On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 12:07:33 GMT, Larry W4CSC wrote:

A friend and I moved another friend's Endeavour 35 from where he left it on
the dock at Daytona Beach, up the ditch to Mayport, then at sea to
Charleston. After a great night of excellent winds, the sun rose and we
left the autopilot steering to get some breakfast. As we set chatting of
our great luck, a HUGE, empty, wooden cable reel that was easily larger
than the boat floated by several boatlengths away.

I still shudder at the thought of ramming that damned cable reel in the
total darkness of the preceding night. The Raymarine 2KW radar never made
a blip. The reel was totally radar transparent, even 10 boatlengths away
with the low pole-mounted antenna.

Got any idea the lat/long of those pipes sticking up? Are they on the
chart?

Along with lurid accounts of absurdly heavy weather, it's hazards
like this that are enough to put me off sailing (before I've even
started). Can anyone offer a few crumbs of comfort on the prospects of
surviving such encounters?
--

Martin Smith, the New Conservative Party.

http://www.newconservativeparty.org

New Conservative wrote:

Along with lurid accounts of absurdly heavy weather, it's hazards
like this that are enough to put me off sailing (before I've even
started). Can anyone offer a few crumbs of comfort on the prospects of
surviving such encounters?

Yeah - this is a good lesson in "pick your weather". People on
delivery voyages seldom have that option. Pleasure sailing season in
the North Atlantic ISN'T in February IMO.

I bet the story wouldn't have been that exciting if they had gone in
May or June. In 3-1/2 years of sailing from Vancouver Canada, through
the Panama Canal and ending up in Annapolis MD, I can only recall 3
episodes of weather "bad enough" to remember (and nothing as bad as
the original poster). We got very good at watching the weather and
deciding for _ourselves_ when it was time to make a passage.

Evan Gatehouse