Boating in Coconut Grove, Danger Lurks. By Geniusofdespair

Boating in Coconut Grove -- or anywhere -- has tales of safety and of course, etiquette.

What is the woman above wearing that is really a problem for boats?

The black clunky heels of course. They leave scuff marks on the white or light color of the floor of the boat. No one wears shoes on a boat.

Now for the second tale and this one is a whopper...a true story of DANGER AT SEA.

Four guys go 20 miles offshore in this boat, pictured above. It has one engine and no kicker engine to back it up a pretty dangerous boat for offshore fishing. That is way too far for such an old engine on a 23 foot boat.

They got the 20 miles offshore where they wanted to troll and the engine conked out when they slowed down. It would not start again. They tried and tried to restart it and only the battery got drained. Apparently they had water in the fuel. Hmmm? How did that happen?

Anyway they looked miles to the East and saw a giant  gargantuan freighter coming their way. They lit a flare and then another. The container ship did not veer away from them. They called the coast guard and asked them to call the ship. Apparently the freighter was operating without looking where they were going assuming everything would get out of their way. The little pro-line owner said they were all ready to jump overboard but they didn't know which way to swim and figured they would just get sucked under the freighter as it passed. Finally the freighter came up on them and missed them by about 200 feet.

The boat called Seatow -- they were adrift in the gulf stream -- and the rescue occurred somewhere in Northern Broward County, a long way from their starting point of Coconut Grove. Thank God they had plenty of beer to tide them over during their long ordeal at sea.

What have we learned from this harrowing tale? Don't wear a bow on a dimpled butt.