Now that is some good advice Marco. Thanks for sharing it with us. The ocean is nothing to be taken for granted. It can turn from beautiful to dangerous in the flick of an eye.

I had the misfortune of being onboard a friend's 17 foot whaler down off Carp one evening in the winter time when we sheared the drive shaft in half when he fired up the motor. With no backup source of propulstion we were S.O.L. A little quick thinking by me while we were still on the horseshoe rock high spot really saved our butts that evening. I took every rope in the boat and tied them together and threw the anchor out. We had just enough scope to hold us in 50 feet. We sat there for 2.5 hous waiting for Vessel Assit from Channel Islands to get up to Carp because Vessel Assist SB was already out at the islands. I am not exaggerating one bit when I say that the very MOMENT that they clipped us in to be towed back a sundowner wind kicked up that was blowing a steady 30 and probably gusting to 40mph. The tow back to SB took another 2 hours in the dark of getting absolutely slammed by the wind waves. So don't forget an anchor when you're out there and don't forget plenty of rope.

I never went on that guy's boat again but he told me that a few months later when he got it fixed up they again lost power off Summerland and wound up drifting ashore and beaching the boat. Luckily for them there was no surf to speak of, but man you just can't be horsing around out there and thinking everythings a-ok as long as you have a motor on the back of your boat.