Walking on Water - A Cautionary Tale from a Chentleman Cruiser

Re: Spur of the moment swimming

Oh, there's more than a few forumites have done it. There was a whole thread on the subject quite sometime back about who'd fallen in and how! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

One of the classics was the chairman of our club standing on the edge of a slip watching several of the clubs trailered boats being launched. He took a step backwards....... off the edge of the slip, and gracefully sank into the water
 
Re: Spur of the moment swimming

Brendan
"Oh, there's more than a few forumites have done it. There was a whole thread on the subject quite sometime back about who'd fallen in and how! "

Quite seriously this sort of statement is the kiss of death normally for a thread, please realise that just like a pub there are new people around and a good subject can be aired frequently. I'm sure you could have told the story without that initial indication of ennui!
 
"It wouldn't have happened if I hadn't had a drink."
I think you are too self-effacing Dave. Drink having being taken is really neither here nor there. If it were, then the marina wouldn't ply the stuff so readily. In any event, you were certainly not peed.

Craobh Haven, not having any pontoon lights on a cloudy night, and with little ambient light, has rather more to do with it IMHO. The accident simply wouldn't have happened had the lights been on.

Now that the awful truth is out, what was the reaction from Mrs MacHurley22? And did you put the phone through the washing machine?
 
It was a combination of factors and the absence of any one of them would probably have averted disaster, in particular, had I seen fit to use the few brains I was born with... Personally, I blame Claymore for organising the event in the first place. A recently qualified yachtmaster told me he knows for a fact that there hadn't even been a proper risk assessment carried out.

I've not yet found precisely the right conversational moment to fully apprise Mrs Mac of the events of Thursday last. Possibly this may remain "our little secret".

In an interesting reversion to a belief in primitive magic I did try the 'phone through the washing machine, going so far as to place it in the same trouser pocket that kept it safe during it's last cool cycle. The operation was successful but the patient has not recovered.

Dave
 
Good to see machurley22's sobering dip ended well.

Perhaps not politically correct to do one´s first post on anything but a complex question for the "regulars" but can´t resist.

Thirty years ago, having cleaned out a charter yacht, I as skipper was given the honour of carrying the last cardboard box ashore in Crinan Basin. Having successfully negotiated the high climb up onto the deck of a puffer, I took a careful step out onto the gangplank to the shore and promply arrived ten feet down in the murky waters of the canal. The majority of the contents of the box - films in prepaid envelopes and botanical samples from the Outer Isles could be thrown up onto the bank while desperately treading water, but my brother´s tools sank instantly. I was fortunately only a few feet from a ladder.

A year later, setting off on the next year´s cruise, and armed with one of those super magnets which were advertised to lift anything from a safety pin to the Titanic, to our amazement we successfully recovered the majority of the spanners etc.

And the moral? Dave could have been carrying the chentlemen´s refreshments, and magnets are ineffective on aluminium and glass.
Step carefully.
 
Hi Daði,
Glad to see you finally emerge into the twilight zone with the rest of us lunatics. The madness will soon descend on you, and you'll be posting on here frequently - if only to get rid of that newbie tag......
 
Re: Sh . . . . (quiet) - it happens

Dave ma loon,

It's a puir deed miracle so it is that ah've nae fallen in the watter yet . . . only a matter of time.

Falling off a pontoon at least means you are reasonably close to something to grab onto while shouting for help. I remember an ill thought out dinghy ride in particular . . . where there was only one chance to control the mad downwind (downgale?) hurtle with a wee oar or twa in the oggin - any misjudgement would have meant a fifty mile Irish Sea night crossing in an engineless Avon.

But you are right . . . it was all the Cruise Director's fault for organising the event . . . the good news is I've just been back to the trouser house and they let me in. (Said I'd never seen any of yiz before in ma puff).

Wouldnae have missed the whole thing for the world though, and the liver swelling is going down nicely.

- Nick
 
Pleased to have been the reason for your first post Daði.

On the subject of chentlemens' refreshments I can exclusively reveal (thanks for the tip Nick) that there is a bottle of fine malt whisky in only a few metres of water at N 56 deg 33.189 min W 5 deg 45.551 min should anyone be passing that way with the appropriate equipment.

Dave
 
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