Geez, are brains in short supply?
- Thread starter shemandr
- Start date
And that's exactly what they can be. It used to be so much fun, after an evening at the Last Resort or the Bitter End. We'd drop the charter guests on the boat, head back out into the anchorage in our inflatables (no ribs in those days) and play bumper cars. No planing, speeding or trying to be fancy. Never had an injury or a broken boat, just idling around and having fun, laughing so hard that we'd get a stitch in our sides. But in those days, DUI/DWI wasn't even a concept and we were responsible for our own actions.
In answer to "are Brains in short supply?" the answer is YES. More interestingly, however, is the reason. As some of you might remember shortly before birth, we were formed into 2 lines. The right line was the one for brains and the left was for no brains.
It turns out that maintenance crews in heaven are tasked beyond their ability to keep up with the rate of births. Every so often the signs delineating which line is for which get torn down by the no brainers because they do stupid things like that without thinking because they have no brain. Unfortunately, sometimes the signs are down for a few hundred years, and sometimes just a few days.
In order to assure your baby gets a brain, just keep telling it to get in the right line before birth just incase the signs are down again!
It turns out that maintenance crews in heaven are tasked beyond their ability to keep up with the rate of births. Every so often the signs delineating which line is for which get torn down by the no brainers because they do stupid things like that without thinking because they have no brain. Unfortunately, sometimes the signs are down for a few hundred years, and sometimes just a few days.
In order to assure your baby gets a brain, just keep telling it to get in the right line before birth just incase the signs are down again!
Returning to my boat anchored in Nassau harbor from a downtown dock in a hard dinghy with a new 15 hp Yamaha outboard, I was hit by a fairly strong wake from a bigger boat initially hidden by one of the cruise ships anchored to my port side which flipped the engine vertical, then free of the transom and into the drink. No safety cable of course. My shipmates spotted me rowing, rescued me and dove on the spot I had eyeballed off the cruise ship's side. The engine was spotted 1st dive, and recovered from about 30' of crystal clear water at the edge of the cruise ship basin, which was much deeper. It was taken immediately to a nearby boatyard where it was totally immersed in a large fresh water tank for a while, then disassembled as much as was practical, individual parts dried off, reassembled and put back in service. We cruised 7 winters in the Bahamas and Keys with the engine, then used it infrequently over a few more years with never a problem. So, an outboard rudely immersed in salt water won't likely be "toast" if you get to it quickly enough.
He's lucky? We'd be lucky if he had.
In the bad old days, the stupid and the ignorant paid the ultimate price and (mostly) didn't have time to procreate. Hence, our gradual social progress.
Now, we are the victims of our own "success." More and more dangerous idiots are protected and preserved to live a long life with "safety" and "security" at the top of every bureaucrat's list. Idiocracy, indeed.
Hopefully he had the clip lanyard attached to his wrist. I have sailed an outboard powered trailer sailer in rough weather conditions and even though the powerhead was getting dunked under water almost every other wave it never quit. I guess the cowling does a good job of keeping water out and there is enough air inside it to keep the engine running for at least 15 seconds.
I don't think I can add any thing to this conversation.
It is like reading one of those Army maintenance cartoon books.
It is like reading one of those Army maintenance cartoon books.
I regularly imagine the bunch around here sitting on a hill over looking our launches and recoveries holding numbered placards before I make any nautical moves..
Well in sauntering over to the gas dock Friday to see why the EMT's had arrived, I noted a young about to be adult with a severe gash in his leg. It turns out that he was motoring up the lower Niagara above Lewiston into the class 6 rapids when his PWC went airborne on a hydraulic and came down on top of him. Normally the jet boats have three 600hp caterpillars to transit this water (and all kind of permits). If struck in the head they might have been useful to pull his dead body out. If he had gone farther he might have spent some time guest of the security folks. That is one of the largest power plants in the world and they might wanted him to explain what he had in mind. Dumb....
