Sweet, Sweet Rain.

[Rizuidad]

After the longest of droughts in the southwest, a triffid of rain has at long last descended from the skies. I can only hope that it will last and grow into a nice dousing of aquatic befallement upon our parched soil. Even as I write, I hear loud booming thunder, flashes of lightning illuminate my darkened room from within.

It's a bit spooky. But I thought in this eerie environment we could tell each other some of our best sea-stories. Stretch them out, let us hear that tale of the one that got away, came back and slapped you in the face while you clung like a ragdoll to the tossing mast of the U.S.S. enterprise. The stormy seas, churning like a mass of salt and beans and bacon. We all know that is the fare of a sailor!

I'll go first.

One time, I took a boat out to the bay at the early dawn. I was a young boy but I had been using my father and uncle's boat for years. I knew how to navigate the waters, though I vaguely recalled that morning that a dense fog would be rolling in. As I cast my line from the boat, I remember the soft chirping of crickets and frogs. It was warm and humid. I could see a few stars just before the sun came up.

Anyway, my line felt a strong tug and I knew it was a good bass. Anastacio helped me with the net, but just before we dropped it, he tossed his cigarette butte out to the side of the boat. What we were unaware of was that the gas tank on the boat, the line, had come loose from the underside and had gotten cut by the rotor a while back while we were coming out, but had failed to ignite before we turned off the engine, so the water surrounding the boat was actually topped off with a bit of gasoline. Just as old bessie flew out, the entire boat was surrounded in flames. I lurched back from the surface of the water, yelling, and pushing Anastacio. It was hard to see because the fog had rolled in by this time, making everything red and blurry.

The last thing we wanted to do was abandon ship, and starting the engine was out of the question. I thought I would die. I huddled down in the boat, choking on the fumes, and blacked out.

Anastacio was covered in severe burns that day.But from what I hear, what I was told, he wrapped me in a blanket that my uncle always kept on the boat and jumped over board. He swam under the water for several feet, finally pulling me to shore. I guess that makes him my hero, cause he lost his sight that day, going through those flames, as well. The skin grew back, but his vision never did.

[xSilverPhinx]

I guess for people who were dragged into that situation it's a difficult one, but for those who went of their own accord...well...they must know what's involved. Shit happens.

Not worth it for fishing, though.

(btw, I don't know that if for some I have to mention that this is not meant to be read literally)

[Rizuidad]

Perdon. That didn't actually happen. It's a sea tale we tell. You know, out on the pacific at night. 

[xSilverPhinx]

What's it for? A warning? To strike fear? Doesn't sound so pacific to me...

[Rizuidad]

No, I mean its just a sea tale. Like a ghost story. When your out on yer boat, you tell sea tales. It was raining here, so I thought we could tell some sea tales. Nothing particularly pacific about it. Sorry if I worried you, though.

[Shy]

    When I was a young teen my family had a zoo that went under. We decided to sell the animals and pack up and move to Canada. Some animals were on the trip too, being sold to North American zoos. I was restless on the barge one night and decided to go up on deck for fresh air. All of the sudden I heard a noise and the barge tipped suddenly. I started to go back to my family but the floors were rapidly filling with water! Suddenly a crew member threw me overboard onto a life boat. Everything happened so fast, yet slow. And slowly is when I saw the hyena on the life boat with me, and the zebra with a broken leg. I scuttled to the furthermost corner of the boat, with one eye on the hyena, the other on the barge that was almost underwater.

   As me, the hyena, and zebra floated in the ocean for days, waiting for rescue, I realize there is also a tiger in the boat with us!! Deciding the boat was no place for me to be, I found a small door on the life boat full of supplies. I made myself a raft. Deciding I'd have better luck with the sharks.

   Over the next couple weeks the tiger found nourishment on the zebra then the hyena, while I caught a few fish. There was no way to kill the tiger so I decided to find a way to co-exist with it. I supplied water and food, and I think the tiger knew it. I eventually lived on the life boat again, "marking" my territory, trying to keep us both alive.

   We lost at sea for 18 months before we reached a beach in Mexico and were rescued.

(NOT, taken from the book Life of Pi)  

[Rizuidad]

Damn, shy! That's a good one. Anyone else?

[Shy]

Thanks. 

I never get to go out on the sea. Is this thread kinda like fish stories where you catch one THIIIIIIIIIIS big. (with arms spayed far apart)

[xSilverPhinx]

No, I mean its just a sea tale. Like a ghost story. When your out on yer boat, you tell sea tales. It was raining here, so I thought we could tell some sea tales. Nothing particularly pacific about it. Sorry if I worried you, though.

I see. I'm so clueless at times   Sheltered life, I guess.

I'll give it a go:

I was once, many years ago, alone on my small and humble fishing boat headed towards the mysterious and somewhat mythical area known as the Bermuda's Triangle, or the lesser known Devil's Triangle. I had heard the legends, and read the stories, but to one such as myself, with little consideration for what I dismissed as just fairy tales born out of imaginative minds, decided to take my chances and sail the Devil's Sea.

What the waters take, they do not give back. I only wish I had known it then.

What I had found, after enduring the raging waters with the heated obsession of Captain Ahab on a journey which would put that of Homer's Odysseus to shame, was a whole other world. The small stories told about the mystery of that area do not do the real thing justice but leave it colourless and unreal, lost to those who would see it for what it is.

But I must stop there, because even though I'm here, I never left the Devil's Sea, and I'll never get back what I left there all those years ago.

[The Magic Pudding]

The rain continued into the morning, it occurred to me this was a most unusual occurrence so I checked the sugar bowl.  As I suspected the lid was off, I replaced it, the rain stopped.  While reaching for my hat I adjusted my eye patch, 'cause a man such as myself never wastes a moment on merely a single task.

Out on the deck it was immediately apparent Chumbo hadn't landed the paper as instructed, but he's a foreigner you know, poor devil, we have to make allowances, up to a point.  I checked my weapon, 'cause just like McQ I know guns are for nuns and Huns and other eaters of cream buns.

As I stared into the sea my gaze was met by a Dugong, she rolled and winked provocatively.  I aimed at her eye but shot her in the tail, death shouldn't come too soon as a warning to her kind.  With my cleverly barbed gaff I hooked her calf and tossed the beast into the air, slicing it in flight halves fell to the ground for my hound.