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Random Quote: Only two times I'll fish, if I'm alone or with somebody.....
This past sunday I was coming down the ICW near Wrightsville beach minding my own business, avoiding the gofast cat doing 75 mph, the jetskis, the snowbirds in their big yachts and to my starboard I see a man with a women and 4 kids franticly waving me down. Now its late, I'm tired and I have a ways to go but with the four kids I stop, hail to the guy and he asks me if I have any 2 stroke oil! Now with the twin fourstrokes on my stern I don't make a habit of carring 2 stroke oil anymore. He asks me what he should do and my wife tells him call SeaTow, then he asks for their number. The next question he asks is what will they charge me if I don't subscribe to SeaTow, Now here is 2 adults, 4 kids, a boat and no planning. How can you get into a boat without checking your oil reserve, and then not having any spare oil. Dumb at best. I tell him to get aboard and we turn around, go the nearest Marinia which is about 4 miles north in the opposite direction, dock, get a gal. of oil, go back and fill the reserve up, get his motor started and get him underway. He hands me 10 bucks which I tell him to keep and buy himself a supply of oil for the next trip and get a subscription to SeaTow. My wife being the smartass that she is says don't you feel good about youself now! How dumb can some people be!
Bunkie...wife doesn't sound like smarta$$ to me...you oughtta feel good about yourself...you did a good thing, especially for those kids...bottom line is, we ALL need a little help from time to time and it was your turn to step up...YES it was dumb or INexperience for that guy to get himself and passengers into that position, but hopefully the guy LEARNED from that experience and those kids will always remember the guy who helped them out of a tough spot...
I guess you can look at this two ways...if he was not in danger, meaning he was not drifting out to sea or putting himslef or anybody else inharm's way, I might have just givien him sea-tow's number and let him feel what a 400 dollar mistake feels like. However, if the kids like they were in danger of sunstroke or what ever, it mght have been a different story. (or you did'nt feel like seatow was avial)
Sometime's it takes a bit of "tough love" to make people learn, 50-50 chace he'll go out agin unprepared as"someone will come along" and help him out...
the other thing is I'm not so sure in this day and age I wold let any stranger get on my boat with litigation the way it is today...
Location: Quebec, Canada and Pirates Cove, OBX, NC
Posts: 17,813
Re: How dumb can some people be!
Congrats on doing the good thing . . . it is just too bad that the desire and access to litigation is resulting in so much concern about helping out someone else . . . too many bad precidents
PS You wife was not a smart a$$ at all, I think she gave you a compliment
You did the right thing, and at least the guy offered you something
for your trouble. How many times have people gone out of their way
and not even received a "Thank You".
__________________ Never Underestimate The Power Of A Large Group Of Stupid People
99.999% of the people in this country would not sue someone unless
they had a very good reason to do so, but instant and universal news,
and right-wing politicians with their own warped agendas, make it look
like all of us are running tothe local lawyer or courthouse every chance
we get ("but *I* would neve do that myself, it's everyone else who is
greedy...")
You did the right thing, and at least the guy offered you something
for your trouble. How many times have people gone out of their way
and not even received a "Thank You".
I agree but it's still a shame the way people head out on the water with little or no planning. Just a few days ago I watched a guy launch his boat at the ramp. He commented to me that he had been working on the engine and needed to test it. He proceeded to launch and untie his boat from the dock and then try to start the engine. It wouldn't start and he drifted into the adjacent dock where another boater had to grab is boat and hold it to the dock. And he only had one dock line and it was about six feet long.
He finally got the engine started and went on his way. I hope he made it back.
Hey I've gotten stuck probably 3 times in 35 years on the water and each time it was for a stupid reason. Sometimes we all make mistakes but guys like you are to be congratulated for helping out. I would have and have done the same many times. I was taught that from that as a youngster. Good job!
Here's a Darwin candidate for you.....
This happened a few years ago so the details are a little fuzzy but the story is true.
Out late one afternoon fishing the Little River jetties on a glass day. In the 17 McKee you see in my sig. Slack high tide when I decide to leave so I figure rather than waiting for the Sunset Beach Bridge (I was going East to Ocean Isle) I would run around the outside and come in Tubbs inlet so I could avoid having to wait for the SSB bridge to open on the hour. As I come in the inlet, there is a guy in a 12 or 14 foot aluminum boat (not a flat bottom jon boat but the shiny silver kind with a sharp entry and a slight v bottom) with a 15 or so hp motor that is waving his arms frantically like some one has drowned so I head over to help. As I approach him he yells that he thinks he has spun a prop and can't get his boat to go anyhwere. By this time the tide has started to fall pretty hard so I begin to get into position to throw him a line when he decides to jump in the water to check his prop-guess he didn't know how to tilt the motor up-and yells that the prop seems to be fine. After struggilng hard to get back in the boat he cranks the motor to try one more time and to me it appears that the motor is fine. He had put it in gear and it was obviously struggling against something. He shuts the motor down and gives me this "why me" look and yells to throw over the rope. I can't help but break into a smile and then laugh as I suggest that he pull up his anchor and try again. By the time he realizes what is going on he looks down and pulls the anchor, starts the motor and races off, obviously pissed off at me for laughing so hard.
