Well, at low tide....but once that tide comes up, it comes up fast!
I was impressed by the Cost Guard down in FL. They were always out there, no matter what conditions. We used them to relay messages a few times.
I worked in the Florida Keys area. In fact, all the work was in Florida Bay, which has an average depth of less than two feet and a water temperature that could top 100 degrees F (we measured 40 C on a couple occasions). Most of the bay didn't get anywhere near that warm, but it was pretty comfortable.
I had an engine fail during a storm one time. I promptly anchored up to keep the bow into the waves, but I felt that my 'unsinkable' self-bailing boat was, in fact, sinking. Therefore, I put on a life preserver and swam out along the anchor rope. The water at that point was about as deep as anywhere in the bay, at about 8', so I couldn't touch the bottom. However, using the life preserver to assist in buoyancy, I'd lift the anchor and move it about six feet towards the boat, then let the boat drift down until the anchor line came tight, then repeat. My goal was to drift the boat six feet at a time until I reached a shallow mud bank what was only one or two feet deep. That way, if the boat did sink, it wouldn't have far to go.
I did that for a couple hours. Whenever I got tired, I'd go hold onto the bow of the boat and stand on the anchor line. As waves lifted the bow, I would be lifted clear out of the water, then dropped back down. Eventually, the wind shifted, and my mile or so of drifting to shallow water became a good 10 miles, so I gave up.
The telling was a lot better than some of the hollywood movies, these days. Shame that he died at the end.
"Ok, my response to that is pending a Google search" - Bucky Katt. "There are two types of people in the world: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data sets." - Unk. "Before you can 'think outside the box' you need to understand where the box is."
Sounds like a good segue into 'The Day I should Have Died' stories....
"Ok, my response to that is pending a Google search" - Bucky Katt. "There are two types of people in the world: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data sets." - Unk. "Before you can 'think outside the box' you need to understand where the box is."
I was thinking that I should say that I died, so I'm amused that you jumped on it anyways.
Even at the time I was thinking, "this isn't really much of an issue." There were storm warnings posted and the wind was howling, but with a depth so shallow, the waves can't get all that high, and the water temperature was sufficiently comfortable that with a life preserver, I wasn't in any danger at any time. The only question was whether to stay with the boat, or swim to the bank (the mud bank). In those conditions, the greatest danger would have been being run down by another boat while swimming, which wasn't a great danger cause it wasn't a heavily traveled area. I remained with the boat because it hadn't sunk and had lots of equipment on it.
Another fun point was that this was pre-cell phone. I had a means to contact the office, though I forget what it was, at the moment. Unfortunately, the battery of the device lasted just long enough to get through and say that I was sinking...then it died. So, a couple different boats set out to rescue me. It took some time for them to launch, and everybody ended up showing up at the same time. The engine promptly started right up and I went home under my own power, feeling both embarrassed and annoyed. The engine would crank and nothing more when I tried it several times in the first hour.
Several months later, the problem was finally identified when the engine died on my boss when he was out on the reef. There was a crack that let water into the ignition system, but only in a driving rain, which was the condition I encountered. The rain stopped as I was swimming the boat, and the ignition system dried out enough that when the rescue party showed up, the engine fired right up.
My wife's Catholic and I'm Methodist, so she tells me some of the traditions that she follows. Here are a few that are specific to Fridays during Lent:
Don't eat meat
Don't dig a hole
Don't look in a mirror
Don't summon Ouija spirits
Ok, I think the last one pertains to all days regardless of if it's Lent.
I'm a lapsed Catholic. Stopped going to church and observing the sacraments when I was fifteen.
It wasn't until I was older that I realized the penance was forgoing eating meat not being forced to eat fish. :/
Never heard of digging holes or looking in mirrors. Doesn't sound very Catholic to me.
I once met a family that thought watching Harry Potter movies was a sin
Cause as everyone knows if the magic doesn't come from God it must be evil. Right?
Last edited by Gruff; Mar 25th, 2016 at 04:06 PM.
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me
Happy Good Friday everybody! I hope all y'all have a ton of crawfish to eat like I will later on today
Yeah, I need to go down and pull my crawfish trap out of the Cuyahoga.
"Bones heal. Chicks dig scars. Pain is temporary. Glory is forever." - Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel
“Leave me alone, I know what I’m doing.” - Kimi Raikkonen
That's how I feel, too. There's a place near here that puts on a crayfish-fest, but the crayfish come from the Snake River, which has loads of agricultural runoff (mostly dairy farms, but other things as well) in that stretch. Crayfish are pretty omnivorous, but it all comes from the bottom.
Body Language tells the truth! even from the grave tsaeb eht morf gninnur ,nwod deaH
All the big things started from little! teef my tsap evom sekans ,duol raor slluB Lietome.ir
We watched Bugs Bunny on Sunday mornings in grad school. The first gulf war interrupted Robin Hood Daffy, just as he had started trying to swing down to rob the friar: "Zoiks and awaaaay!!!"
Without a doubt the greatest Bugs Bunny cartoon ever... What's Opera, Doc?
"Bones heal. Chicks dig scars. Pain is temporary. Glory is forever." - Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel
“Leave me alone, I know what I’m doing.” - Kimi Raikkonen
Yeah, it was awesome, but got ZERO play time when I was in grad school. I have no idea why. There may be different licensing on that one, or something.
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Originally Posted by Gruff
