Time for some fun. Who has some good
"falling in" stories. "Falling in" the water, "falling
in" the dink, "falling down" the companionway, etc.

On Mon, 16 Jan 2006 20:31:01 -0500, "Bart Senior" .@. wrote:

Time for some fun. Who has some good
"falling in" stories. "Falling in" the water, "falling
in" the dink, "falling down" the companionway, etc.



At one time or another all of the above. And at no time was I
entirely sober.

Sailed my old 23' boat into Apalachicola one night in thunderstorms,
all lights in town were out so we were sailing by lightning flashes.
Got to the dock, it was very high, at least 4' above us but I stepped
up onto it and the edge gave way. I fell backward and hit my head on
the toerail on th way down and was out cold when I hit the water. My
friend Bob who was 62 at the time was as astrong as an ox reached in
and literally pulled me out by my collar and into the cockpit where I
came around.
Six years later on a sailign trip with Bob, it was very cold and we had
to sail waaaaayyy out to get around the shoal. About an hour out, I
noticed Bob was sitting very still and looked funny. I asked him if he
was ok and he said yes so we went on. Later, it became obvious he was
not OK and at first we thought he was just a little sick but he refused
to move and looked chilled to the bone so we tried to put a parka on
him which he refused. Still thinking he was just a little sick and
stubborn I didnt think it was bad but later he had a very glassy look
in his eyes but he refused help. I decided to try to see if anybody
else was out just in case so tried VHF asking for a radio check and got
nothing (not too unusual for this area then). By this time we were
heading back north to Shell Pt but it was about 20 miles. Bob didnt
look well at all and I could get nobody on VHF. Looked at the chart
and decided to go into Ocklocknee Bay as it would be the closest place
to get help. Went down the winding channel and finally ended up at at
a deserted dock and I figured I'd have to hitch a ride to a phone and
we were all frozen. I walked up the dock shivering and suddenly sqaw
my father walking toward me and thought I was hallucinating but it was
really him AND my mom. They had gone for a drive over to Carabelle and
had seen my boat was out of its slip. Looking waaaay out, they could
see us on the horizon thru binocs so had driven east following us till
they realized where we had to be coming in and they waited. It was
like a miracle cuz we got Bob to the car and drove him to the hospital
where we found he had a stroke.

Jeff the "Suicidal Sailor" was another sailing buddy of mine who at
firwst was fairly lucid and a very good sailor and as he truly loved
sailing, I gave him permission to use my 28' S2. After awhile he began
to act sorta erratic and told bizarre stories of sailing on "Ragtime"
under poor conditions. At this time, Bob (previous post) was
recovering from a second stroke and was in a longer term recovery place
like a short term nursing home. Jeff, by this time had started acting
very impulsively and talking suicide so I called the suicide hotline
but they were no help. I told Jeff he could not use my boat to kill
himself. Jeff and I decided to go visit Bob at the nursing place.
We made small talk with Bob for awhile while Bobs wife stood by. We
started joking about going on a sailing trip. Jeff started acting like
he was serious so Bob held up his arm with a bracelet saying that if he
tried leaving it would set off alarms. Jeff whips out a large knife
and in a flash suddenly cuts off the bracelet from Bobs arm and tries
to lead Bob out. Bob's wife yelling "NO, NO" while I got Jeff to see
reason.
Jeff kills himself a week later (gunshot). At his wake where everybody
was discussing his sailing skills, people would talk about how Jeff had
taken them on wild sailing trips in a boat called "Ragtime".
Bobs health goes slowly downhill and he dies a year later. I never
could bring myself to tell him about Jeff's demise.

Falling in the drink from the dock, mast in hand, in front of a good crowd.
Several people applauded, to came to check on me. :-)

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Bart Senior" .@. wrote in message ...
Time for some fun. Who has some good
"falling in" stories. "Falling in" the water, "falling
in" the dink, "falling down" the companionway, etc.

