SHARE YOUR "CHINESE FIRE DRILL" EXPERIENCES

[DOUBLE R]

Tell us about growing up on boats and some of your emergency or Chinese fire drill experiences.

One of mine was on the fly bridge one night when I was fourteen and Dod (dear old dad) told me to navigate across the bay, while mom, he and his friends partied and played cards (i think) down below. About half way across the bay, I was distracted by the stars or something (perhaps my repeated journeys over the side rail to the front deck where the beer cooler was!!), and suddenly the 46' Chris Craft Aquahome (houseboat) came to a shuddering stop. I can only imagine how many below were thrown to the deck, but my dad's temper as he stomped up to the bridge gave me a hint. Fortunately she had a deep keel that completely protected her in a grounding (plus there is only sand in NW Florida) so my punishment was to get off the bridge while he piloted us home. I retreated to the covered front deck and the beer cooler!!!

[jddens]

my third boat was a 17' tri-hull with a merc 470 I/O. I bought it cheap with the outdrive not working. After disassembly and repair I was out for the first time on a test run. I was running pretty much flat out (about 45mph) when I can to a fairly abrupt stop......I had run up on a mud flat. I todk the paddle and stuck it in the water to find it was about 12" deep. I was able to raise the drive, climb out and and rock it off......did it again in about 30 minutes......needless to say, I have never been out since in any boat without a depth finder/bottom alarm..........also lost my dads 6hp outboard off the back of an 8' hydroplane.......bad enough but what made it worse was I wasn't supposed to be using it...........John

[The Dog House]

My first boat was a 15' Sunbird bowrider with a 48 hp outboard. I was out cruising with some friends and when I looked back to talk to them I noticed the outboard was starting to tilt up. Since the outboard did not have power tilt and trim, I knew something wasn't right. I brought the throttle to neutral and we came to a stop. The keel drew 2' and the outboard was another 1' below the keel. We were in 2 1/2' of water and the tide was falling. I quickly got out my boat hooks and we started pushing the boat back toward deep water. We made it out before the tide fell, but the adrenaline was definitely pumping. If I didn't have an outboard I probably would have run right up onto the sand bar before I noticed. I'm much more cautious where I take my Trojan F26.

[georgepet]

Hmmmm....in around 1988, on a 52' Ketch, under sail, heading from USNA Annapolis to Norfolk. Got caught in a squall in the south end of the Chesapeake, foggy, too much canvas up, heeled over, wind howling, little play on the helm.....surely traffic out there too in a sudden fog and kinda spent what seemed to be an interminable amount of time, taking down sail, sorting ourselves out and reducing the heart palpatations. Arrived at the base at Norfolk at around 1 am and then proceeded to empty the boat of every drop of liquid that had alcohol in it. I guess the shore patrol was amused as they parked a car at the end to watch over us. The next morning was hot, humid - our heads were pounding - compounding the hangover for certain - wasn't fun working on the boat that day. The SP told us later we were pretty funny that night....didn't feel that way at the time, but its a fond memory now

G

[Landlocked]

It was the late 70's. The bad guys were known to take over a boat, kill the crew and use the boat to deliver drugs. We were going around Hole in the Wall (south end of Abaco Bahamas) in my Father's 54' Bertram. We noticed a boat way out on the horizon toward Africa that was coming our way at a high rate of speed. Dad told me he didn't like the looks of it and instructed me to go below to get the bolt action 30 cal rifle.

I checked out the oncoming craft with binoculars and told him I didn't think our rifle would be very effective against their deck mounted machine gun. It was the US Coast Guard out looking for dopers. It didn't take very much radio traffic for them to figure out we were loaded to the gills with inlaws, and kids and grandkids and they let us continue on. Had the adrenaline pumping for a little while though.