10 Sailing Cock-Ups to Avoid! | 💥🤕🤭 Casting Off with Followtheboat 027

[@heathersweeney7130]

This video deserves a million likes! Thank you ALL for sharing these valuable lessons learned the hard way with heaps of humor and vulnerability! Cheers!

[@followtheboat]

Wow, thanks! I'm so glad you liked it. 🙏 Liz

[@dutchglobetrotter4513]

Ohh the kill cord one, several years ago I was crewing on a boat from friends of mine. I tried to start the outboard for a long time than the little 8 y/o girl said to me. "I know what the problem is" so I said what is the problem. Answer, "I'm not gonna tell you, you are the adult figure it out". I love boat kids.

[@followtheboat]

That's fantastic, children are sent to entertain and torture us. Haha! Liz

[@Sommers234]

​@@followtheboat❤😮🎉

[@joannedevine2473]

Oh that nipple incident, I was holding my breath! Ouch!

[@followtheboat]

I ran to help when he started screaming, but he wouldn't let me near him! Every time I picture him it makes me queasy (but I still laugh)! Liz

[@prestonsjourney]

I do enjoy the two of you and your easy vibe. I wish you both nothing but the best and continued good health! Thanks for your contributions to the world and our entertainment.

[@followtheboat]

How very lovely of you. Best to you. 👌♥️ Liz

[@HJ-jg4ql]

Enjoyable conversation.

[@joannedevine2473]

I Love the graphic art!❤

[@followtheboat]

Liz will be very pleased with this feedback, Joanne 😃👍

[@followtheboat]

Thanks, I really appreciate the feedback 🙏 It's our new podcast cover. But I've since changed the thumbnail to something that represents the content. Liz

[@wendykilgariff1467]

I totally relate to wanting to put the sails away when I see a squall coming sooner rather than when the Cpt wants to 😂

[@followtheboat]

😃😄👌 Liz

[@24hourtravellers]

Fuel is one we hate too. Previous owner modified fuel filling method and we now do it directly to the tank which means standing above the engine and using a Jerry can to fill. Because we have no way of gauging how much fuel is inside the tank and how much we need to pour, it's always a hit and miss. That means an overflow of diesel and we thought it was just us being stupid but apparently we're not the only ones suffering. Still a big wonder as to when to stop pouring so everytime we fill it's prepare for clean up. 😂 Sux

[@followtheboat]

I've literally just finished decanting 60ltrs from jerry cans into our tanks and I'm reeking of diesel, so I sympathise!

[@24hourtravellers]

@@followtheboat 😂😂😂 good work out 👏👏👏👏👏

[@captnb8036]

Excellent

[@followtheboat]

😃👍

[@nooneanybodyknows7912]

That was quite an interesting conglomeration of cock-ups. Every profession has their failures. Sailing is no different. We call them tailgate discussions. They escalate to the roundtable if they are bad enough, followed by termination. Thanks for sharing.

[@followtheboat]

Oh yes, those round table (or 'table of bollocks' in our parlance) discussions can lead to termination. Been there! Haha! Liz

[@nobody46820]

Good times, good times. 😃👍👏👏👏🐻

[@followtheboat]

Always in the re-telling, not necessarily in the moment. Haha! Liz

[@davidlawrence8800]

With sloops, the rule is, if you think it might be time to reef, it is. I have a cat ketch, and with cat boats, the rule is, if you think it might be time to reef, you should have done it a half hour earlier. It seems I have to relearn that rule at least once every year, usually when blue water is pouring into the cockpit, and everything in the galley has landed on the floor. That's when it dawns on me .

[@followtheboat]

Ooops! 😃👌🙏 Liz

[@24hourtravellers]

We've been rowing our dinghy mostly so recently we decided it's time to use our little 2hp outboard which has a series of steps to start it. 1) open the knob for air. 2) lever for fuel 3) cold start choke 4) lever up for power 5) kill chord attached You can imagine we are ALWAYS forgetting one of the above steps 😂😂😂 ridiculous

[@followtheboat]

Ah, that reminds me of our Yamaha Malta, which we keep for emergencies.

