Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

This is kinda like boating but much more exposed.
I lived in Santa Cruz, California the last 2 decades and was deeply into surfing and windsurfuing.
Windsurfing there is strapped into an 8.5' board that doesn't float, and needs 20+ mph of wind to plane. the cool thing is they go 25-40 mph and can rock out in 15' or 20' of running swell. (for all you guys that confuse 2' with 6'. I'm REALLY talking about 15'-20' of swell, and wavesailing, ie surfing 12', 15' 18' waves, measured in mast lengths, ie, mast high = 14' double mast high = ... get the picture?), any way, this story is one time when I was sailing at Natural Bridges State Park, on Monterey Bay. I'm thinking it was Sept.
I was cruising along, all strapped in and having fun, when I looked down to my left and saw a 3' high dorsal fin sticking out of the water about 2 feet from me, then I look to the other side of the board and saw the tip of a tail fin sticking up about 8 -10 feet away.
I frooze solid and wouldn't fall for the life of me and dug in hard and kept on going.

I sailed right over the back of a 35' BASKING SHARK.
Now these are not man eaters,they are the second biggest fish on earth behind the whale shark. but if you skeg stabbed it in the spine at 25 mph, I bet he could flip and roll and spin and crash and crush a guy like me real easy.

They bask in the sun at the surface on warm summer days.

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

Again, not boating this was surfing.
For years, before I had kids, I used to surf at a spot north of Santa Cruz, called Davenport, the wave there was named Shark Bite Right, and aptly so.
In the early 90s, 2 surfers and 1 windsurfer were bitten there, by LARGE white sharks, in the 15' range, (actually 15' is considered a yearling in reat White terms, but these are very well documented bites w TV specials etc.

I used to live very near there and surfed and windsurfed there ALOT, often alone, back then it didn't bother me.
I still surf there and other North Coast spots but but not as comfortable as I was 15 years ago.
I used to surf alone and my personal philosophy was, " when the seals start acting like seagulls you are late for the beach"
Meaning, when seals are frantically jumping out of the water it's because they are being chased and don't want to be in the water all of a sudden, and when you see that very close, be thankful you can't see what's going on underneath you, and get the hell in.
I have seen that many times and back in the days of my comfort zone, I would see that, head in to the beach and wait 15 minutes or so till I didn't feel spooked anymore, then paddle back out.

Well this one time in the spring, April is, I was surfing there alone, and I'm looking down and a White Shadow starts rising up at me from the bottom directly below me, in one part of my mind I know it isn't how a shark should act in a hit but I caint see it and it was coming up slowly beneath me, and I'm praying to god, for real, please don't be a shark, please don't be a sharl, please don't be a shark and that was about as far as I got, it was a big white harbor seal about 7' long w black spots.

The seal would stay and play and frolick, and then split for a while, and I get back to focus on surfing. and then the white blob would start coming at me from the bottom and I'd be, please god, let it be the seal, repeat, and it was the seal, come back to play, , like 3 or 4 times that happened, I knew it was th seal, but I wasn't certain and seeing a white shape rising up at you from the bottom is freaky/scary no matter how many times it's the seal thank god, and it was freakin me out, it would lightly bite the arm of my wetsuit, but the teeth were like pointy needles and they would pierce the suit and stick my Arm and HURT, and I'd pull my forarm or wrist out of it's mouth, even though it was playing. but I didn't want to freak and upset it because it's still a wild animal, friendly for the moment but what if I made it feel threatened, or if I spun around to take off on a wave I didn't want to kick it and piss it off.
I was kinda freaked and not focusing and not surfing well so I decided to head in.

