It’s Halloween, time for horror stories, but not only that. After this rainy October, we miss summer and boating. In the editorial office, we compared ourselves and collected ten classic “terror” moments of those who sail. Between the serious and the facetious, we came up with these. How about you? Write it in the comments.
The 10 fears of boaters
- Running out of gas
The most classic, practically taken for granted, is nonetheless among the Coast Guard’s top causes of intervention at sea. If conditions are calm, what is likely to be seriously scary is the bill ashore. - Stolen outboard
The surprise you never want to have, but every now and then, unfortunately, it happens. We talked about it back in September in this article with some simple tips to avoid it. - Stained teak
When you’ve just finished refurbishing the deck and you invite your friends aboard and there’s always the one who comes up with mountaineering shoes or the one who spills wine and oil directly on the teak. The look as soon as you notice it we know it well-horror! - Water in the tank
Among the undoubted advantages of electric we can count this: you will never find yourself with dirty gasoline, tanks to clean out and filters to empty. - Water on board
Perhaps one of the most serious moments of the entire review. When during a transfer you get off and see objects floating, it is important to keep calm, but the moment is definitely “horror.” - Running out of cold drinks (read beers) in the summer sun
Nothing irreparable, but imagine yourself, or rather, remember, lounging on the sundeck enjoying the last rays of the day. At this point, a tingling sensation in your throat reminds you that you are quite thirsty. You open the refrigerator (or fridges) on board and there is nothing left, just a half of room-temperature natural water, freshly placed by someone on board with you. This is where you can panic! - Still stranded (or unfixed)
It’s time to go home. Are we ready to go? Indeed! You start the engine, go a few feet forward and start to recover, but poof. The anchor doesn’t rise. After half an hour you ask if anyone still feels like swimming. Similar fear? Dropping an anchor by hand and seeing it run to the bottom carrying the line you forgot to secure. - Batteries on the ground
Whether it’s on the way out or while you’re at the roadstead, if there is a “horror” moment, it’s when you try to start the engine and there are no signs of life. - Don’t notice a shoal
Attention can never be too much on a boat, especially with the technology that makes it easy (sometimes too easy) for us to sail quietly today. Because the noise that fiberglass and rocks make is really scary. - Who watches you moor
Now we come to the queen of all fears at sea. It’s not the mooring, let’s dispel that myth. The problem is the man on the dock. The one who saw you splashing back and forth as you tried to tame the crazy throttle. The one who didn’t miss a moment of your mooring but didn’t bother to hand you the line. The one who watched you shake your head as you descended after managing, with difficulty, to wedge your 8-meter boat into a place where a jet ski would barely fit. He is the scariest person of all.
You may be interested in:
Come comprare la barca spendendo il meno possibile (anche di manutenzione)