Sadly, this complete lack of seamanship is displayed on larger vessels as well. I was nearly rundown last weekend by a powerboater who seemd to interpret my "5 or more short blasts on the horn" as a friendly greeting instead of the "DANGER or DOUBT" signal it is. Come to think of it........ can't remember the last itme one of these fossil-fueled boat "drivers" actually DID act like they knew what that meant....... far too many of them think I'm mad at them (well, maybe after they ignore a clear signal I am... but... not at first, maybe SCARED, but not usually mad!). I would really like to see boating go back to the days when people piloted boats... or took the helm, instead of "DRIVING"!
The scariest, well correction, ONE of the scariest things that I see far too often is dinghies with no visable life jackets! Many of these are overloaded, often unregistered, possibly overpowered, and far too often no one is really watching where they are going.
When the USCG changed the regulations to require that ALL boats carry wearable life jackets (in 1996) we started wearing ours al lthe time i nthe dinghy.... easier to wear them than find space i nthe boat. The importance of this was demonstrated one Saturday morning when as my Parents were getting ready to leave the dinghy float to go out to our boat..... 2 guys from another sailboat got about 50 feet from the float and suddenly flipped their dinghy (8' tri-hull design fiberglass dink) I was watching as well (happended to be at the boatyard doing USCGAUX Vessel Safety Checks) and still don't know what caused them to flip.... one second they were OK, the next the aft corner of hte dink slipped under and over they went, dunking a fairly new Honda 2hp. They did get the outboard going again later.... but, were a lot more careful from then on! I thin kthey might have been carrying too much gear in one trip for the low freeboard dink.... but at least no injuries (except to their pride!).
PS: Don't get me started on PWC operators! Seamanship is a foreign subject to them (not to ALL of them...but to far too many!) Had one stop 15' dead ahead of me once..... she did wake up when she heard the 5 short blasts!
The scariest, well correction, ONE of the scariest things that I see far too often is dinghies with no visable life jackets! Many of these are overloaded, often unregistered, possibly overpowered, and far too often no one is really watching where they are going.
When the USCG changed the regulations to require that ALL boats carry wearable life jackets (in 1996) we started wearing ours al lthe time i nthe dinghy.... easier to wear them than find space i nthe boat. The importance of this was demonstrated one Saturday morning when as my Parents were getting ready to leave the dinghy float to go out to our boat..... 2 guys from another sailboat got about 50 feet from the float and suddenly flipped their dinghy (8' tri-hull design fiberglass dink) I was watching as well (happended to be at the boatyard doing USCGAUX Vessel Safety Checks) and still don't know what caused them to flip.... one second they were OK, the next the aft corner of hte dink slipped under and over they went, dunking a fairly new Honda 2hp. They did get the outboard going again later.... but, were a lot more careful from then on! I thin kthey might have been carrying too much gear in one trip for the low freeboard dink.... but at least no injuries (except to their pride!).
PS: Don't get me started on PWC operators! Seamanship is a foreign subject to them (not to ALL of them...but to far too many!) Had one stop 15' dead ahead of me once..... she did wake up when she heard the 5 short blasts!
Well, if they have a motor.... USCG (and thus all States) require that the boat be registered. Some states even require registration numbers on unpowered boats (Michigan and Rhode Island are 2 that do.)Unregistered dinghies?!?
In some cases, the dinghy may have numbers, but they aren't clearly visable as required.... or have peeled off, faded or were on plastic plates that were not properly secured and are either falling off or are dragging in the water.
Man I miss living in S.C. This is one of the few places I would ever move back to. South Carolina doesn't believe much in stupid regulations. Vehicle inspections, done away with it. It was nothing but a state ripoff anyway..
It,s funny reading all these post after awhile the tangent is lost and another story bigins, but let me add my two cents in. to be old and wise you must first be dumb and stupid. LOL
Oh yeah. I'm gonna be usin' that phrase at work next week.Not stupid, just a decision made in lieu of the thought process.