What is the dumbest thing you have ever done on a boat

[TheChumStain]

I have a little ritual that lead to mine I donate a piece or two of clothing on every trip and when the day looks bleak I usually throw my undies over cauz mine ain't goin in the rigger for the skunk The dumbest was a donation of a pair of sneakers which is a usual donation throughout the season cauz dey stink. Well one day offshore I let them fly and when we were steamin thru the rocks on the way home I went to use my phone but guess where it was if that wasn't bad enough my truck keys were in them also

[Younger]

Hey John

Heard about that accident in Bristol....where you there??

[TheChumStain]

Hey John

Heard about that accident in Bristol....where you there??

No the overnight crew was

[WAHOONBOX]

HAD A CHARTER A COUPLE YEARS BACK ON THE OLD "RUN-OFF"............WE WERE ABOUT 8 MILES OUT IN FAIRLY ROUGH CONDITIONS.......

WHEN ONE OF THE PARTY GRABBED ME AND SAID "DON'T YOU HEAR THAT ALARM GOING OFF"?

AT THAT MOMENT I SAID "NO"..... THEN I HEARD IT......SHIT! WHERE WAS IT COMING FROM?.....WITH THE DIESEL NOISE AND WAVES POUNDERING, IT WAS NOT CLEAR....BUT I COULD HEAR THE "ALARM' GOING OFF IN NON CONSTANT INTERVALS

I LOOKED IN EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY TO TRY TO PINPOINT THE ALARM SOUND AND THEN CONCEEDED IT WAS COMING FROM THE INSIDE CABIN CONSOLE AREA...........AT THIS POINT I KNEW I SHOULD SAY SOMETHING TO BRIAN UP TOP.......SO I DARTED OUT IN WET CONDITIONS TO INFORM HIM......HE PULLED HERE BACK TO IDLE AND CAME DOWN AND TOGETHER WE SEARCHED.....IT WENT OFF AGAIN AND TO MY EMBARRASSMENT IT WAS MY NEW CELL PHONE RINGING STILL IN RANGE OF THE TOWER...........BOY ....THAT WAS THE LOOK FROM HELL I TELL YOU.........

[Glenn W]

During an exceptionally long cold spell in Va. all the rivers, lakes and ponds were froze hard and solid--- except the far end of a nearby lake that had a hot water discharge from a power plant. Every duck this side of Mattamusskeet was sitting or flying into this five acres of open water--- thousands and thousands of birds. The birds hadn't been shot at in 2 weeks due to the iced in conditions.
Well the ADHD was setting in bad for ole shitforbrains, and I came up with an idea that would lead to the greatest duck slaughter since the market gunning days. I had some Kevlar cloth strips used to reinforce the keels of canoes and kayaks laying around so I got the idea of reinforcing the keel of the 14' duck boat, borrow a buddy's 35hp outboard and break 3" of ice all the way to open water--- and the duck hunt of a life time would soon be realized. I had to be at work by 9:00 the next day but this hunt will only take a few minutes to get our limit, so I should have pleanty of time to get home shower and get to work-- We had the plan.
We get to the boat ramp real early ( about 5:30 am) knowing it may take a little while to break ice all the way to open water. It was colder than the ex wife after me coming home from a poker game with the boys, and not a breath of wind that morning. We back the rig down the ramp and the boat and trailer just rides over the ice. Put my fat ass buddy and the dog in the boat and try again--- still can's break through to the water. Hum?, what we have here is simply a small matter of physics-- all we got to do is break through the ice enough to get the boat and motor in the water and that 35hp eggbeaker will make shaved ice faster than a blender. Well surely, the weight of the truck will break the Ice-- Ok, that worked but the boat and trailer are still high and try sitting on top the ice. I can see a hint of pink to the east by now, so we got to get this show on the road soon. I ram the back of the truck into the Ice and make a little more progress backward. Finally get the boat floating ( the rear bumper of the truck is now bent and pushed under the bed of the truck). Get in the boat and start breaking Ice-- 3 feet at a time. Back up in the broken up water and full speed ahead to ram the ice again. By 7:15 we've made it 500 yards to the middle of the lake-- and only a hundred more to go to open water. Then, the hub can't take it no more and spins on the prop. Ducks are now flying like I have never seen and tell my hunting buddy we have a serious problem here. " Screw it, put out 3 or 4 deeks behind the boat and load em up-- birds are everywhere", he says. It takes all of 5 minutes to get our limit of birds and it is now about 7:30 am. We grab the paddles and start paddling backwards in our path of broken Ice. By 8:00 the path is frozen back-in solid. By noon, we made it another 100 yard by breaking ice and were exhausted. By 4:00 pm, we only had 100' feet to go to the peer but the ice was just too thick to break any more. Since I weighed much less than my buddy I ventured out on the ice made it to the truck and ran home to round up every piece of rope, chain, etc, I could find. 7:00 pm now-- tie the ropes to what's left of the back end of the truck and walk out on the ice and hook to the stern of the boat. buddy and pooch sit on the bow and the rig slipped right up on the ice and the truck pulled it to the peer. No chance of getting the rig on the trailer so leave it sitting on the ice next to the peer and head home. Our morning hunt ended at 10:30 pm that night-- Nothing like those quickie duck hunts before going to work in the morning.

