The RarestThing That can hHappen at Sea

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Prompted by this unusual news item;
Portaferry Lifeboat Rescues Teenager Drifting Out to Sea on Inflatable Unicorn
I would like to pose the question: What's the most unlikely occurrence that has happened to you at sea, or that you are aware of?

 

[LittleSister]

A fault that developed with the boats's systems turned out to be easier and cheaper to fix than I'd anticipated!

 

[Blueboatman]

I caught a fish without using a hook .
Wasn’t at sea though, I was at anchor in clear water and I pulled the bucket up slowly from underneath him while jiggling the bait .
Still, free food is free food

 

[Wansworth]

Prompted by this unusual news item;
Portaferry Lifeboat Rescues Teenager Drifting Out to Sea on Inflatable Unicorn
I would like to pose the question: What's the most unlikely occurrence that has happened to you at sea, or that you are aware of?

Is that like a metáfora…..?

 

[Habebty]

The wind blows from the ideal direction both going down and when returning up Channel.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Any boat overtakes an A22 under sail.

 

[Poignard]

Having a tree fall on you?

 

[Adios]

Not at sea but on a friesland canal, usual jostling around with other boats before a bridge something happened that needed a burst of reverse and I sheared a rubber coupling on the drive shaft of my Farymann engine. At the exact same time so did a dutch boat which had the same make of engine and the same type but bigger coupling. He had all the local knowledge to get replacements delivered pronto and gave me a hand fitting it. Seemed shockingly good fortune. We end up sailing in company to Norderney.

 

[capnsensible]

Between Canaries and Cape Verdes. Dark o'clock, Mrs Sensible arrived in cockpit to take over the watch, bit sleepy. A flying fish hit her in the back of her head and then flapped about a bit in the cockpit. Underwhelmed is a good descriptive word.....

 

[Davy_S]

Probably posted this years ago, we were returning to shore after a fishing trip, about a mile out, we saw a dog swimming and went towards it to have a look (we thought it was a seal at first) it was very confused, we pulled it aboard, it was a Spaniel and was very happy to be rescued! when we towelled it down, we noticed it was blind, it had a film over both eyes, we rang the RSPCA who said they were too busy to attend, (waste of space) so later we drove it to them, no one reported the dog lost so we presumed it was dumped on the beach, never knew how it ended up.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Is that like a metáfora…..?

I had to google that

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Having a tree fall on you?

A friend of mine collided with a tree while sailing backwards .

 

[Poignard]

A friend of mine collided with a tree while sailing backwards .

You'd better tell that story!

 

[DJE]

Heard a Mayday call in the channel years ago from a chap who was sailing singlehanded but in company with another singlehander. His mate had failed to respond to a regular vhf call. Coastguard sent the helicopter and they found the boat sailing on autopilot with nobody aboard. But the winchman found the log book so they flew back up the yacht's track towards the last position in the log and found the casualty alive and floating in his lifejacket. As far as I could tell at the time he was cold but otherwise Ok.

 

[Sandy]

Heard a Mayday call in the channel years ago from a chap who was sailing singlehanded but in company with another singlehander. His mate had failed to respond to a regular vhf call. Coastguard sent the helicopter and they found the boat sailing on autopilot with nobody aboard. But the winchman found the log book so they flew back up the yacht's track towards the last position in the log and found the casualty alive and floating in his lifejacket. As far as I could tell at the time he was cold but otherwise Ok.

And some people on here think the way to go is entering their long on their phone.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

You'd better tell that story!

Towards the end of a week's course at Baltimore, a voyage in company with a picnic on one of the islands would be planned, to demonstrate pilotage, and to give the trainees a little adventure. One of the favourite trips, if wind and tide allowed, involved transiting Hackett's Creek, a narrow channel between Spanish and Ringarogy Islands, which the Algerian pirates used in 1631 to invade the village and abduct most of the inhabitants.
The lead boat ran into some kind of trouble, aground possibly, and Trevor, the instructor on the second boat decided that he should back the mainsail to take way off and counteract the current which was propelling him down on the stuck boat. Distracted by the necessity of warning the following boats, he forgot to tell the trainee holding back the mainsail to ease it back to the centreline, and didn't notice that his boat was now actually moving backwards towards the side of the Channel, where the mast hit a tree branch.
No damage to the boat, those Glenans 5.70s were built like tanks! Trevor's self-esteem, on the other hand, took a bit of a battering?

 

[johnalison]

I don't think that much of a rare kind has happened to us, though we have encountered the odd dolphin and men in rubber suits from immigration cutters. The one event that sticks out in my mind is from when we were returning From Cork on our way to the Isles of Scilly in 2003 when a loud report made us think that we had sailed into a war zone, but it was only Concorde passing over in its last week of service.

An entertaining episode occurred when we were sailing along the Normandy coast on a fine day when a RIB with a flashing blue light came beetling towards us. Feeling guilty as ever, we couldn't think of any obvious transgressions that we had made, when the boat with four blokes started circling round us. Eventually they approached all smiles. They had discovered the source of the flashing white light that had been reported ashore coming from our boat, which turned out to be the sun reflected from a flat s/s fitting on the backstay of our then Mystere 26.

 

[PhillM]

And some people on here think the way to go is entering their long on their phone.

Not me. Always in the book and with a plb strapped to my lj

 

[Concerto]

What's the most unlikely occurrence that has happened to you at sea, or that you are aware of?

Having perfect sailing conditions. Wind of the right strength and direction. Smooth water. Tide with you. Warm as the sun is out.

 

[capnsensible]

Having perfect sailing conditions. Wind of the right strength and direction. Smooth water. Tide with you. Warm as the sun is out.

Did that for a couple of hours this morning. Bocayna Strait, south of Lanzarote. As you do.