What's your chief dread at sea? Can we predict and prepare?

I wouldn't use the word 'dread' but one thing I take great care over is leaving the cockpit when using the autohelm whilst alone on deck. A measure of worry is good if it makes you take the relevant precautions (like using a preventer stay when running).
 
Your linking of the Marchioness sinking with dread reminds me of when The Old Guvnor and I were invited to a 50th birthday party on a Thames pleasure boat many years before that terrible incident. The boat we went was packed with partygoers, most of whom were soon very drunk. The hull was very old and the main deck was almost completely enclosed by glazed saloon that had been added later. The only access to the saloon was via doors forward and aft which led to very small, unlit deck areas. She looked like the Marchioness and might even have been her.

It was a rainy, cold evening and most people were inside getting tanked up. It seemed to me that the boat was a disaster waiting to happen. In the event of her sinking, the chances of those inside escaping would have been very small, especially given the state many of them were in.

I'm not usually a nervous person, and I have been a profesional seafarer for most of my working life, but I did feel a certain sense of unease and we spent most of the evening doing our boozing on the poop!
 
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What's your chief dread at sea?
Running out of either Gin, Tonic or ice. running out of lemon or lime is only a minor problem which I can live with.
Second biggest dread would be losing or breaking the corkscrew.

Can you predict and prepare?
Sometimes! Always helps to have a bottle or three of both Gin and Tonic in reserve in one of the wine cellars on board. As for the ice.... Just hope the ice maker keeps working though a few bags in reserve in the deep freeze should keep me going if the ice maker stopped working.
I keep a couple of spare corkscrews onboard.
 
cliff said:
What's your chief dread at sea?
Running out of either Gin, Tonic or ice. running out of lemon or lime is only a minor problem which I can live with.
Second biggest dread would be losing or breaking the corkscrew.

Can you predict and prepare?
Sometimes! Always helps to have a bottle or three of both Gin and Tonic in reserve in one of the wine cellars on board. As for the ice.... Just hope the ice maker keeps working though a few bags in reserve in the deep freeze should keep me going if the ice maker stopped working.
I keep a couple of spare corkscrews onboard.
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At last! As I read the thread I was hoping that someone would move away from the dark.

My chief dread is of it being so hot that the beer becomes undrinkable. Fortunately, being a UK sailor there's little chance.

It's almost June and it's blo ody freezing in Manchester!
 
I gather from the forums that the two main hazards I should fear are (a) shipping containers, which manage to float mysteriously below the surface all over the place and (b) insurance companies who will invalidate my insurance for reasons including, but not confined to, failure to show an anchor ball, using the wrong colour of antifouling, whistling on board and attempting clumsy satire.

Quite seriously, though, my biggest fear is seasickness. I have only been seasick twice. Once was on a friend's boat and left me dehydrated, hypothermic and completely incapacitated; the other was on my own boat while sailing with inexperienced crew and ended in a lifeboat tow. Although the second and later of these two was twenty years ago it's still something I worry about on every trip.
 
>There are accounts of killer Orcas attacking boats - but only when a nearby whaler had wounded one of their young; such events are incredibly rare compared to the risk of collision with ship or container.

They have attacked yachts off a river mouth on the west Africa coast, it is now a no go area, with no whaler in sight. Six people, the Robinson family, were left adrift in a dingy for 38 days in the Pacific after killer whales sank their yacht, again no whaler in site.


>Mine is getting rolled by a freak wave. This happened to a well found 49ft? Ali boat called Taos out near where The Bene 40 went down. Also to the Tzu Hang which was owned by Beryl and Miles Smeeton.

From memory of reading their book Tzu Hang pitch poled off the west coast of South America. Also I think they did it again when they went back and they then stopped sailing.
 
Thanks for all contributions.

I hoped there might be practical value in reflecting on those frightening possibilities which we face, or believe we face at sea, in order that they could be more easily anticipated, rather than remaining as unlikely, ever-present demons; or their horror might be reduced by analysis, to show its improbability in perspective.

Interesting that hazards are constituted by both perfectly rational daylight stuff like mooring MOB-incidents and lobster pots, as well as indiscernible risks from mid-ocean monsters.

Not that I'm likely to encounter fearsome weather, fire or foundering in a dinghy, but sailing without an auxiliary in close proximity to very large vessels of limited manoeuverability, I am aware that my own and others' watchfulness is crucial, and that any impulsive change of course or pace by motor vessels can upset the predictability of a scene.

As has been said, maybe the best we can do is identify and resolve potential problems prior to their seriousness becoming critical; and always keep thinking as far ahead as we can. I don't suppose there's any benefit in trying to foresee rogue-waves, drifting containers or vengeful whales.
 
parsifal said:
A wet toilet roll can spoil one's day. :disgust:
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I keep mine in the fridge - keeps them dry and more importantly COLD - helps extinguish, or at least soothe the "burning ring of fire" sometimes experienced after a good curry though it is hard to beat a wet nappy (fresh water) that has been kept in a plastic bag in the fridge. Remove from bag and apply the COLD, wet pad to the affected area for instant relief.
 
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cliff said:
I keep mine in the fridge - keeps them dry and more importantly COLD - helps extinguish, or at least soothe the "burning ring of fire" sometimes experienced after a good curry though it is hard to beat a wet nappy (fresh water) that has been kept in a plastic bag in the fridge. Remove from bag and apply the COLD, wet pad to the affected area for instant relief.
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Umm...is that in any way related to sailing, or the dangers of the deep?
 
dancrane said:
Umm...is that in any way related to sailing, or the dangers of the deep?
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I've known someone injured by a curry while at sea.

Well, I say "a curry", but it was actually the concentrated spice paste (bought in a Malaysian market and posted regularly to the skipper by a friend out there) which had been used to flavour the curry. Skipper put about a teaspoon full of it in the whole pot, and that provided all the heat required for a decent six-man curry.

One of the crew misunderstood this, and spread a healthy dollop of the stuff on a slice of bread.

He was warned, but dismissed the warning saying he liked hot food.

The skipper shrugged, turned away, and started fetching the milk out the fridge.

Crew took a big bite - and burst out coughing and swearing and trying to scrape the stuff out of his mouth with his fingers.

Skipper handed him a big glass of milk and told him to listen to advice next time :)

Pete
 
cliff said:
I keep mine in the fridge - keeps them dry and more importantly COLD - helps extinguish, or at least soothe the "burning ring of fire" sometimes experienced after a good curry though it is hard to beat a wet nappy (fresh water) that has been kept in a plastic bag in the fridge. Remove from bag and apply the COLD, wet pad to the affected area for instant relief.
Click to expand...

Now that's just gross....too much information. Besides, it's time for my evening meal :disgust:
 
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