Those were the 2 spookiest things to ever happen to me. not playing with the seal, seeing the white shape comong up at me, and sailing over the sharks back

here's a few pics of me from another North Coast reef and the Lane, from about 6 years ago

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

when i was 12 yrs old we were idleing the 16'boat up to the pump to get some gas, and there were also gas pumps up 10 higher on a levee next to the bar. As we pulled up not paying much attention there was high reving of a motor up by the bar. Suddenly my dad yelled, froze, and just looked at me, then i looked up and saw gas pumps and a car flying over the top of us and landing on the transom. One guy got thrown from the boat, lucky no one was sitting in the back seats. It was like the Dukes of Hazzard car flying over us. HIMES

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

Leaving for weekend USCG duty now, I hope nothing exciting after all this chat :D

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

have a good weekend :drink:

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

As long as it doesn't rain It will be Ok :drink:

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

Loan Sharks are the deadliest kind of shark. :D

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

When I was a kid..,,,

Seeing a sunfish basking in the sun on the way to block island....

While running in Noyac bay... a rare site...having a school of dolfins encompass the boat while running at speed ( what I thought was real fast...a 17' Cruisers Inc. lapstrake wood boat with twin 40's)...way cool...

While fishing off the ruins... in long island sound...having a submarine surface from us not 300 yards away :eek:

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

of all the stories, i think the submarine surfacings would be a cool thing to see.HIMES

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

can you believe the other day it snowed in Santa Cruz, they had to bring in a few snow plows from Sonora.

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

I agree. Sure beats the hell out of my snake story.....

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

An empty cooler!!!!!!!
:drink:

No, I have seen some spooky things.
3' of bow of an old wood Chris-Craft sticking up out of lake erie that had just recently sunk.

A helicopter sent out to chase me and my Dad out of the firing range of Military reserve base - because we got lost running his 24' Reinel through 10-12's across the lake in late November for winter storage.
The final trip of my first boating season - I was 10.

But, ya got me beat with a surfacing Sub!!

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

I guess i need to say if before someone else does and it gets taken out of context again...My hooligan friends all in my boat on a slow cruise back to the turtle on lake champlain. after a couple cases of 16 oz beers not to mention what we had before and after, it was scary, in the best way possible...too much fun:evilb:

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

its a whale!!! SHOOT IT SHOOT IT!!!!! :drink:

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

That's scary

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

while running towards nyc at around 65 mph boat suddenly made an abrupt right turn and slowed to about 10 mph. first thought was a friggin lobster pot. shut down the motors,lift the drives and what the hell is on the prop but a hiking boot with something looking like a pork chop hanging out of it.needless to say i never saw any boots that float or even one that would slow a 6000 lb. boat down that fast so out comes the oar and off we go. never forgot that sight

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

:eek: :eek:

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

You must be able to paddle really fast scared!!!!!

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

I went to School at NMSU in Las Cruces New Mexico. In the summer time we used to hang out, drink beer and swim in the Rio Grande. I was about 21 years old and swimming in the middle of the river when a dead cow floated up to me. It looked to have been dead some time as it was fully bloated and had maggots swarming on the exposed portions. Although I immediately tried to swim away from it, because of the current, it stuck by me for some time until I swam in another direction. Scared the chit out of me. The memory still bothers me 25 years later.

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

I heard about it, it snowed al the way down to socal.
It was a mess on Hwy 17 above Santa Cruz etc.
Kinda late in the season for snow.
I had it snow on me once in San Diego right after surfing a hectic 12' at Blacks w 4 guys out on like April 4th, (1997)

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

:eek: Was in my buddies formula and the porta-potti got full.

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

1988, Merrimac River Amesbury MA. 02:00 with a friend and 2 VERY drunk ladies from local bar. Walking down dock to boat for late night ride (always told the ladies we'd go for a spin - boat would never leave the dock :D ) and the nit-wit I'm with decides to do a cart wheel - river was racing, pitch black night and she goes in on the upstream side and out of sight in a second. I peered over the other side and all I saw was a hand racing by, grabbed it and pulled her out.

I spent a fist full of cash to get her drunk and almost didn't get laid that night. Scared the hell out of me. I still get chills thinking about it.

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

Woha.!

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

6 year old girl bleed out in my arms while we were racing to get her to land :( :(

Marine patrol had to restrain me on shore, I was going to kill her dad.

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

What happened?

