When "no rules fools" buy a boat!

[Bill]

From time to time we see people here who do not like to follow rules...

They don't want to get an electrical permit. They don't want to get a building permit. They don't want to be "told" how to do things, don't want to follow advice from anyone...

So what happens when someone like this buys a boat and goes out into the ocean?

I'm finding out! I found an older book at a used bookstore called "The Boat Who Wouldn't Float" by Mowat.

I've read about half the book. At this point they are out in the ocean at night, fog all around and can't see 10 ft., their compass does not work right because they never tested it before installing it, no radar, no 2-way radio, the batteries in their flashlight are run down and they don't have spare batteries, their engine won't start, the boat is leaking and they don't have adequate pumps to pump out the water, they did not start their journey with maps of the area, and the only reason they are going the direction they are going is another boat passed by, stopped, and told them which direction they should be going!

Somehow they lived through this to tell their story.

Anyway I now fully understand "the mystery" of the Bermuda Triangle". No mystery at all!

[norminn]

The old saying about a boat being a hole in the water into which one pours money has a great deal of truth to it. I live on the water, and have some very expensive boats parked nearby....some haven't been away from the dock for four or five years or more. Some go out only on holidays (a real adventure if you dislike drunk drivers). One couple owns a 40' sailboat, sailed for many years, keep it parked. When the mister goes fishing in small boat, he returns to the dock, dumps his trash and empty beer cans into the channel and goes on his merry way. I came close once to dumping him into the channel, but thought better of it.

There are a couple of long breakwaters near us that get in the way now and then..rough way to "end it all" - on the rocks with a boat and super-duper engine on top of ya'.

[HeyBub]

So, in spite of fog, no compass, radar, radios, or flashlight, and other maladies, and in spite of no inspections, permits, or expert advice, everything turned out well in the end.

Right?

[dpb]

HeyBub wrote: ...

...

Ol' Christopher, mayhaps??? :)

--

[Stormin Mormon]

I'm better prepared, than that!

[gfretwell]

That is more accurate that you would think. A lot of the people who get lost in that area think Bimini is only "this far on the map" and take off in a small boat without any real nav aids. Even if they have a good compass and use reasonable dead reckoning skills that 6 knot Gulf Stream makes them miss Bimini by about 20 miles. Next stop, Africa. Hope you brought plenty of water. Toss in very unpredictable weather and a glitch in the old LORAN system, you have the makings of a legend.

[Steve B]

Believe me, BTDT. Even if you are an experienced seaman, you can get into trouble real fast in any boat. In my life, I've spent about 1,500 days on vessels in the ocean.

Steve

[salty]

Except most of the disappearances that are written about involve large ships, aircraft, and even a group of aircraft.

[The Daring Dufas]

You should have picked up his trash and dumped it into his boat. Leave a note reading "You lost this stuff, I thought I'd return it." *snicker*

TDD

[Tony Sivori]

When I lived in Florida, I read a news item from the Coast Guard about ill prepared ocean going boaters. My favorite was the one where the boater had little of the required safety equipment. He was attempting to reach the Bahamas, and his nautical navigation charts were seafood restaurant place mats.

[norminn]

We have a friend who sailed from Belize to Florida gulf coast, stopped off in Mexico. Heading across from Mexico, came upon a diving buoy with no boat in sight. They stayed around a while, wondering WTF. Two divers surfaced. They had been close to midway across the gulf, and their charter had left them. Picked up the two divers and took them back to Mexico.

[Oren]

This guy loaded a live risdewinder missle on his boat (Florida).*

MADEIRA BEACH - Bomb squad technicians are working to destroy an air-to-air guided missile a commercial fisherman hooked in the Gulf of Mexico.

The fisherman brought the 8-foot live missile on shore at Madeira Beach Monday afternoon, where Pinellas County deputies and members of the MacDill Air Force Base bomb squad detonated and dismantled it, then took the pieces to the base.

Rodney Salomon said he found the missile around 10 days ago while long-line fishing about 50 miles off Panama City.

video:

[Ed Pawlowski]

I don't doubt your story, but that does not mean that everyone not getting a permit had done the job unsafely. Inspection assures it was to code, but no inspection does not mean it was not.

[Stormin Mormon]

Well, I'm glad to hear that at least one set of litter bugs got thier litter dumped back on them. I was raised not to litter.

[Stormin Mormon]

Did you tell him that any well equiped boat needs several decorative lead anvils? Darwin says tow the idiot, about half hour before sundown.

[Oren]

But you litter with Top Posts!

You get the last word.

[Stormin Mormon]

But you litter with Top Posts!

You get the last word. ----> Sorry!

[Oren]

" ----> Sorry!"

Is not a last word, if you alter what I said - wanting to tack it on like I said it.

Your option of bottom posting?

[aemeijers]

In cases like that, one almost thinks Darwin should be allowed to proceed unimpeded. But by the time someone can afford even a shallow-water ocean vessel, they usually have already reproduced.

-- aem sends...

[gfretwell]

We picked up a diver in the Contents (Fla Keys) who was about a mile and a half from his party anbd they were looking in the wrong direction. I am not sure where his body would have washed up if we didn't see him.