JOHN PAUL (a true story) BY White Rabbitt

[white rabbitt]

Years ago on my first sailboat i had quite an experience. It was early spring and i was out on the chesapeake bay on my sloop with several friends and john paul, my cat. Anyway we were on a broad reach when suddendly chessie (our version of the loch ness sea monster) appeared as we were heading towards our home port off the rhode river. When about 25 to 50 yards off starboard she broke through the surface. Yes, it was chessie and she was not a happy camper. I went below to fetch my camcorder when i heard a terrifying scream from one of the crew above. I rushed back up top-sides to witness that chessie had taken hold of john paul with her powerful jaws. And in one gulp swallowed poor john paul whole ! Unbelievable and yet all the while not one of us on board yet knew the worse was to come. Chessie had, unknown to us at the time an unsatiable appetite for cats. John paul was the only cat on board !

The next thing we knew chessie started to swoop down towards our boat again with open jaws, this time to take our tiller-man. Hard alee, shouted our pilot and we came about, not a moment too soon, causing the boom to violently swing over to port. This caused me to lose my balance and my camcorder went sailing out of my hand and into the air . But it did save our tiller-man for chessie jerked her head around thinking it might be another cat trying to escape and swallowed the camcorder as it flew into the bay waters.

Meanwhile we noticed off towards the horizon a waterspout headed our way with the largest thunder storm clouds any of us had seen to date right behind it ! We tried to start our aux engine but to no avail. It just would not turn over. We checked the fuel line. The water spout meanwhile kept drawing nearer along with the most massive thunder storm in the history of the chesapeake bay right behind !, and chessie had yet to resurface. We were hoping she had gotten indigestion from eating the camcorder and decided to leave us alone. Anyway, while one of us worked on the engine the rest of us started to take down the sails in preparation for the high winds and killer waves that look like we would be unable to avoid from the water spout and the thunder storm that seemed to grow darker than the slick of poor john paul's blood chessie left behind that seemed to follow us upon the waters surface.

As we lowered the main, having already furled the head sail, the wind started to shriek wildly. We quickly stowed all the gear on deck and went about securing all hatches. We noticed the winds were up to about 70 knots before the anemometer blew off the mast. Immediately there after we all went below. As we sat in the cabin the waves slammed against the hull one after another sending massive vibrations throughout the boat. As we looked out of the cabin port-holes we could see that our boat was being carried up the crests of what must have been at least 20 foot plus waves only to cascade down the other side smashing in to and over the next one over and over again. Our boat suddenly rolled over completely, not once, but four times. Miraculously we found ourselves just as suddenly righted and in becalmed waters. We were finally able to start the aux engine and sped towards home port ending one hell of a days sail.

Later that night at a local bar in annapolis, while downing beers, all of us vowed never to let john paul's memory fade from our thoughts and prayers.

And that people is a true story, believe it or not. May god rest john paul's soul in cat heaven.

[S/V_Surya]

HMMmmm... Please note "caps lock" on left side of keyboard.. Thank you

[taildragerdrive]

Interesting. I'm relatively new to sailing and a new boat owner. Last spring I and a friend who has lived in the Chesapeake Bay much of her life brought my boat up from Key West. She has told me she had many of her near misses from weather or other causes in the bay. This for someone who has over 100,000 miles including crossing the south pacific.

Sure enough on the trip up we almost got run down by a freighter making an unexpected turn right in front of us as we motored up the calm bay just after dark. The freighter was on the side the channel apparently not moving few lights on, Not correct lights anyway. No warning etc. We made a quick turn and missed it by about 20'. I have never experienced anything on the water nearly as close a call.

I'm now a believer and will keep my guard up this year sailing in the bay. I heard about the violent squalls too.

I'll keep my eye out for Chessie too. Since I'm from the land of Bigfoot and worked in the woods all my life I'm kind of familiar with that type of stuff. I will avoid having a cat on board as well.

[white rabbitt]

caps lock ? yeah, well what can I say. I mean, does it hurt your eyes or is there some other reason that you mention such ? ANyway, Remember ...

BE GOOD or NOT

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by white rabbitt

I mean, does it hurt your eyes

Yes and in addition caps are considered shouting on forums, something we don't need on CF.

Pete

Moderator

[Cheechako]

The SHOUTING is almost as bad as the BS.....................

[captainKJ]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

The SHOUTING is almost as bad as the BS.....................

what is wrong with BS? it means BIG SMILE does it not???

[Tallswede]

Are you sure this didn't happen AFTER you left the bar in Annapolis?

Kevin

[Ram]

The caps make it hard to read- I did not make it more than 5 lines-I guess it’s a fiction story-why state its a true story?

[avb3]

White Rabbit, it is just not considered good form to be typing in CAPS all the time. Perhaps this is your first forum you are posting to, and not be aware of the practice. Stick around, type in upper and lower, and there is lots to learn here from a lot of good people.

[white rabbitt]

Sorry for the "CAPS". Really. Will not happen again. And yes, it is a true story.

[Nemo55]

Experiences in the hard to believe realm are just that,,"Hard to believe"
Doesn't make them less true,some of us have had experiences we keep close to the chest because to do otherwise would invite comments from all the experts who seem to know that certain things just do not happen.
We are as motes in gods eye....

[Pelagic]

Welcome to CF…. Found the perfect song to go with your story..

Look forward to some more…

Jefferson Airplane -White Rabbit- - YouTube

[white rabbitt]

My signature song ! :-D

[anjou]

Are there any Lewis Carol fans aboard?

This story is curiouser and curiouser, and White Rabbit is obviously as mad as a hatter.
No doubt in the next story your going to tell us that while you were in the Annapolis bar, you opened a bottle of 'Drink me', shared it with the Queen of tarts and fell down a rabbit hole whilst looking at your watch.

Maybe we should all have a shot of what youve been drinking.