John Breen

One day recently, I was boating with friends, and the following story happened, and recalling it, I thought I'd share.

My friend takes me in his power boat out to the mooring where my boat is, I board her and get ready to leave mooring, starting the motor and letting loose from the mooring...

We are holding the small motorboats together by hand...
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#ShortNonFiction

Oct 28 at 7:18pmWeb
Show threadJohn BreenOct 28

It turns out my friend can't start his motor, and we spend a few minutes trying to start it, boats now lashed together, but drifting...

...toward a nice lady in a big sailboat moored 50ft away. She asked "are you going to hit my boat ?" or something like that.

Indeed, we were, and at that moment I decided I had become the "Captain" of this "vessel".

Luckily maneuvering out of trouble was easy, I became a tugboat captain, and we all got home safe with no damaged vessels.
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Show threadJohn BreenOct 28
But it taught me a lesson, about assuming control, and making assumptions about who is in control. And paying attention.
The moment I disconnected from my mooring, I was the Captain, responsible for the boat lashed to me and its passengers.
But I didn't realize that when my friend's motor would not start. It took a warning from a fellow mariner, that my vessel was adrift, out of control.
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Show threadJohn BreenOct 28
Oh, fun epilogue. I spent the next morning diagnosing and fixing my friends's engine, which he had bought used a few days earlier.
It was because someone had replaced a machine screw in the throttle/shift control with one 1/4in too long, and it was preventing the transition to Neutral. So no start.
A hacksaw and some vice-grips fixed it !