[Rhodes22-list] Boat Folleis

[Steve Alm]

Here's my running aground story:

We were in Florida in 1980.  My friend, Clark, had a 50 ft. wooden schooner
in West Palm and my brother and I were enlisted as crew to take the boat
through the ICW and across the Okeechobee (?) to the Gulf side and down to
Naples, where she would live.  The boat was not fully rigged yet and still
had some work to do including putting in the ballast.  We loaded 50 lb. pigs
of lead onto the deck to be later placed down in the bilge.  IIRC, there
were about 150 pigs that we stacked, log-cabin-style along the centerline of
the deck, and off we went.

One evening, we were motoring after dark along the narrow river.  My
brother, Kevin, was up on the bow with a spotlight watching for...anything.
He spotted a sign in the middle of the channel but couldn't read it until we
were close enough to see that it read: "Stay left."  Just as he sang out,
"Hard to port!"  we hit the sandy bottom.

We were too hard aground to motor off in reverse, so we took all the lead
pigs and moved them to the starboard rail, listing the boat sharply, and
then tried to motor off again.  No luck, so we moved them all to port and
did the same.  Still no luck, so we moved them all back to center and
decided to wait until daylight to try the next thing and went to bed.

At daybreak, we decided to attach the anchor to a float, swim it out a ways,
drop it and try to kedge our way off the sand bar.  We drew straws and I won
the honor of doing the swimming.  As I got about 80 or 90 ft. from the boat,
Clark yelled out at me to look at the shore.  There I saw about a half dozen
alligators hitting the water.  Clark yells, "That's far enough, drop the
hook and get back here!"  I tell ya, Mark Spitz would have been proud--in
fact, Jesus would have been proud because I nearly walked on water back to
the boat as Clark opened fire on the gators with the rifle to scare them
off.  (Remember our thread about guns onboard?  Guess which side I'm on.)

I managed to get back safely and we rigged up a block and tackle to the
anchor line with about 8-part purchase.  The three of us hauled on that line
with all our might and still didn't budge the boat.  So our last resort was
to get on the radio and call for help.  We contacted a salvage boat with a
giant motor that came in about half an hour.  He hooked us up and pulled us
off the sand bar with no problem.  We paid him about 50 bucks and were back
on our way.

Slim

On 5/25/04 2:31 PM, "Bob Weber" <ruba1811 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all I am reading this new tread with great interest.  Not only are there
> a bunch of great stories untapped here but I can actually use these in my
> lesson plans.  I teach ASA's Basic Keelboat Sailing and half of the class is
> boating safety.  I have a class starting tomorrow and by Thursday we will be
> knee deep in all the differnt things that can go wrong on a boat.  We don't
> spend any time on how to remove the stern straps when launching  but I will
> give you some of the topics we do cover and if you know of a great anedote
> that goes with a subject, chime in, I will give you half the profit I expect
> to make this year :).  Thursday we will becovering the hazards of :
> Anchoring, Sinking, Fire, Overloading (horsepower and LBS), Derigging,
> Accidental Jibes, Hypothermia, Swimming w/ Propellers (I have one story and
> thats enough)  Rope burns, Running Aground (easy fodder), docking, Lee
> shores, Man (hat, dog, wife) overboard and now, of course, unstrapping the
> boat from the trailer prior to launching.
> 
> Hopefully I have inspired a few good stories.  I, (un)fortunately, have
> personal stories on most of these but always welcome new material.
> 
> Bob Weber
> 
> 
> 
>> From: Jim White <jdwhite at panam.edu>
>> Reply-To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>> To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>> Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Boat toys.
>> Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 13:38:17 -0500
>> 
>> The best one I've seen in awhile was a guy back down the ramp and forget to
>> untie the stern strap. Filled up the entire transom up to the steering
>> before he figured out what was wrong. Pulled it up the ramp and sat there
>> with the little drain plugs open and waited for about 10 minutes for the
>> thing to empty out. Finally someone in line that he was blocking stormed up
>> and shoved a bucket in his face and said "bail".....
>> 
>> Jim White
>> 
>> At 02:30 PM 05/25/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>>> The best entertainment is the Jersey Shore.
>>> More Money then Brains
>>> 
>>> people buy a 45 ft cruiser as their first boat. No knowledge, no skill but
>>> lots of throttle.
>>> 
>>> TOOOO many stories to tell. and sometimes people get hurt!!
>>> 
>>> Bob.... now sailing in Eastern Tennessee.
>>> 
>>>>>> R22RumRunner at aol.com 05/25/04 02:20PM >>>
>>> Michael,
>>> The light I'm talking about is on the front of the mast, not on the top.
>>> On
>>> an inland lake, you want every possible light on because you have a
>>> greater
>>> possibility of being seen. There are very few, if any people that know the
>>> difference between a steaming light and an anchor light. I always sail
>>> with a spot
>>> light at the helm so I can light up my sails when someone gets to
>>> close.......and I use it a lot.
>>> The stories I could tell of people with their first boat at the launch
>>> ramp
>>> at the marina would fill a book. I sometimes go down their with a cooler
>>> and
>>> just sit and watch the circus. Last Friday I actually saw a boat get
>>> launched
>>> with a youngster in the boat, but no line going to the dock. The kid had
>>> to get
>>> in the water and bring a line to the dock so the father could pull the
>>> boat in
>>> to the dock so he and his wife could get aboard. Once on the boat, he
>>> fired
>>> it up and took off at full throttle in the marina which is a slow, no wake
>>> area. I wish I had a dollar for every time I've seen that happen.
>>> 
>>> Rummy
>>> __________________________________________________
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>>> 
>>> __________________________________________________
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>> 
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