[@nautichunt84]

For the record, I know it was my fault, the captain is always to blame. Glad I gave you a laugh

[@followtheboat]

Always, and the clue's in your handle here on YT... Haha! Liz

[@dianalind3100]

Yes on forgetting the kill chord.

[@TT-tn1dp]

Be great to see plotters upgraded to alarm/warn you if on course with reef even if you are zoomed out and cannot see on screen.

[@followtheboat]

Not sure I'd agree with that, it would make people even more lazy and dependent on gizmos, rather than using eyeballs and being diligent... We should be zooming in and out everywhere we go, shouldn't we? Cheers! Liz

[@followtheboat]

Jamie here, I agree with both of you! It would be great to see these kind of automations. I often wondered why you couldn't set the autopilot to automatically change course when you reached a waypoint, for example, but Liz is correct. Allowing this would make us more lazy and less diligent. You can of course set an alarm for shallow water.

[@24hourtravellers]

There's one I wanna add but it's not a mistake yet coz we haven't tried it. We have resorted to using a camping stove (coz we don't often cook) and the reason is coz we've run our gas tanks dry. They are the aluminium horizontal laying type and in order to use them again we need to decanter from the local tanks. Previous owners used to do it regularly at anchor and we haven't quite got round to trying it. Doing means purchasing a local tank, finding a place to hang it upside down to decanter. How do you refill your cooking gas in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia?

[@followtheboat]

We did away with gas years ago 😉

[@24hourtravellers]

@@followtheboat solar!!

[@followtheboat]

Everything went electric after we changed to lithium. We have an induction hob, bread-maker, rice-maker but no oven. I hate gas on boats and carrying those bloody bottles! Liz

[@Sailaboat]

Kill cords.. I remember coming back to our dinghy and finding that it was 1/3 full of rain water.. I started bailing the water out with a bowl only to realise that at some point I had scooped up the cord and had thrown it out of the dinghy...🤣

[@followtheboat]

😅😅 I've not had to do it but I imagine steering the outboard with one hand while holding the pin out with the other is a bit of a challenge.

[@Sailaboat]

@@followtheboatNah. You can quickly fashion a temp replacement if you use the opening clip from the top of a beer can..

[@georgeanglin4038]

We all make mistakes. Love the candor.

[@followtheboat]

It's good for the soul to own up. 😄 Liz

[@Sailaboat]

I also may have had something to do with the large white gelocoat mark on the fuel dock at YH. Now I only motor as fast as I want to run into something.

[@followtheboat]

Haha! Love it! I guess marina staff have seen it all before though. You're in good company.

[@haydenwatson7987]

I can honestly say I have never forgotten to open the engine seacock and probably never will. (Knock wood). I close the seacock every time I leave the boat and hang the engine key chain from the handle.

[@millzee60]

Snowball hitch. Tied the dinghy to a rail with a bowline, gave it a tug and it came away with no resistance. Having a fellow yachty return my dinghy on another occasion. And best of all, throwing the stern anchor out the back of the dinghy only to have the line come straight off. Snowball hitches, I am a master.

[@followtheboat]

Never heard that term before, love it! I've certainly tied a few of those in the past... 🪢Liz

[@garethellis5433]

ANCHORING- On a flotilla holiday in the Peleponese we had a "free day" we anchored up in a bay ovrrnight. I got up before the troops to find we were slowly drifting back onto a posh german yacht.. No problem , reabchor but oops dead battery and so no windlass no engine. Woke the family up to manually raise the anchor. Wihilst organising noticed dinghy not on back,nit was beautifuly parked on the beach young daughter hadnt tied boat to cleat. Job one, send son over side to swim for tender still drifting backwards slowly. Tender retrieved, job 2 manually retrieve anchor with several boats looking on. We un furled jib in light winds and ghosted racing dinghy style around the back of a boat infront of us close enough to shakehands with its worried looking skipper. We Met with flotilla lead crew in mid chanel and the engineer was dropped off in their tender on a dock line with battery to jump start us. No harm done but much embarassment when we met up with the flotilla that evening!!

[@followtheboat]

Oh my word, a plethora of cock-ups! Fantastic story, I wish we'd had it ready for the podcast. Congratulations for having the chutzpah to tell it. Liz x

[@danielwardin3609]

Good talk, guys. In my endless search for esoterica I'd like to know -- mentioned twice here -- what specifically is a _Meltemmey_ other than a strong wind on Turkish waters? Perhaps another name for the 'Levante' or the Mistral. RSVP. Thanks oodles. Until soon.

