Short story: My daughter takes a old friend out on her boat to local rafting spot for the afternoon about 2 miles from home. Wife and I go to dinner to local spot about 3 miles from home opposite direction from daughter. Wife texts daughter to say where we are and says come on over and we'll buy dinner. Daughter says she can't get Alex in boat to leave, he is being a jerk. I text her and tell her to tell him last call and leave his ass cause she sees storm rolling in. No response from her, probably raining on her now. Wife and I leave restaurant to go home as the skies opened up. Of course being good dad I am I ride to daughters rafting spot to see if she left yet. She was gone. Get back to pier and she is tied up and I am drenched. Glad to see she made it back safely but I was pissed none the less. When sitting at home I told her she is the captain and what she says, goes and do not take him on boat again. She said Alex has lost his boating privilege on her boat and told him so when she got to pier. Good decision on her part after the fact but just goes to show what one ******* can do to ruin a fun day

I'm glad it all worked out, some people just don't get it, when it comes to boating there's only "one" captain, I always stress that point when I take new people out...................here's my one bad story, the wife and I were going to Vegas with another couple and all of us always wanted to go to Havasu, it was Memorial Day weekend a few years back, so we all talk and decided to go out a few days early and even though we both own go-fast boats, we weren't going to have them out West, so we decide to do the tourist thing and rent a boat and a driver (DD) so we could all drink and not have to worry about going to jail, the first day went fine, not so much the second, the other couple got pretty drunk and we had to get the boat back by 7:00pm when the place closed or I'd get charged for a whole extra day, 6:00pm comes around, hey, it's time to go, (wouldn't you know the boat was on my credit card)
they sat in the water and just keep f...ing off and drinking with a care on the world, three more times I ask them to get in the boat so we can get it back in time, well; 6:30pm comes around, I'm pissed now, I order them in the friggin boat and after a few chioce words back and forth they do and we barely get back in time, needless to say things haven't been the same with that couple and we'll never travel with them again, some a-holes just don't have manners anymore..................I'm sure your Daughter learned something that day and I'm glad she was OK when you got to her.

If they don't want to go don't force them leave them.

If their Stupid enough to Not get in the boat when the engine fires up, Just toss them their phone, Smile, Wave, Split

Not always that easy, ESPECIALLY when alcohol is involved and out of concern/responsibility for someones safety you may NOT be able to just leave them. Took a friend I knew from business dealings (was the guy who did all my engine machine work at the time at local machine shop) and his wife of six months that I hardly knew out on our old boat, parked out on the Bay and was sitting having a good time in about 3 foot of water, this stupid BIOTCH unknown to me drank a whole LITER of absolute in about 2 hours, we did not realize it until afterwards. We were ready to go as sunset and she became belligerent and would not get into the boat. There were no other boats there and the spot we were at on Saginaw bay was remote and miles from civilization, also a mile from shore with deeper water between where we were parked and shore. She refused to get in the boat and we drove off hoping after all the arguing and BS she would get in when boat started, well out of fear for her life we had to go back and get her as she was probably going to drown or suffer from hyperthermia after sun went down and she wandered around lost. My buddy had to drag her azz by the hair to get in the boat while she kicked. screamed punched and fought back, was VERY ugly. She then fell down and split her lip on my dashboard in her drunken stumble, bled EVERYWHERE in my boat, sat on the floor and pizzed herself, took her bathing suit top and bottom off and threw it over board on way back to the dock, it was amusing in someways but really pretty bad for him. At the dock she ran around naked like a wild woman , was grabbing at my crotch and trying to shove her tongue down my throat in front of my wife, buddy dragged her to his car FINALLY while I loaded the boat and after this blowout within a month he filed for divorce as she really was going off the deep end and saw nothing wrong with her behavior. So its easy to say just leave someone behind but not always practical, Smitty

I Agree, Situation will warrant what Can/Can't be done.. Back when "Zima" first came out my GF at the time Dove out of the boat while it was on the trailer (from too many Zimas) and broke her hand, Had to go from the river to the ER ......

Captain ****illo of the Costa Concordia just beat feet and left them all behind. Hopefully he will have some hard time to consider leaving passengers to their fate.
You are in charge and unless that person or persons presents a clear, and proveable, danger to the rest, it might be very difficult to justify leaving them behind. Remember the tried by 12 thing, and all that perfect hindsight involved.

Personally I do my best to assess their character before we go out. But I still get surprised. Had a dude from work that didn't seem like it but once on my boat it was 1 beer/15min until stumbling around and becoming a danger to himself standing up jumping up and down over freighter wakes, etc. Well he says he had "such a great time when are we going again" and I just tell him the next chance we get (yeah, right). I've had other problems such as cigarette holes in seats from drunk passengers.

What was the common denominator in all above scenarios (except for the cruise boat I hope)?
Yes, that's right.

ALCOHOL

Guess I got it easy. My worst passenger is my 4 year old niece. An untimely wake and a black eye later, she pretty much stays in her seat now.

Had the drunk stumbling thing on the 4th this year with a passenger. Obviously last time he'll ever be on the boat