Funny Sailing Storey.

[wetny]

Last night I had a drink with a bloke that I sailed with at the local club. He has done a few deliveries this year, building miles for his yacht master. He has mainly been delivering new boats with excellent skippers. He took one job on that was taking a newly purchased used boat from Oban to Milford Haven with the new owner and a chap the owner knew vaguely as someone that had been at sea all of his life. He looked like captain Birdseye so he naturally was not concerned. They set off out of Oban with captain Birdseye at the helm. Alarm bells started ringing when he left port with the port buoy on port side. He told my mate to shut up as he knew what he was doing. Mate was happy with depth so let him carry on. It quickly became obvious that the owner could not sail and captain Birdseye was blarting on about keeping an eye open for the post at Milford as they need to turn at the post. Mate getting a bit worried because Milford still hundreds of miles away. Owner was torn between Birdseye and my mate that was happy with everything. To cut a long story short, Birdseye had some kind of break down. He was screaming at the top of his voice that they were all going to their deaths. Kept going on about hitting a big rock (not charted) and said that they were going to go over the edge. He said that he needed to get off the boat and my mate was sure he was going throw himself off. The owner suggested that they they stuck into the whisky that he had bought in Oban and calm down a bit. My mate could not believe it. Birdseye had accepted that they were going to die and took to sitting down below shivering and crying. Got to Milford but Birdseye would not accept that they were at Milford at started freaking out again. My mate pointed out a buoy and Birdseye recognised it. He was ok after that. The way my mate told it had us in stitches. Like I say he has done a few deliveries but really was not experienced enough to end up skippering let alone with all that was happening. I think he will be more careful in the future.

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