"Bart Senior" .@. wrote:
Time for some fun. Who has some good
"falling in" stories. "Falling in" the water, "falling
in" the dink, "falling down" the companionway, etc.



Frank Boettcher wrote:
At one time or another all of the above. And at no time was I
entirely sober.

Sobriety is over-rated.

DSK

I've only fallen in once...but I meant to do it.


RB
35s5
NY

Bart Senior wrote:
Time for some fun. Who has some good
"falling in" stories. "Falling in" the water, "falling
in" the dink, "falling down" the companionway, etc.


In a collegiate race, on a reaching leg, my crew and I were
switching back & forth bewteen running wing & wing (skipper
hold the jib sheet 'way out, crew pulls CB all the way up
and holds the main out) and reaching (board 1/2 down, sheets
normal) and me feet slipped out from under the hiking straps.

My crew said later that he did not hear a splash, he noticed
the jib collapsing and yelled at me to get it in gear... at
this point I was pulling myself one-handed over the transom.
MY crew looked at me in aggravation, sprawled over the aft
end of the boat (ie very far out of the position I should
have been) and said 'WTF are you doing back there? And how
did you get all wet?'

The competitors all around laughed so hard that we passed
most of them before the gybe mark.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

Bart Senior wrote:
Time for some fun. Who has some good
"falling in" stories. "Falling in" the water, "falling
in" the dink, "falling down" the companionway, etc.


I did a swan dive off our O'Day 22 and broke a bunch of ribs,
blacked an eye, and put major bruises and contusions on other parts
of my body. It was up in Harbor Springs and our outboard was giving
us problems so we had to sail in...the dockmaster of Irish boatyards
said to not sail in but to sail up to the floating dock they used as
a wave attenuator and he would have someone out there to toss a line
to...well, no one showed up and there were no cleats...I went to
jump onto the dock with the line in my hand just as a big gust took
the boat away as Mr Sails was trying to lower the sail...I went full
flat out on that dock. Everything went dark and muzzy and I came to
hearing Mr Sails say to the dock kid, "She'll be fine...she bounces
back quickly"

wrote:
Sailed my old 23' boat into Apalachicola one night in thunderstorms,
all lights in town were out so we were sailing by lightning flashes.
Got to the dock, it was very high, at least 4' above us but I stepped
up onto it and the edge gave way. I fell backward and hit my head on
the toerail on th way down and was out cold when I hit the water. My
friend Bob who was 62 at the time was as astrong as an ox reached in
and literally pulled me out by my collar and into the cockpit where I
came around.
Six years later on a sailign trip with Bob, it was very cold and we had
to sail waaaaayyy out to get around the shoal. About an hour out, I
noticed Bob was sitting very still and looked funny. I asked him if he
was ok and he said yes so we went on. Later, it became obvious he was
not OK and at first we thought he was just a little sick but he refused
to move and looked chilled to the bone so we tried to put a parka on
him which he refused. Still thinking he was just a little sick and
stubborn I didnt think it was bad but later he had a very glassy look
in his eyes but he refused help. I decided to try to see if anybody
else was out just in case so tried VHF asking for a radio check and got
nothing (not too unusual for this area then). By this time we were
heading back north to Shell Pt but it was about 20 miles. Bob didnt
look well at all and I could get nobody on VHF. Looked at the chart
and decided to go into Ocklocknee Bay as it would be the closest place
to get help. Went down the winding channel and finally ended up at at
a deserted dock and I figured I'd have to hitch a ride to a phone and
we were all frozen. I walked up the dock shivering and suddenly sqaw
my father walking toward me and thought I was hallucinating but it was
really him AND my mom. They had gone for a drive over to Carabelle and
had seen my boat was out of its slip. Looking waaaay out, they could
see us on the horizon thru binocs so had driven east following us till
they realized where we had to be coming in and they waited. It was
like a miracle cuz we got Bob to the car and drove him to the hospital
where we found he had a stroke.

That's pretty scary....I would say there was some kind of divine
intervention there...