Attacked!
Another Spooky Sailing Story
Article by Dan Phy
Sailing with ATUS (All the Usual Suspects) to Friday Harbor some years back, it was 0230…I was bedded down after a late dock party with “the Suspects” and a bit too much grog! Suddenly something heavy banged into my trusty Monty 15—the craft tilted heavily to port….my heart was hammering! I armed myself with a large serrated dive knife, and oak fish knocker.
Be they drunk miscreants after the bars closed, thieves, ghosts (close to Halloween), or pirates??…..I bolted from my bunk like Rambo, threw open the hatch and confronted THREE large river otters—one hanging on my transom, one in my cockpit, and one, their leader, in close quarters standing on my open hatch—whiskers twitching (did I mention VERY large teeth?)
We took each others measure. Out numbered, I went on the offensive!…I abandoned the knife, in favor of old Tevas and my club then I shouted….no reaction from the miscreants. Plan #2… a well thrown Teva caught the transom boarder firmly on the nose…he bailed, as did the cockpit culprit. The leader up on my hatch held his ground! A few well placed whacks from my remaining Teva near his front toes and he too finally abandoned ship!
Why me?….. The next morning one of the Suspects admitted while in a Grog induced state he may have spilled a can of smoked oysters on my teak cockpit grate…..Arrrrg!!….Ghosts and ghouls don’t smell as bad!
As Admiral Herman says at the end of each of our messabouts….”Cheated death again!”….XXII and counting!—Happy Halloween. •SCA•
It’s October, so time for a few spooky sailing stories! Tell us about your scary moments afloat. Was it a thick fog, an encounter with a passing ship at night, a reckless jet skier, or just a sinking feeling? Send your horror stories—fictional or not— (any length) to josh@smallcraftadvisor.com and we’ll share some of our favorites with readers. —Eds
That is otterly weird. Needing a morning mopdown is one thing but in the middle of the night?!
Look out! Good story.
I had a middle-of-the-night chickentastrophe where, in the dark, I accidentally knocked the pot of chicken surprise off the galley stove onto the sole. Ugh! Too late to want to fully clean up the greasy mess, I set the pot and remaining contents into the cockpit and returned to the berth. Sometime later, I heard and felt the otter boarding, and knew exactly what and why. I was using a curtain over the companionway and REALLY didn't want it visiting me below. I jumped up fast, and it bolted, never to return. Apparently, I'm the scary one. It's the only time I knowingly had an otter on board (so far), which always surprised me as a liveaboard.