Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Be careful, you may get more attention than you think

Once upon a time when I was sailing between Oahu and Molokai, some buddies flew by and buzzed me. Decided to give them something to look at so shot off a 25 gauge rocket flare. They waggled their wings and eventually got tired of buzzing me in their A-4s which were very very noisy going overhead at well under the FAA minumums. I was in the Navy atationed at VC-1 on Oahu and they were squadron mates who knew I was on leave and sailing between the Islands. Your government dollars at work. Anyhow, about a 1/2 hour after I'd sent off the floor, a CG C-130 comes down the channel and circled me a couple of times before continuing on. Assume someone on Molokai or Lanai had seen the flare and called the CG. Nothing ever came of it but I was sweating an unfriendly knock on the door by the Feds for a couple of weeks.

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