[@followtheboat]

The Meltemi is the Turkish name of the wind that blows from the north across the Aegean during the summer months. There are lots of winds in the Med, Mistral being one as well as the Sirocco. Cheers! Liz

[@jonathanwetherell3609]

And the moral of the story, Be alert, Lerts live longer! ( the old ones are the best).

[@followtheboat]

Be alert. Britain needs lerts.

[@williambunting803]

Water in the ports destroying boating docs, could you please do a talk on boating documents, what you need to have, what can go wrong, what do you do when your docs get damaged, etc. This comes to mind because my then wife gettin of the boat in France heading to catch a plane back to Australia, dropped her backpack down on the finger pier where it landed on its bottom sitting up right. There were 2 further possible moves the bag could make, to roll on its back, or to roll into the water ….so naturally into the water. The problem was that she had all of the boat docs in her bag. On fails, one of mine was coming off the slip with a clean skin motoring smoothly down a long bay and the boat traveling surgically straight, “a cup of tea would be nice”. When you go below you kind of lose track of how long you are there, so when I came up the boat had turned through 90 degrees and was just meters from slamming squarely into the side of a ship. Gearbox wrenched in to reverse and engine to full power, which on a Lister Diesel seems to take forever, and run to the bow to attempt to fend off. That is when a clean prop really makes a difference, so disaster averted by inches. But the decision to clean the hull was the outcome from a previous disaster which I’ll save for a warm day and a beer. If any land lubber laughs at the kill switch adventures, ask them if they have ever forgotten to put their automatic into Park before starting the engine?

[@followtheboat]

I'm intrigued, William. You narrowly avoid a disaster having just fixed up a previous one. Do tell!

[@finnerutavdet]

My former VP folding prop had a rubber part between the innermost (splined) and the outer "cone". Probably designed like that to dampen any shocks from the propeller blades hitting anything, and thereby preventing the gears in the sail drive from becoming damaged. ..... I was silly and managed to get my dingy rope in the prop. Free dived several times to cut away 80% of the rope. And we were good to go again. ..... But some days later when backing into the berth, suddenly, nothing happened ! ?,..... The gears were working the engine was working, everything was working, but the boat was not moving. ........ What on earth happened ?. ........ Took me at least 5 minutes to conclude that the prop must have been gone. .......... I managed to use an oar to get the boat into the berth, took my waterproof phone and submerged it,............. yes, something black down there was rotating, but my prop's not black ?,............ On the hard som weeks later, it was easier to see. ..... That shock absorbing rubber must have been broken by the sudden stop when the prop grabbed the rope, not so much that the prop was not rotating, but when I later on put it in reverse, I probably teared of the last remaining intact rubber, thereby allowing the prop to pull itself off backwards (in stead of pulling the boat with it in reverse), and the nut on the end was intact, the outer part of the centre part was large enough to slip of without touching the nut. .......... I could have dived for it, but bought a second hand from ebay (UK by the way) instead.

[@followtheboat]

What a complicated and weird mishap, but that's boats for you. 😄 Liz

[@doneddy2204]

Cock ups. I learn something every day

[@williambunting803]

On anchors, one of my favorite channels recently had an anchor incident where somebody did something wrong which caused their anchor to snag on something with the boat under power causing the anchor winch to be ripped off, the Chain fed fully out, the bitter end snapping off ( I think, I didn’t hear the full story) but then the anchor and chain were fully lost because they were in……… crock infested waters.

[@followtheboat]

Bloody hell! So you couldn't dive down, even if you wanted to. Brrrrrr. Liz

[@chilledchilled1849]

Hi did you sail eastward from turkey to south east Asia ?

[@followtheboat]

Yes we did, in 2010. Liz

[@jyzilvz]

SVZEEEE IS A 👍

[@followtheboat]

Haha! Sounds much better in American. 😄 Liz

[@jyzilvz]

@@followtheboat does American use zee? Here I thought they used zed and we(NZ) followed British English with zee. How little I know about anything really.