[BrothaBob]

Heading out to the reef one day in 1-3's (which were more 3-5's with more than a couple of 7's thrown in the mix.)

Apparently, I didn't tie the anchor up as good as i had thought, we finally got moving a bit when my buddy yells that the anchor fell in. Popped it in neutral and turned off the motor ASAP.

My initial fear was that the line would get caught in the prop......I can say, I wish that was all that had happened....we were able to pull up the anchor with ease so as my buddy yelled out he could see the anchor, I started the motor again and everything seemed fine.......popped it in gear and the boat must have been chilly caused it just started shivering all over the place.......upon further inspection of the anchor, or should I say, heavy paper clip.....I realized that the anchor itself had hit the motor. Peeled up the prop like a head of cabbage......God bless Sea Tow....only 8 miles out at the time.....the funny thing is, Sea Tow asked me to toss out the anchor and I thought, that is what caused this mess in the first place!!!!

I now have a $.99 clip hold the anchor in addition to tying it up......I check it every time we go out now.

[AhiSlayer]

A guy ben talkin 'bout fishin every time he see me at da bar. I sees 'im tonight and he talks story from his trip yesterday

They ran through pass and head straight fo' ahi spot. they get there ten minutes lattter and everything tangle

after ten minutes they manage one handline, and make a pass,,,Hanapa'a they got one ahi! on da handline

Them three guys all grab da line and start pulling and the driver tells me they all three fell in. ARGH//Splash, Splash,Splash, He circles around and picks them up and they pull da line and that ahi still there butt only fo' minute. Leader breaks and they lost one good ahi lure and one good ahi

Then they untangle them poles and start fishing with 9/0s. Well it took about an hour fo tuna to come back after the scare they gave um but they managed to spool one pole and catch a big shark on the other,,,while they messin with shark the fuel line gets knocked off and they drift till they figure out why the moter won' t run. they start um up and spin line around the prop....later they fiend the pile again and run it but another boat is working that pile. They waving to the other boat smiling and hoolering when the other boats pole goes off

it was no fish, they managed to catch the lure in front of their moter after a minute or two it was around their prop. So tommarow I get to take the captain out so he can learn how we do it. This oughta be fun
aloha!
ahi ps the ti leaves are allready ta go!

[Deep C]

Wow! What a loaded topic! So many things to choose from... Throwing ones self overboard with the cast net would be notable. As would arcing the wrench between two terminals on an 8D battery or even putting jumper cables on backwards... Hanging on a pushpole as the boat went away with my passengers when it got stuck in the mud on a Key Largo bonefish flat might come to mind. Possibly one of the several times I let the tide strand me on other bonefish flats could play... Still I had to dig deep to find THE one...

