Mastodawn

Sarah Brown Jul 29, 2023

Reddit can be a useful knowledge base, but there are certain subject areas where the consensus voice will confidently, clearly, emphatically state something that is simply wrong.

My current irritation is r/sailing, which has a large number of people who have clearly never sailed beyond the yacht club bar, or maybe a small lake, and have precisely zero clue about the interplay between wind and current (because they never experience the latter), spouting off bullshit with authority.

And there’s no point arguing with them, but my god, the extent to which they are smug about being wrong is irritating as fuck.

SaraMG Jul 29, 2023

@goatsarah Most of my sailing is on Lake Michigan which, while a great lake, is still just a lake.

First time I dropped into the Florida current I had a real eye opener. Absolutely took off with me.

Sarah Brown Jul 29, 2023

@saramg We learned to sail in the Crouch estuary, as you know. The spring ebb runs at 5 knots there..

SaraMG Jul 29, 2023

@goatsarah At 5kts, I'd doubt my engine's ability to get me home on its own. Did you ever have to sail+ motor up then drift down to your anchor bouy?

Sarah Brown Jul 29, 2023

@saramg You time your arrival for the current conditions to be amenable. Getting this stuff right is a big part of RYA sailing courses.

In duress, you can burn diesel (the ebb through Portsmouth harbour’s entrance can be a bugger, but that’s only a few hundred metres), or you can drop a hook and wait for the tide to turn or slacken.

@goatsarah Oh sure, when all goes to plan I'm sure it's fine, it's more the "in duress" part of your reply I was looking for and... yeah, sounds like about what I'd end up doing.

Could you imagine mistiming the tides though? One minute you're up to your keel in mud, the next you're trudging through it, waist deep, clawing towards the shore... how could that even happen? ;)

Zoë O'Connell Jul 29, 2023

@saramg @goatsarah A guy on my first aid course the following week recognised me from that :-/

Sarah Brown Jul 29, 2023

@zoe @saramg “You look different not covered in shit”

SaraMG Jul 29, 2023

@zoe @goatsarah He was probably wondering how many of us he'd have to do CPR on by the end of the day.

Sarah Brown Jul 29, 2023

@saramg I’m sure nothing like that would ever happen 😉

Alexandra Lanes Jul 30, 2023

@saramg @goatsarah This sounds like a story…

SaraMG Jul 30, 2023

@ajlanes @goatsarah A short one. Out kayaking, mistimed the tides, wound up having to trudge through thick waist deep mud for 50 meters or so at the end. Coated in mud, but able to jump in a creek to rinse off. Just your average type 2 fun.

Alexandra Lanes Jul 30, 2023

@saramg @goatsarah When I was out paddling on the east coast with @thelocalecho we got a bit like that at the end once. Wading through mud didn’t appeal so I hauled myself along in the boat paddlestroke by sludgy paddlestroke up to the rocks. I don’t know whether it was any less effort but I was determined I wasn’t going to wade any more than I absolutely had to!

SaraMG Jul 30, 2023

@ajlanes @goatsarah She can tell you. @thelocalecho was there, though ISTR she chose a better route than @zoe or I did.

Zoë O'Connell Jul 30, 2023

@saramg @ajlanes @goatsarah @thelocalecho Oh, the incident with Sara was *worse*. Far worse. Think "Oh my gods, are we going to end up on the Nine O'Clock news as tragic deaths at rural town".

We learnt our lesson.

Alexandra Lanes Jul 30, 2023

@zoe @saramg @goatsarah Crumbs.

SaraMG Jul 30, 2023

@zoe @goatsarah @thelocalecho Ahem. Type. Two. Fun.

It's one of my favorite near-death experiences with you lot.

@ajlanes Yes, there are other near-death stories.

And they laughed when I joked about being left for dead in the desert...

Alexandra Lanes Jul 30, 2023

@saramg @zoe @goatsarah I do sometimes feel like I’m sifting through fifteen years of fondly remembered mortal terror 🥰

SaraMG Jul 31, 2023

@ajlanes @zoe @goatsarah "fondly remembered mortal terror" made me legit laugh out loud. Thank you for that.

Sarah Brown Jul 31, 2023

@saramg @ajlanes @thelocalecho @zoe It wasn’t a near death experience. We had hours before the water came back and even if it did, we all had boats with us.

Alexandra Lanes Jul 31, 2023

@goatsarah @saramg @thelocalecho @zoe It’s the thought that counts

SaraMG Jul 31, 2023

@goatsarah @ajlanes @thelocalecho @zoe Crib Goch wasn't near-death either, but I still felt profoundly unwise wandering along a steep spine of wet, slick rock in dense fog over a 500m drop to either side.

Zoë O'Connell Jul 31, 2023

@saramg @goatsarah @ajlanes @thelocalecho Oh, that's just normal for rural Wales, including some of the roads.

Zoë O'Connell Jul 31, 2023

@saramg @goatsarah @thelocalecho @ajlanes Abseiling 120' down a waterfall into a river in flash flood, then walking out past the "route closed" signs was a memorable one.

Sarah Brown Jul 31, 2023

@zoe @ajlanes @thelocalecho @saramg You walked. I ran to tell the bus driver to wait for us because we weren’t dead.

Zoë O'Connell Jul 31, 2023

@goatsarah @ajlanes @thelocalecho @saramg I figure it was fair you did the running, after all, I'd done the abseil into a flooded river with the possibility of having to climb back up a very slippery waterfall.