Imaginary Helmsman

[Randyonr3]

I've always felt to embrace whatever comes your way and welcome it...
True story,
for years after the passing of my wifes sister, we felt her presence around us in our normal lives and while sailing.. she was one involved with the sea scouts, retired from the Navy and always loved the water, and often it was common to leave the helm to her while sailing...
So much so that when we purchased the 42 10 years ago, she was welcomed as part of our lives aboard the boat.
And the Name of our Boat reflects her being part of our lives..
The Name of the boat as many know is "R" to the Third Power, or "R3"
For Myself, Randy, my wife Ramona and our free spirited sister "Rosie"
Rosie has become so much a part of our cruising life, We've given her the AutoHelm
And many days and nites you'll see Ramona and I snuggled up behind the dodger
and with the wheel turning now and then, you'll think its just the electronics keeping us on track...
Difference is, Ramona and I know Rosie's in charge.........

[flink]

I sail solo for long passages and I swear that a certain "Mr. Murphey" show's up from time to time just to jack with me. I've never personally seen him with my own eyes but I can say with conviction that he likes to stow away on my boat on long passages. I do talk to him.
I plead, really. I beg him for mercy and promise to be a better sailor if he'll just leave me alone. Sometimes the pleading works. Sometimes it just pisses him off and he goes full bore and starts breaking ****.
If I ever see him though, I will whip his ass. That crap he pulled out in the Gulf of Mexico when he broke my autopilot and then my dutchman system in the middle of a squall could have killed me.
If you're reading this Murphey, I'm looking for you!!

I take it back....forget what I said about whipping your asss...Please don't come back on my boat. Seriously....

[Hammer]

Once, hours into a night watch duty on a particular long passage up the East coast of Australia, sitting aft next to the tiller, I looked up on the deck to see a tiger leaping towards me. I actually ducked behind the tiller to avoid it. Then looked behind me to see where in the water it fell. But it just as quickly dawned on me that I was hallucinating. It looked that real to me at that time.

Tell you what... that experienced quickly woke me up, and kept me awake for the rest of the night.

[Astrid]

I sail solo for long passages and I swear that a certain "Mr. Murphey"

Maybe it is Loki.

[Lagoon4us]

Wish i could find an imaginary anti-fouler

[surfingminniwinni]

When sailing accross Bass Strait, my partner Jen while on watch swore she could hear a dog barking at 1am. She talked about it for weeks after, until I finally confessed it was me in the head barfing up!

[Bash]

Originally Posted by surfingminniwinni

When sailing accross Bass Strait, my partner Jen while on watch swore she could hear a dog barking at 1am. She talked about it for weeks after, until I finally confessed it was me in the head barfing up!

Hilarious!

[Outwest34au]

Not sailing, but driving and around 3am on a looooong road trip non stop, saw a see thru grey truck in front of the car and then the back doors flew open and grey see thru wardrobes started falling out all over the road, drove thru the first couple taking evasive action until I realised what was happening. Not much further down the road there were 8ft tall grey see thru kangaroos crossing the road, wierd thing was they were just as they are printed on our coins and even had an outer circle.

Sleeping while driving is OK, stopping from 100kmh to zero thanks to a tree is not good.

[Astrid]

This reminds me of something that happened a number of years ago. A friend of mine who worked for the Forest Service in Arizona told me about a lost hiker she had come across. He was exhausted, dehydrated, and generally sort of out of it and had apparently had a few hallucinations prior to being found. She had him in her pickup and was taking him back to Flagstaff when they came across a Civil War re-enactment. There was a company of Union infantry moving out of some trees into an open meadow, and she recognized a couple of the re-enactors and stopped the pickup to wave to them. Her poor passenger had been just staring blankly out the window, but when he saw her wave, he looked at her and said,

"You see 'em too?"

[bobconnie]

I can remember lots of night watchs when I talked a lot to my wind vane(we called her Jane) ya have to talk to somebody who knows where things are and how to use em ya know !! I always thought it was better then a imaginary friend !!

[sneuman]

Originally Posted by Hammer

Once, hours into a night watch duty on a particular long passage up the East coast of Australia, sitting aft next to the tiller, I looked up on the deck to see a tiger leaping towards me. I actually ducked behind the tiller to avoid it. Then looked behind me to see where in the water it fell. But it just as quickly dawned on me that I was hallucinating. It looked that real to me at that time.

Tell you what... that experienced quickly woke me up, and kept me awake for the rest of the night.

Richard Parker?