For me a December night/morning 03:00 or so and my boat got a net
tangled in the wheel. It was under 30 degrees. We were offshore about 5
miles, luckly it was calm as glass. Only way out was to jump in and cut
the net from the prop. Having to jump in freezing water stay under
until I finished the job and then climbing aboard covered with frost
was the very very worst and painful memory sailing for me. Even being
washed over in freezing water was more enjoyable. What sucks about it
is knowing beforehand you have to get in, reminds me of when Bogie has
to get back in the water to tow the africian queen knowing leaches are
going to be all over him.

The boat had no heat, and all I had to swim in was shorts. After all
that pain and work the strut snapped and we had to be towed up the
Holma Navigational canal by a shrimper later that day.

What a nightmare that trip was.

What was your worst trip/ adventure. David is exempt, we all read
his;0)

Joe

Joe wrote:
For me a December night/morning 03:00 or so and my boat got a net
tangled in the wheel. It was under 30 degrees. We were offshore about 5
miles, luckly it was calm as glass. Only way out was to jump in and cut
the net from the prop. Having to jump in freezing water stay under
until I finished the job and then climbing aboard covered with frost
was the very very worst and painful memory sailing for me. Even being
washed over in freezing water was more enjoyable. What sucks about it
is knowing beforehand you have to get in, reminds me of when Bogie has
to get back in the water to tow the africian queen knowing leaches are
going to be all over him.

The boat had no heat, and all I had to swim in was shorts. After all
that pain and work the strut snapped and we had to be towed up the
Holma Navigational canal by a shrimper later that day.

What a nightmare that trip was.

What was your worst trip/ adventure. David is exempt, we all read
his;0)

Joe

I've written about mine before, too..the time we got caught out in a
frontal system between Leland and Traverse Bay with lightening strikes
all around us and fix fire running on the rigging and dancing off my
watch....think I'd keep that one though rather than having to jump into
ice water...

No contest for me: Our planned family cruise of 2005.

We bought the Zombie Princess in New Orleans in June of 2005 for an
intended 6-months-to-a-year cruise in the Caribbean. Worked on her in
July and August and were about ready to go when, after more than 30
years without a major hit, New Orleans got creamed by Katrina. The ZP
survived and we re-prepped her to depart NO as soon as the bridges were
working. However, before that happened we had to ride out Rita at
anchor. Yee-ha! Finally, the major bridges were fixed and we escaped
NO. We crossed the Gulf of Mexico to Naples, FL. I tried to tuck in
behind a weather system which was supposed to be dissapating but we
caught it bigtime for some of the worst weather I've ever sailed in. My
older daughter puked for four days; we had to force her to (minimally)
hydrate. Finally got down to the Dry Tortugas with the hope of actually
starting a lovely, warm, tropical cruise. We were there for one day;
then the rangers told us to evacuate to Key West cuz Wilma was coming.
After Wilma ran over the boat in Key West, the kids were completely
uninterested in continuing "cruising" and we were pretty exhausted
ourselves. So we terminated our "Caribbean cruise" in Key West in
December and returned home for Christmas.

Definitely my worst adventure ever.

Frank

"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...
For me a December night/morning 03:00 or so and my boat got a net
tangled in the wheel. It was under 30 degrees. We were offshore about 5
miles, luckly it was calm as glass. Only way out was to jump in and cut
the net from the prop. Having to jump in freezing water stay under
until I finished the job and then climbing aboard covered with frost
was the very very worst and painful memory sailing for me. Even being
washed over in freezing water was more enjoyable. What sucks about it
is knowing beforehand you have to get in, reminds me of when Bogie has
to get back in the water to tow the africian queen knowing leaches are
going to be all over him.

The boat had no heat, and all I had to swim in was shorts. After all
that pain and work the strut snapped and we had to be towed up the
Holma Navigational canal by a shrimper later that day.

What a nightmare that trip was.

What was your worst trip/ adventure. David is exempt, we all read
his;0)

Joe

Mine happened 35 years ago. I was out exploring, sailing my little 12
Styrofoam boat up a creek, a few miles from where Dad anchored our cabin
cruiser at the south end of long beach island, NJ. The wind was minimal, I
was up the creek without a paddle, which was fine, until hordes of
mosquitoes descended upon me, thousands and thousands, and I with no shirt,
no shoes, just a bathing suit, fed cities of the little *******s before I
could get back to the mother ship. It may explain why I get so much joy in
watching those blood suckers fly into my zapper. Look at 'em fry - yeah
baby!!
Scout

Frank, or should I call you Jonah?

Please stay out of Texas during the hurricane season;0)

Seriously you should pack the kids back aboard and finish your
journey. Odds are you will have many years of hurricane free perfect
sailing weather now that you and your's paid the price to sail warm
waters.

