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

Greenheart

Greenheart

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I glanced at the Marchioness documentary on Channel 5 earlier. It wasn't very good - looked to me like a three-hour film cut to fit into a fifty minute TV slot.

But it reminded me of the hindsight we enjoy when analysing disasters on the forum - our simple, reasonable approach, which as we look ahead, would seem always to limit any prospect of collision or other calamity, to completely unforeseeable, extraordinary misfortune.

I'll be glad if there aren't any injuries or deaths in the Solent and busy central-Channel region over the next three months, but maybe it's possible almost to predict when there are likely to be problems - not just during intensive periods of racing, but whenever there's confusion and crowding of a confined area.

I wonder whether there are things we know we're often less than perfectly prepared for, and not wholly confident about...are they better confronted and dealt with ahead of necessity, than hopefully avoided?
 
A very old experienced cruiser gave me some advice several years ago, which I have never neglected.
It is this :
He said" When something enters your head telling you something needs attention or needs to be done and it worries you, don't ignore it. Fix it."
 
Dan,

I have spent many an hour pontificating about disaster scenarios and have fitted all sorts of precautions, within the limits of my meagre brain and budget.

There comes a time when one has to say to oneself ' I've done what I can - Mother Nature, Over To You ! '
 
My worst fear is being attacked by large sea creatures such as killer whales, other whales, sharks etc.
Running in to a container awash, sailing at night, would not be a picnic, but living things that want to smash your hull, that takes it to a different dimension.
My 24' yacht was repeatedly 'bombed' by a gigantic dolphin-type thing in the summer. I had just come back across from Holland, it was calm and a bit foggy, and I was making my way down towards N Shipwash to enter Harwich on the flood. ( by myself)
This enormous mottled black/brown monster dolphin hurled himself right out of the water, and smashed down a metre from my hull, parallel to it, the noise of the impact was like a car crash and the hull shuddered. He did it about six times then vanished. I have had dolphins playing in the bow wave every time I've been out of sight of land, over the years, but this b astard was NOT PLAYING.
He was obviously trying to bully or intimidate my boat, which he took for a rival, threatening his manor or after his dolphin bitches, who knows but it was a very unpleasant experience and a total surprise that it could happen.
He was at least a ton displacement, more like two tons, I'm being careful not to exaggerate.
I will never forget that experience. He could have sunk the boat easily, and killed me, with his strength.
I haven't felt the same about all those nice whales etc since, to put it mildly.
 
jerrytug said:
My worst fear is being attacked by large sea creatures such as killer whales, other whales, sharks etc.
Running in to a container awash, sailing at night, would not be a picnic, but living things that want to smash your hull, that takes it to a different dimension.
My 24' yacht was repeatedly 'bombed' by a gigantic dolphin-type thing in the summer. I had just come back across from Holland, it was calm and a bit foggy, and I was making my way down towards N Shipwash to enter Harwich on the flood. ( by myself)
This enormous mottled black/brown monster dolphin hurled himself right out of the water, and smashed down a metre from my hull, parallel to it, the noise of the impact was like a car crash and the hull shuddered. He did it about six times then vanished. I have had dolphins playing in the bow wave every time I've been out of sight of land, over the years, but this b astard was NOT PLAYING.
He was obviously trying to bully or intimidate my boat, which he took for a rival, threatening his manor or after his dolphin bitches, who knows but it was a very unpleasant experience and a total surprise that it could happen.
He was at least a ton displacement, more like two tons, I'm being careful not to exaggerate.
I will never forget that experience. He could have sunk the boat easily, and killed me, with his strength.
I haven't felt the same about all those nice whales etc since, to put it mildly.
Click to expand...

Jerrytug,

did you have the depthsounder on ?

Once when young I turned on the sounder to attract some Dolphins in the distance off Jersey, then hurriedly turned it off when they came straight at us as if about to torpedo us !

They turned parallel to the boat and swam with us for a while then cleared off.

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.
 