Some people should stick to farm ponds and bank fishing.
__________________ Mac Solo
1985 25' Parker Sou'Wester---2005 F250 Yamaha
Congratulations on your efforts and success, could have been a pretty sad story in the morning paper.
Sounds like the guy that I was listening to on CH 16 two weeks ago. First this guy ask the CG where he was and the CG give him the Lot/lan numbers. He then ask the CG to plot him a heading approach for the New River Inlet. While he is talking to the CG he is also trying to raise other Capt.'s in the area. After about 15 minutes of this, he calls the CG in a panic state and ask again for an heading for New River Inlet. The CG ask was his navagational equipment in working order and he said that his compass was working OK when he left the New River Inlet. Guess this was OK, the only problem was he was 2 miles South of the Maronboro Sea bouy. People on board = Dummy driver (Capt.), wife & THREE children!
What could possibly happen, "I have plenty of gas and it's a brand new boat, let's see what have I forgotten"...... OH YES, MY BRAIN!!
Did he have a Yamaha with the reserve toggle switch to fill the on-engine tank? Or was it a model that just cut the rpm back because the low oil level alarm came on? Either way he should have been able to make 4 miles.
Not to de-rail the thread..but this brings up something that just happened to me...I always carried 2 gal of "reserve" oil..in a dry storage compartment..even tho I always checked my tanks regularly..just in case.....while doing some cleaning the other day I opened the compartment and one of the Pennzoil semi-syn containers was "imploded" like all the air was sucked out....we had a very hot summer...so I wonder was this from constant expanding with heat and cooling at night..anyway the container had a crack in one of the creases caused by this imploding??? leaked 1/2 gal into compartment..what a mess to clean up....so now I'll have to check this reserve supply more often or find a new storage place??? heads up to anyone else storing "spare" oil in hot climates
Congratulations on your efforts and success, could have been a pretty sad story in the morning paper.
Sounds like the guy that I was listening to on CH 16 two weeks ago. First this guy ask the CG where he was and the CG give him the Lot/lan numbers. He then ask the CG to plot him a heading approach for the New River Inlet. While he is talking to the CG he is also trying to raise other Capt.'s in the area. After about 15 minutes of this, he calls the CG in a panic state and ask again for an heading for New River Inlet. The CG ask was his navagational equipment in working order and he said that his compass was working OK when he left the New River Inlet. Guess this was OK, the only problem was he was 2 miles South of the Maronboro Sea bouy. People on board = Dummy driver (Capt.), wife & THREE children!
What could possibly happen, "I have plenty of gas and it's a brand new boat, let's see what have I forgotten"...... OH YES, MY BRAIN!!
I heard the same thing.
..........farm ponds and riverbanks
__________________ Mac Solo
1985 25' Parker Sou'Wester---2005 F250 Yamaha
...if he was not in danger, meaning he was not drifting out to sea or putting himslef or anybody else inharm's way, I might have just givien him sea-tow's number and let him feel what a 400 dollar mistake feels like.
My first thought would be to get the kids out of there. As adults we can appreciate a situation as uncomfortable but safe/survivable. Not so with children, especially in a situation that mom & dad cannot control. Even young children can recognize that. The younger the kids are, the more likely they may perceive themselves in a life threatening situation. The kids could be scared crapless even tho they may not say so or otherwise indicate it. And it’s not just the kids, either (both?) parents may have been suppressing a tremendous amount of anxiety over the situation as well. In this type of a situation the proper place for an 'education' is in a classroom.
99.999% of the people in this country would not sue someone unless
they had a very good reason to do so, but instant and universal news,
and right-wing politicians with their own warped agendas, make it look
like all of us are running tothe local lawyer or courthouse every chance
we get ("but *I* would neve do that myself, it's everyone else who is
greedy...")
I wish I could believe that, but I am a lawyer and I get people coming to me all the time who have made a mistake and want someone else to pay for it. Moreover, these are often intelligent, educated people in responsible positions. Luckily, I don't do that sort of law, but there are those who do -- lots of them. Fact is, there are too many lawyers in this country (about 1 for every 300 people if I recall correctly). There isn't enough work to go around, so they take thinner and thinner cases. It's sort of like fishing (to eat). When there aren't enough game fish and other good eating fish to go around, people start catching and eating menhaden...
How dumb can some people be! 
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