close calls/near misses?
 

Well I took my new to me boat out for the first time this weekend and of course like any older used vehicle things break and go bad.
I pulled my boat off the trailer, parked, then started it up and took off. I idled through the no wake zone till warmed up then for about a 5 min cruise down the river and back. (my main goal was just switching it to my aluminum trailer,not a day of boating). As soon as I got back to the dock and dropped her back to idle, she stalled! I got it restarted enough to slow the boat down and miss the dock before stalling again. I was sitting there cranking helplessly as I was heading straight for the concrete ramp with the wind behind me. All I could think of was how scratched and gouged the nice red keel was going to be when I ran aground on the ramp. I realized there was no way I could jump over the windshield and off the front of the boat to stop it in time without risking damaging the windshield. I'm a big guy and didn't want to smash it. My only option was getting it restarted.
It probably was only 6-7 seconds of cranking, but it seemed like forever! I got the motor started at the last possible second and was able to throw it in reverse just enough to stop the boat and put it into a backward movement away from the ramp before stalling again. Now that I was out of immediate danger I tossed a rope at the dock and hit the cleat in the first attempt and pulled myself over and tied up. Standing there with my heart beating in amazement that I didn't hit anything is when I noticed I could smell gas.
I opened up the engine hatch and there was a puddle of gas on the intake manifold and the whole side of the carb was soaked. Apparently one of the gaskets has gone bad and once it was warm it was seeping gas out from between the 2 halves of the carb.

So have you had any close calls that you got out of better than you thought?

Not caught on camera and conveniently forgot, so...nope....nothing for me.:479:

Well, there was that time the airplane I was on got struck multiple times by lightning and had to divert so far to get out of the storm that we ran out of fuel as we landed and could not taxi off the runway. They would not let us off the plane because it was not a port of entry.

Boating related, I twisted off the vertical shaft in my Bravo in front of the Exxon Fuel dock in the Houston ship channel, boat is drifting towards center of channel with a tug pushing multiple barges headed out and a huge container ship headed in with me in the middle.

Fortunately I had a VHF onboard and advised both Captains of my predicament, (neither one could have stopped that quick but they were able to slow some) another tug nearby heard the conversation and charged over and threw us a line less than a minute before the container ship passed that spot.

Always check my VHF before I go boating now.

My closest disaster was a time years ago pulling the boat up a steep ramp after a day of boating. Next thing I know a guy on the dock is yelling at me. I look in the rear view mirror and the boat is sliding backwards! I stop immediately and find that the bow strap had broken and of course, that particular day, I forgot to hook up the safety chain!! Boat slid 1/2 way back on the trailer and was within inches of ending up on the concrete!! I think I soiled myself on that one!!

This thread makes me think more of the stupid sh!t I've done boating over the years, less dumb luck like you and more just plane dumb. As I get older you learn to be a little more careful, little more responsible and start paying a little more attention to your own mortality.

Running drunk in the dark, shooting between pier pylons at high speeds, running too hard in big water and nearly loosing it, driving like a general azz, etc. All things I've regrettably done in my younger years. Lucky to be here I suppose. Then of course there's the dumb luck stuff like forgetting to strap down the boat on the trailer or lock the ball or put the drives up etc.

Sheesh...boating dangerous! ;)

Fishing douches that refuse to use any sort of marker light at night.

IDIOTS in the middle of the lake in a canoe at midnight , no lights of any kind typical renters.

Yeah, that really pisses me off because you know you would get the blame if you hit them.

Absolutely.

"Reckless speed power superboater hits innocent fisherman in late night speed run."

I was over taking a jet ski in a narrow section. They saw me at first then accelerated ahead, I thought for sure they were "racing". Turns out they didn't expect me to catch up. As I started to over take them they turned away, then turned back right toward me. I didn't t have any time to react, it was like a rabbit in the road. They saw the side of my now then turned away, as you see in this video. Looking back I should have slowed down, but also not that the jet ski was near us for about 4 miles before the video and we had made a lot of eye contact (two girls) close call at 90 mph

Caught by my friends go pro, I did not edit or post to you tube

http://youtu.be/zS7hpstIwbM