuntered on saying how they were trying to get back to Maldon but suddenly everything had gone shallow .
They were now low on fuel and had decided to head to Burham, unfortunately they weren't too sure where that was, and their solution was to follow us!!! Using my somewhat limited knowledge of speedboats I guessed that 3 knots wasn't their optimum cruising speed so we suggested that we could give them some GPS co-ordinates... but they had no GPS, ok, so Pat suggested I write down a list of compass bearings to the bouys to get them back.... but they had no compass either. For that matter they had no charts, no VHF, if they had a mobile it was out of range, and they did not appear to have any other clothes than the shorts they were wearing. On further investigation they did have 5 litres of reserve fuel and an anchor, so I drew a chart for them, pointed them in the right direction, and said that if they ran out of fuel to put the anchor down and we'd keep an eye out for them. But to save the reserve fuel to get them into the marina if we had to tow them.
Jees, that would have been a long old trip back with Vreny towing a speedboat.
When we later caught up with Full Circle he had spotted them on Corinthians pontoon re-fuelling.
You hear about these stories but we are still amazed at the stupidity of some people. We really struggled to keep a straight face... perhaps we shouldn't have bothered trying and given them a piece of our mind along with the hand drawn chart.
[/ QUOTE ]and follow up from FullCircle[ QUOTE ]
Postscript:
The two guys onboard the 17ft Binliner were taking the boat to BYH and catching the train home, as they had frightened themselves a lot.
They had come from Maldon to Burnham, but tried following the coast line home, but guess what? The tide had gone out, and they said they kept running aground and became disoriented in the poor vis conditions and decided to try and find the Ray Chennel buoy, which wouldnt have done them much good because they had no compass to give them a track.
They did look suitably embarassed and did say they would never try this again.
Absolutely amazing
[/ QUOTE ]
Well.... what can you say.....