You should write a short story and submit it to several sailing
magazines, make a few grand off your adventure.

Joe




Frank wrote:
No contest for me: Our planned family cruise of 2005.

We bought the Zombie Princess in New Orleans in June of 2005 for an
intended 6-months-to-a-year cruise in the Caribbean. Worked on her in
July and August and were about ready to go when, after more than 30
years without a major hit, New Orleans got creamed by Katrina. The ZP
survived and we re-prepped her to depart NO as soon as the bridges were
working. However, before that happened we had to ride out Rita at
anchor. Yee-ha! Finally, the major bridges were fixed and we escaped
NO. We crossed the Gulf of Mexico to Naples, FL. I tried to tuck in
behind a weather system which was supposed to be dissapating but we
caught it bigtime for some of the worst weather I've ever sailed in. My
older daughter puked for four days; we had to force her to (minimally)
hydrate. Finally got down to the Dry Tortugas with the hope of actually
starting a lovely, warm, tropical cruise. We were there for one day;
then the rangers told us to evacuate to Key West cuz Wilma was coming.
After Wilma ran over the boat in Key West, the kids were completely
uninterested in continuing "cruising" and we were pretty exhausted
ourselves. So we terminated our "Caribbean cruise" in Key West in
December and returned home for Christmas.

Definitely my worst adventure ever.

Frank

Scout wrote:
"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...
For me a December night/morning 03:00 or so and my boat got a net
tangled in the wheel. It was under 30 degrees. We were offshore about 5
miles, luckly it was calm as glass. Only way out was to jump in and cut
the net from the prop. Having to jump in freezing water stay under
until I finished the job and then climbing aboard covered with frost
was the very very worst and painful memory sailing for me. Even being
washed over in freezing water was more enjoyable. What sucks about it
is knowing beforehand you have to get in, reminds me of when Bogie has
to get back in the water to tow the africian queen knowing leaches are
going to be all over him.

The boat had no heat, and all I had to swim in was shorts. After all
that pain and work the strut snapped and we had to be towed up the
Holma Navigational canal by a shrimper later that day.

What a nightmare that trip was.

What was your worst trip/ adventure. David is exempt, we all read
his;0)

Joe

Mine happened 35 years ago. I was out exploring, sailing my little 12
Styrofoam boat up a creek, a few miles from where Dad anchored our cabin
cruiser at the south end of long beach island, NJ. The wind was minimal, I
was up the creek without a paddle, which was fine, until hordes of
mosquitoes descended upon me, thousands and thousands, and I with no shirt,
no shoes, just a bathing suit, fed cities of the little *******s before I
could get back to the mother ship. It may explain why I get so much joy in
watching those blood suckers fly into my zapper. Look at 'em fry - yeah
baby!!
Scout

Here on the Texas coast you have to be prepared for mosquitos. Last
Harvest Moon Regetta we raced in most boats decided to return from Port
Aransas to Houston via the ICW. We did too, because my crew had never
seen the ICW in south Texas. Anyway late the first night just passed
Rattelsnake island a fin boat ran hard aground about 150 outside the
channel. They were on the radio begging for help, as they were overcome
by mosquito's big time. You could hear the women crying in the
background on the radio. Luckly for them I only draw 4.5 ft with my
board up, and I had a line gun and 200 ft of 2" poly pro tow line. I do
not think I've ever been thanked more times than that night from that
crew in my life. He found my boat a week or so later and tried to give
me 100 dollars, I took 35 to buy a new messenger for the line gun.

We always have cans of spray aboard.

Joe

Yeah, I was struggling to remember a "worst" sailing experience... capsizing
a catamaran in the surf, stuff like that, but couldn't really think of one
until I saw this. Then, I remembered the mosquito attack in Baja (a place I
don't normally associate with bad mosquitos). Finally went ashore, rented a
room, and turned the fan on high to keep them away. Nothing else worked.

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

"Scout" wrote in message
. ..
"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...
For me a December night/morning 03:00 or so and my boat got a net
tangled in the wheel. It was under 30 degrees. We were offshore about 5
miles, luckly it was calm as glass. Only way out was to jump in and cut
the net from the prop. Having to jump in freezing water stay under
until I finished the job and then climbing aboard covered with frost
was the very very worst and painful memory sailing for me. Even being
washed over in freezing water was more enjoyable. What sucks about it
is knowing beforehand you have to get in, reminds me of when Bogie has
to get back in the water to tow the africian queen knowing leaches are
going to be all over him.

The boat had no heat, and all I had to swim in was shorts. After all
that pain and work the strut snapped and we had to be towed up the
Holma Navigational canal by a shrimper later that day.