Many moons ago I was working as mate on an old Cris Craft. I stored my chamois mops in a hanging cupboard in one of the state rooms. The opening to the closet was a 2feet by 3 feet rectangle above a bunk but its depth went to the deck below. The door had a complex spring loaded latch to keep it from accidentally opening under way. One day I dropped the top off the mop and deccided to go in after it. I couldn't reach it leaning from the front so I decided to get in the closet and squat to pick it up. The fit was tight and balance was tricky. I used my free hand to grab the little hole they had put in the Mahogany door as a vent.

Well when I squated down. I closed the door behind me ... I spent several glorius hours entombed in the tiny hole... Finally the Captain found me. After pissinghimself laughing he let me out... So yeah that was probably my dumbest maneuver...

[Big Jay]

Fishing:

Sawed the tip of my finger off and sent it over board with some butterfish chunks.

Changed and alternator without turning off the battery banks...lotsa sparks and smoke.

Not too bad as far as fishing goes....

Scuba Diving: Now this is where it gets good.

Pulled up in 5 ft. seas on a wreck in 70 ft. of water. First time diving off our boat. After two tries we finally hooked the wreck. I went down to see if we were hookd good. Came back up. My brother and buddy were still getting suited up. Puking all off the side of the boat. I was bobbing up and down in 5 ft. seas in a pool of puke.

Then they finally make it in. We head down. I screwed up prepping the anchor for lift off with a lift bag. Ended up slamming into the wreck being dragged by the anchor. Not fun, almost lost the anchor rope which would have been disasterous. Get back to the surface, as we are freeing the anchor i got my finger sucked up in the windlass which broke it real nice and clean.

Lot of bad decisions that day.

[Squidnation]

Glenn - that one may be hard to beat. I almost pissed myself invisioning you guys in the middle of the lake.

Anyway I have a few that run close. One that particularly comes to mind as dumb is when i was invited on an overnighter on a buddies 28 betram. He had never done it so asked if I had lights. I had some old truck lights that we duck taped to a mop handle and just directly connected to the battery. Well we set it up and I had a bunch of electric wire just dangling so me being the mechanical version of Barnie Fife just wrap it around a tube that i saw in the engine hatch. Now we are in the washington canyon mind you. We connect the terminals and proceed to watch the trail of sparks all the way to the lights where the grand finally is two big POPS!!. Luckliy all we lost were our lights but we later realized that I had wrapped the electrical connection wires around the main fuel line.

My brother Bob steals the cake for ultimate dumb move on one of our boats. On an absolutely beautiful day on the chesapeake with friends and girlfirends I boneheadly mistook my brother leaning his ass up to a rod in the holder as a strike. I rush to the rod and my brother facing me takes the defensive positon to protect himself from me pushing him over. He didn't realize I thought we had a strike. He went to swing at me and I knocked his eyeglasses over the side of the boat. now he is the most stubborn person I know and refused to let me drive the boat back eventhough he couldn't see. Well the sun was setting on the horizon and the bay was FLAT ASS CALM. We all head a beer in one hand and a girl under our arm. It was a perfect evening. As we crossed the bay at 30 knots. I told Bob their was a family of ducks just off our bow. Bob slowed down and told all the girls to watch the front of the boat. He wants to show the girls the ducks flying low and away from our boat. He sped up and the next thing you hear is a grinding sound - Kinda like when Dan Akaroyd but the Bass in the blender. I look behind us and the Bay is as red as an Asain dolphin slaughter. The girls start whaling in tears becuase my brother just made duck pate' out of the cutiest family of ducks you'd have ever seen. When we got back to the ramp the girls were distraught over the massacra. Imagine their horror when we pulled the boat and still had to pull feathers off the water intake on the outdrive.