Let me start with this 64 y/o full time construction worker. I still got it, just a little slower. I really have learned to work smarter not harder. Time to teach my trade not work in my trade. I know my bounce factor is not what it was in my 20s.
The one lesson I have really lean on is nothing new, I learned it in the boy scouts..... Be prepared. The second lesson is one I heard in a sermon a few years back, there is a plan B for everything except your salvation.
I remember the first time we practiced using emergency steering on a destroyer I was stationed on in the late 70s and early 80s. What a clown show that was. I also remember how important those lessons learned were when a loss of steering really happened a couple of months later at O-dark 30 in the morning. It was a long slow trip to PR to get pier side.
The group I sail with we practice man overboard, normally it is a hat the goes overboard but we have recovered everyone.
I have turned off my manual bilge pump and drained my fresh water tank into the bilge and used the emergency bilge pump. I still need to a rebuild kit for it.
Fire extinguishers, damage control kit, first aid kit, life jackets and strobes.
But I have never steered using the emergency tiller..... Never crossed my mind can I see the compass while using it.
I guess I am not as prepared as I thought...
God bless and safe sailing brothers and sisters.
The one lesson I have really lean on is nothing new, I learned it in the boy scouts..... Be prepared. The second lesson is one I heard in a sermon a few years back, there is a plan B for everything except your salvation.
I remember the first time we practiced using emergency steering on a destroyer I was stationed on in the late 70s and early 80s. What a clown show that was. I also remember how important those lessons learned were when a loss of steering really happened a couple of months later at O-dark 30 in the morning. It was a long slow trip to PR to get pier side.
The group I sail with we practice man overboard, normally it is a hat the goes overboard but we have recovered everyone.
I have turned off my manual bilge pump and drained my fresh water tank into the bilge and used the emergency bilge pump. I still need to a rebuild kit for it.
Fire extinguishers, damage control kit, first aid kit, life jackets and strobes.
But I have never steered using the emergency tiller..... Never crossed my mind can I see the compass while using it.
I guess I am not as prepared as I thought...
God bless and safe sailing brothers and sisters.