Dan, a very important question, deserving much thought and action.
I’m a member of the Cruising Yacht Association of Victoria. We encourage our members to look at this from a Risk Management point of view. Where (simplistically):
Risk = “Probability of something happening” (eg Rare . . . to Almost Certain) x “Consequences” (eg Trivial . . . to Catastrophic).
You then rank your list of risks and set out the equipment or actions to prevent/minimise, detect and recover from them. You might use this to make a Risk Plan and even incorporate the actions into your maintenance schedule (eg inspect stays every year AND before any major trip AND replace them every ten years).
Whilst each vessel will have a different Plan depending on the vessel, its crew, its sailing mode/area etc it does help to see other’s lists. Here is my ranked list of risks (any additions/subtractions?), (I forgot to include Sea Monsters), cheers Andrew:
Man Overboard
Flooding / Sinking
Anchoring system fails
Fire
Capsize
Lightning Strike
Dismasting
Crew injury
Crew illness
Collision
Motor not starting or running
Anchor drags
Grounding
Broaching or Pooping
Strong wind
Shore lines fail
Drinking Water depleted/spoiled
Food depleted/spoiled
Damaged Sails
Power failure/running low
(I should add that I mostly sail single handed, long distances, primarily up /down the East coast of Australia but one trip kept turning to port from Melbourne to Geraldton via Darwin)
 
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Seajet said:
There comes a time when one has to say to oneself ' I've done what I can - Mother Nature, Over To You ! '
Click to expand...

jerrytug said:
...enormous mottled black/brown dolphin hurled himself out of the water, and smashed down parallel to it, the noise of the impact was like a car crash. He did it six times then vanished.
Click to expand...

Hmm. I was really thinking aside from Mother Nature!

I suppose most dangers occur either as a result of a person over-reaching his own or his boat's ability in deteriorating weather, or collisions in circumstances of poor visibility and busy constricted waters, or fire/flooding caused by doubtful maintenance of electrics, fuel and through-hull fittings.

There often seem to be problems with shipping when schedules put haste above care. Given that we only go to sea for fun, p'raps we ought to be able to eliminate most risk, short of bad weather on offshore passages, and uncharted hazards like semi-submerged containers.
 
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dancrane said:
I suppose most dangers occur either as a result of
a person over-reaching his own or his boat's ability in deteriorating weather, or
collisions in circumstances of poor visibility and busy constricted waters, or
fire/flooding caused by doubtful maintenance of electrics, fuel and through-hull fittings.

There often seem to be problems with shipping when schedules put haste above care. Given that we only go to sea for fun, p'raps we ought to be able to eliminate most risk, short of bad weather on offshore passages, and uncharted hazards like semi-submerged containers.
Click to expand...

I think the greatest dangers may well be
a) the car journey to the boat
b) the dinghy ride to the mooring
c) falling overboard


You said in your first post "I wonder whether there are things we know we're often less than perfectly prepared for, and not wholly confident about...are they better confronted and dealt with ahead of necessity, than hopefully avoided?". I suspect that the greater dangers are, by contrast, the familiar things we think we're confident about.

Not that I'm suggesting we shouldn't think about or prepare for other things, but little point in worrying about your boat being stuck by an asteroid, say, and what you can do about that, if you don't take basic precautions.
 
Fire followed by going overboard at night followed by capsizing. Not for fear of drowning but because of a fear of being munched on by sharks! (Watched Jaws too much and should never have read about the USS Indianapolis!).

Sperm Whales and Orca are known to attack and bully boats.
 
Seajet said:
Jerrytug,

did you have the depthsounder on ?

Once when young I turned on the sounder to attract some Dolphins in the distance off Jersey, then hurriedly turned it off when they came straight at us as if about to torpedo us !

They turned parallel to the boat and swam with us for a while then cleared off.

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.
Click to expand...
Yes I had the sounder on, it was foggy, plus the engine and the VHF.
 
I worry about just about everything whilst ashore, even have bad dreams on occasion. Strangely, as soon as I step aboard, its all forgotten and it takes a lot to shake me.
 
In the last few years in the Solent and adjacent coastline, I can think of a number of serious incidents due to accidental gibes, At least one death and a few life changing injuries. At least one charter company was 'asked' by the MCA to brief their customers on the danger of this, after two people in a few weeks received very serious head and brain injuries, resulting in long stays in hospital. Although there are worst things that happen at sea, accidental gibes are a common and serious incident.
 
Reading the accounts of boats that get into trouble that are published in PBO it seems that often it is things happening together or shortly after each other that causes problems. Each of them is manageable on their own but together they can cause havoc. e.g. A rope goes round the propellor, fog descends, the wind dies, the radio stops working then someone falls overboard!
 
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