Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related FFQ: Sailboats without wind

So say you're on a decent sized lake in a decent sized sailboat [at least for a lake not like you're going on a world tour or anything] and the wind just... dies.

You have no superpowered Kryptonian to help you, what's the backup?

Oars?
Motor?
Cell phone?

Help?

TIA .
Carol

I'd probably use the radio on the boat, assuming it had one, and cry "SOS!" Failing that, then the cell, but that has its own problems: Depending on how large the lake is, you may have to use one of those special satellite cell phones (because cell towers only reach so far from shore), but I'm not the expert on that.

If ONLY I had a Kryptonian at my disposal . . . *sigh*

Decent sized lake in a national forest...

Guessing no radio though but I don't know if they're required or whatever...

Carol

Look at tip 5:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2211417_propel-sailboat.html

More specific:
http://www.woodenboat.net.nz/Stories/Sculling/scullone.html

Good luck with your writing =)

This is *super* fuzzy, but I went sailing when I was about 10...about every 5 years or so I forget that I get totally seasick heh, but anyway, there wasn't enough wind to put the sail up that day, so we...turned on the motor? Do some sailboats have motors? I distinctly remember tooling around the lake, so we had to have something propelling us besides wind.

JD

Some sailboats have motors, others don't, but a halfway smart sailboat owner would put oars aboard, probably a pair for everyone (or a single if the boat's too wide) who isn't at the tiller. And if it's rented, there are supposed to be oars (state or Federal regulations), but if it's borrowed there might not be.

Or, it's a rental and the previous renters got a wee bit drunky-poo and "accidentally" dropped the oars overboard and your character(s) rent the boat immediately after it's brought back and the owner of the business is too busy to inspect it and your character(s) want to go RIGHT NOW! and the wind dies and Jack's a donut, there you are.

On the lake near my home, almost every boat has a motor on it, regardless of whether or not they have sails. (Actually pontoons and tritoons are more popular, but... ) Many of the motor boats also have oars, just in case.

Of course, the lake we frequent is small and in a very populated area. It would be difficult to be stranded for too long without somebody noticing and contacting the water patrol.


Elisabeth

When I was much, much younger, my father would take the entire family on month-long vacations in the summer (he was in the USAF and got thirty days of leave each year), and often we would go with one or more military families. One year, my dad and two other men decided to test the theory that the fish on that particular lake in the northern US would be more receptive to fishermen's lures and baits in the hours before dawn.

Unfortunately, they forgot to fill the fuel tank for the small outboard motor on the boat. And, of course, they also forgot to bring spare paddles. They ended up paddling back with their hands in water that was closer to fifty degrees (F) than to body temperature, so none of them were in a good mood by the time they made it back to shore. My mother told us not to talk to Daddy until after noon that day.

That's a hilarious story. Of course that's what you'd do with no motor, no paddles and no wind. You'd just go home anyway you could.


Elisabeth