What a nightmare that trip was.

What was your worst trip/ adventure. David is exempt, we all read
his;0)

Joe

Mine happened 35 years ago. I was out exploring, sailing my little 12
Styrofoam boat up a creek, a few miles from where Dad anchored our cabin
cruiser at the south end of long beach island, NJ. The wind was minimal, I
was up the creek without a paddle, which was fine, until hordes of
mosquitoes descended upon me, thousands and thousands, and I with no
shirt, no shoes, just a bathing suit, fed cities of the little *******s
before I could get back to the mother ship. It may explain why I get so
much joy in watching those blood suckers fly into my zapper. Look at 'em
fry - yeah baby!!
Scout

Capt. JG wrote:
Yeah, I was struggling to remember a "worst" sailing experience... capsizing
a catamaran in the surf, stuff like that, but couldn't really think of one
until I saw this. Then, I remembered the mosquito attack in Baja (a place I
don't normally associate with bad mosquitos). Finally went ashore, rented a
room, and turned the fan on high to keep them away. Nothing else worked.


Probably my worst sailing adventure ever was breaking a
Lightning mast about 40 seconds before the start of a race.
It was just plain stupidity on my part, and good luck that
nobody got hurt.

All my sailing experiences have been great. The ones that
might seem not-so-great are really great learning
opportunites, like the time I had to paddle a 21' auxiliary
racer/cruiser about 7 miles (absolutely no breath of wind)
because I couldn't start the engine... which didn't have the
fuel hose properly attached. Or the time my wife & I
capsized the Johnson 18 (for real, not a drill) in March
while trying to luff the spinnaker around a reaching mark
that was just a little too high. Learning experience! If you
survive enough of them, you get to be a pretty good sailor.

DSK

Or, me removing the mast from my Windrider tri's mast step, and it's a bit
ackward, so I step back to steady myself and it's still swaying, so I step
back again, but that's not enough, so I step back some more... right off the
dock with the mast in hand. :-)

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

"DSK" wrote in message
...
Capt. JG wrote:
Yeah, I was struggling to remember a "worst" sailing experience...
capsizing a catamaran in the surf, stuff like that, but couldn't really
think of one until I saw this. Then, I remembered the mosquito attack in
Baja (a place I don't normally associate with bad mosquitos). Finally
went ashore, rented a room, and turned the fan on high to keep them away.
Nothing else worked.


Probably my worst sailing adventure ever was breaking a Lightning mast
about 40 seconds before the start of a race. It was just plain stupidity
on my part, and good luck that nobody got hurt.

All my sailing experiences have been great. The ones that might seem
not-so-great are really great learning opportunites, like the time I had
to paddle a 21' auxiliary racer/cruiser about 7 miles (absolutely no
breath of wind) because I couldn't start the engine... which didn't have
the fuel hose properly attached. Or the time my wife & I capsized the
Johnson 18 (for real, not a drill) in March while trying to luff the
spinnaker around a reaching mark that was just a little too high. Learning
experience! If you survive enough of them, you get to be a pretty good
sailor.

DSK

DSK wrote:

Probably my worst sailing adventure ever was breaking a Lightning mast
about 40 seconds before the start of a race. It was just plain stupidity
on my part, and good luck that nobody got hurt.

All my sailing experiences have been great...

I agree, not having had a major disaster I can't recall a "worst"
experience. Your dismasting reminds how fine the line is between
exhilaration and depression sometimes is. One of my most exiting
rides was on an IOD, crewing for the fleet wizard in Marblehead, when
the wind gusted up from 20 knots to 30 during the spinnaker run. We
had a great ride, but the fleet behind us got hit just a they popped
the chutes and several got dismasted. Their problems gave us the
advance warning we needed to prepare.

Also, some of my best experiences have been the worst for the rest of
my family, who suffer a bit in heavy weather. I got mine some years
back ('78?) following Hurricane David. We had been out for a week and
survived the hurricane without drama, but I had to dive to retrieve an
anchor that was fouled. Water temp was frigid, so it took me a day to
recover and I ended up with an ear infection. When we returned I got
a call from friends that had had their worst ever experience during
the hurricane, almost losing the boat in a small harbor in Nova
Scotia, and they needed my help to bring the boat back from Maine. I
threw clean cloths in my bag and grabbed the next small plane Down
East. The sail back was uneventful, but the ear infection meant that
I was low grade sea sick the entire time. I was unable to go forward
for fear of falling off. I have little recollection of the trip other
than sleeping in the bunk and felt I was more of a burden than a help.
My friends, of course, say that they never could have done it
without me, and consider that return trip a bright spot in their
vacation. Everyone has a different perception of events!