[@captainsalty56]

SAILING COCK UPS - An old report that was circulated many, many years ago Marine Casualty A report sighted by Captain G.P. Byth Dear Sir, It is with regret and haste that I write this report to you. Regret that such a small misunderstanding could lead to the following circumstances, but haste in order that you will receive this report before you form your own preconceived opinions from reports in the world press, for I am sure that they will tend to over-dramatise the affair. Having just picked up the pilot, the apprentice had returned to the bridge after changing the ”G” flag for the “H” flag and this being his first trip, was having difficulty in rolling up the “G” flag. I therefore proceeded to show him the correct procedure for this operation. Coming to the last part, I told him to “let go” and the lad, though willing, is not too bright necessitating my having to repeat the order in a sharper tone. At this moment, the Chief Officer appeared from the chart room, having been plotting the vessels progress and, thinking that it was the anchors that were being referred to, he repeated the “let go” to the Third Officer on the fo’csle. The port anchor, having been cleared away, but not walked out, was promptly “let go”. The effect of letting the anchor drop from the pipe while the vessel was proceeding at full harbour speed proved too much for the windlass brake and the entire length of the port chain and stopper was pulled out by the roots. I expect that the damage to the chain locker may be extensive. The braking effect of the port anchor naturally caused the vessel to sheer in that direction - right towards the swing bridge that spans a tributary to the river up which we were proceeding. The swing bridge operator showed great presence of mind by opening the bridge for my vessel, but unfortunately, he did not think to stop the vehicular traffic, the result being that the bridge partly opened and deposited a Volkswagen, two cyclists and a cattle truck on my fo’csle. The ships’ company are at present rounding up the contents of the latter, which from the noise I would say are pigs. In his effort to stop the progress of the vessel, the Third Officer also dropped the starboard anchor, too late to be of any practical use for it fell on the swing bridge operator’s control cabin. After the port anchor was let go and the vessel started to sheer, I gave at double ring of “full astern” on the engine room telegraph and personally rang the engine room to order maximum astern revolutions. I was informed that the sea temperature was 53° and asked if there was a film on tonight; my reply would not add constructively to this report. Up to now I have confined my report to the activities at the forward end of my vessel. Down aft they were having their own problems. At the moment the port anchor was let go, the second officer was supervising the making fast of the after tug down to which he was lowering the ships’ towing spring. The sudden braking effect of the port anchor caused the tug to run in under the stern of my vessel, just at the moment when the propeller was answering my double ring full astern. The prompt action of the Second Officer in securing the inboard end of the towing spring, delayed the sinking of the tug by some minutes, thereby allowing the safe abandoning of that vessel. It is strange, but at the very same moment of letting go the port anchor there was a power cut ashore. The fact that we were passing over a cable area at the time suggests that we may have touched something on the riverbed. It is perhaps lucky that the high-tension cables brought down by the foremast were not live, possibly being replaced by the underwater cable, but owing to shore blackout, it is impossible to say where the pylons fell. It never fails to amaze me the actions and behaviour of foreigners during moments of minor crisis. The pilot, for instance, is at this moment huddled in the corner of my day cabin, alternatively crooning to himself and crying after having consumed a bottle of gin in a time that is worthy of inclusion in the Guinness Book of Records. The tug captain on the other hand, reacted violently, and had to be forcibly restrained by the Steward, who has him handcuffed in the ships hospital where he is telling me to do impossible things with my ship and my person. I enclose the names and addresses of the drivers and insurance companies of the vehicles on my foredeck collected by the Third Officer after his somewhat hurried evacuation of the fo’csle. These particulars will enable you to claim for the damage that they did to the railings on the number one hold. I am closing this preliminary report because I am finding it difficult to concentrate with the sounds of police sirens and the flashing lights. It is sad to think that had the apprentice realised that there was no need to fly pilot flags after dark, none of this would have happened. For the weekly accountability report, I will assign the following casualty numbers. T/750101 to T/750200 inclusive. Yours truly, Master.

[@followtheboat]

Hmmm. Less of a single cockup and more a litany of disasters!

[@Vitoandolini13]

I think you should both decide whether you want have another go at Mother Nature 😂 You have so much media from the past decade. Create something with it

[@followtheboat]

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean... Please elucidate. 🙏🤔 Liz