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

Sitting on the bow of Daddy's boat, hit a wave, he ran her over..

Needless to say, NO ONE rides on the bow of my boats, or with an appendage hanging off the side...

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

:( :( :( :( :( :( :(

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

Not spooky but strange

Idling in on one to the ramp I see a object swimming back and forth in front of me. I thought it was a duck at first but as I got closer I saw it was a dog! I shut down and got him to come over to my swim platform and pulled him on-board. I was shocked as this was an older dog and he was in the middle of no where. So I am trying to calm him down doing the "It's o.k. boy" type talk and to my surprise this guy was still ready to go he started to jump of my engine hatch to head for my cabin and acted like he wanted to play! I made a dive for the door and beat him to it (no wet dog in my cabin) :eek:

So got to the ramp and turned him over to the DNR they didn't want him but I gave the guy no choice he had to do the right thing! Called the Kennels the next day to see if the owner had been contacted and they responded with ya thats whats his names dog he's here all the time picking him up :mad: I was pissed off if I would of had a clue this dog was not taken care of I would of tried to find him a better home! I figured it was some old folks dog that fell in off the boat or at least a distraught pet owner that would of been grateful to have their pet back :mad:

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

I dont blame you!! :mad:

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

roger the oar was to knock the boot and whatever else was in it off the prop duhhhhhh

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

sotw last year. :( :(

everybody... BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!!

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

last year at fort gibson lake in oklahoma I seen some guys in a bass boat go flying by funisland and than go back again. about that time a lady in her late 60"s takes off on a seadoo and the bass boat runs her over. After we rush out and pull the women to the shore it turns out that it was her kids in the bass boat that ran over her. She survived, but she was in bad shape for awhile.

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

Shheesh you guys..........the waters i boat in ust have been blessed by Beaver Cleaver....... :(

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

Ditto that - spring is around the corner.

I'm sure this freaked someone out while boating.

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

Quite a few years ago, my buddies and I were just drifting along, late at night, down a river, back towards the marina, killing time with lots of laughs, and beverages to suit. The current was pretty good, so was easy to drift without motor running. The lights from the marina in the distance, and the moon, reflected on the water, and gave you a pretty good view if anything was in front of you. While we were all just sitting there, I just happened to look out in front of the boat, and saw a good sized object breaking the surface of the water, and it was coming straight at us!!. I stood up to get a good look, and as I did, everyone else looked out as well, except now it was only about 15 yards away, and closing fast. Without taking the time to explain anything, I jumped to the wheel, and was starting up the engine, to move the boat ASAP. While I was doing this, one of my friends, seeing my urgency, jumped to action as well. He went for a paddle , reached over the side of the boat, and started to pummel this monstrous sea creature in the head that was surely coming to do us harm.. As I was pulling away, it was then that I had enough time to explain to him that he was beating to death a green slimy detergent bottle tied to an underwater log, which I was trying to avoid getting hung up on. The current made it look like the monster was coming at us, when in fact we were drifting to it.
I can’t tell you how hard we laughed till we were crying. It was nice to know that he had my back in case it was a monster. :drink:

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

Ha ha! Another thing that freaked me out was watching the clouds above me turn in a rapid circle....freakee! It was a twister that did not quite form, lucky me. One did form slightly south at the same time, causing a great deal of damage in Miami.

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

yeah, probably will never forget that... :(

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

This ship is siting in the middle of the chesapeake bay "on bottom" we decided to board it ,very erie feeling,its been there 40 years.

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

The boldest scene to appear before my eyes while out to sea was the ERUPTION of the sea surface and the RISING of the BOW of a NUCLEAR ATTACK SUB from the ocean depths out in the Gulf Stream off the south Florida coastline..............it was some distance from our high speed crossing of the stream...........but it was enough to curl your toes with the immense POWER surfacing.............and thank your stars it was a Los Angeles Class American Sub.............it makes you wonder !!!!!!!!!

Re: Spookiest thing you have seen while boating
 

You guys should quit smoking POT on your boats :p :D :D