What's the worst thing you've forgotten?

[argonaut]

Since I'm waiting for this week's hurricane to hit, may as well have some humor.
Trip before last was great, except I left my GPS at home. No biggie, but as the sun set I discovered I'd also left my regular glasses in the truck.
I looked pretty funny standing on the bow in my sunglasses as we docked at twilight, luckily some folks on the dock caught my line, my wife got a quick docking lesson and did great.
We nearly always forget something, radio here, lunch there. So far I've at least had sails every time. Almost left my fuel once too. So, what's the worst thing you've left at home?

[Jack O'Brien]

Let's see .... What's the worst thing I've forgotten.....

Golly, I just can't think of it right now.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the Hereafter.

I walk into a room, stop, look around, and say: Now what am I here after?

[Jeff]

Since I'm waiting for this week's hurricane to hit, may as well have some humor.

Almost left my fuel once too. So, what's the worst thing you've left at home?

The worst thing we ever forgot was beer and worse than that we forgot it intentionally and it p*ssed Neptune off ! Here's the
sad story:

Dad called me and said "hey Jeff, why don't you help me take your great aunt and uncle sailing?" Never one to pass up a sailing opportunity I said yes. The forecast called for 10 to 15 mph winds steady from the southwest, in other words a "perfect" day for the lakes around here on Dad's 26S. Since my great aunt and uncle are very old school baptist religious folks, Dad suggested we skip the beer so as not to offend his aunt and uncle. "Okay Dad, your boat".

Boarding the greats took some time as they were in their early eighties at the time. We fitted them both in life jackets and set out. We motored out of the marina and soon raised sails. Aah! It was wonderful and the greats were having the time of their life, this being their first time on a sailboat. That is until ...suddenly out of nowhere a summer storm blew in and the winds went from 10 - 15 mph to 25 - 30 mph with gusts even higher in a matter of seconds. (Never trust Tennessee weather forecast! Thank goodness for internet weather radar nowadays!)

The greats squealed as the first gust sent us to 35 degrees heel. No problem for Dad and I, but terrified our guests, so we decided to lower sails and head in. We were on a port tack and as Dad came into the wind I went forward to lower sails, however at that very moment another gust hit us and I heard a zing and felt a slap as the starboard upper shroud came whizzing by my head (the ring had somehow backed out of the pin *) . Dad shuttled his aunt and uncle into the safety of the cabin while I secured the whipping shroud and lowered sails. With sails secured I noticed the very rocky north shore approaching rapidly and wondered why Dad wasn't motoring the h*ll outta there.

His heretofore "never fail to start" Yamaha would not start! We were already too close for the anchor to do us any good so I held us off with our dock pole as best I could while Dad yelled some rather "offensive" words at "the g** d**n, worthless s.o.b. p.o.s. motor." Evidently this hurt the motor's feelings so it finally started before we hit the rocks.

Safely back at the marina we got my aunt and uncle into their car and headed home. On our way home we stopped and bought some beer.
Later from Dad's deck overlooking the lake we had more than one or two beers and as if to taunt us the weather cleared and we had a beautiful sunset.

Now, not that we're superstitious sailors, but... We learned our lesson and won't forget it. Now we never sail without some form of spirits aboard. Be it ice cold hops & barley or that one special bottle of wine that we're saving for Neptune!

* Also we have since taped all the rings on the stay adjuster mounts.

And since that day the motor has always started right up! Go figure!

Jeff

[Don T]

Hello:
Well now, after towing 50 miles to the launch ramp I discovered I had forgotten the keys to the boat. And since the hitch lock key is also on that ring, I had to tow the whole rig back home to get them. Turns out that closer ramp was just about as far as the San Juan Islands.

[Catigale]

I took our Abigails Island 17 for the inaugural run, went from launch down to our Marina (about 2 nm) and then realised I had forgottten the fire extinguisher.....

Luckily the boat store had them in stock....I resisted tempting Neptune by running back without one and saving the $10 since it was 'only 2 miles'



Checklists help me forgetting too much, plus I tend to carry two of everything important.

The Admiral says Im so anal, its a good thing the seat cushions are held down...

[Norm]

I forgot my engine key once too. Realized it after launching. Luckly the ramp wasn't busy that day so I left wifey there and drove the 60 mile round trip to get it. I keep the spare on my truck key ring now just in case.

[Jim Bunnell]

Worst so far was discovering, after driving 400+ miles to the Trailer-Sailors cruise in the North Channel, that I had left my Richardson's Chartbook with all my notes from the previous year sitting on the kitchen table.

[Mark Prouty]

Boom

[Catigale]

Boom??

Doh!!!!

Anyone ever forget one of the kids? Well, I wouldnt admit it here either....

[baldbaby2000]

Jeff,
I like your beer story. I think beer is very important. At the very least it provides ballast. I believe that God made beer so we could be happy!

BB

[Chuck Healey]

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."-
Benjamin Franklin

[Norm]

I've never forgotten the beer. I've tried to forget kids, but they keep running behind the truck yelling "we want to go too!"

[DLT]

I forgot to raise the motor on retrieval. Broke the skeg clean off and destroyed a prop..

This is a relatively new motor...

[Zoran]

I forgot what I forgot but I remember that Iwent home 3 times and twice in West Marine in one afteroon when I started my 2 weeks trip this summer. Some thigs like sun shower, porta potty and docks and destination books somehow sound familiar.

Zoran

[Robert]

My girls wanted to go fishing. There was a good breeze so we found a nice spot in the lee of an island. Had a tough time setting anchor, finally got it secured very well. We forgot the bait. The anchor was so secure I had to leave it there, I did not have a desire to swim that far down and the Admiral was aboard and wouldn't allow it anyway. I did have a spare anchor aboard, but after the trip back to the dock the crew wanted to go home before the afternoon thumderstorms.