While waiting for Mike Beswick to relate the Unchain My Yacht, I will share my most painful experience on a sailboat. So, after trolling during a sail in the Grenadines I stored the rod and it's really big hook on the lifeline and then promptly jammed my arm solidly onto the hook. So, there I was standing there with this damn thing stuck into the inside of my right forearm. I first started to just pull it out and quickly discovered why it had that big barb on the end, pulling it would have torn up the arm - and it was painful enough already. In the back of my mind I knew that hook would need to be shoved so the barb would come out, but didn't really want to seriously consider that. It so happened I had a surgeon and 2 nurses onboard and they took over. The nurses started pouring Hydrogen stuff on the wound and dosing the patient with dark rum. By this time it seemed like everyone on the boat had taken their turn wriggling the hook to see just how well set it really was - with sweat running down my face. Now the surgeon took over and without saying a word not-too-kindly pushed and twisted the hook so the barb was sticking out of the arm - did I mention how painful this all was (more dark rum!)? Now I had the hook shaft sticking out one part of the arm the the barb sticking out next to it. Now the fun started as we quickly learned just how strong those hooks are and we had nothing that would cut off the barb. So someone got on the horn and called around to boats in the harbor explaining the problem and sure enough some kind soul showed up with a proper wire cutter. After jiggling the hook around some more to get it into position for the cutter (did I mention how painful it was every time the hook was moved? - more dark rum) it was snipped off. The surgeon promptly pulled the remaining hook back out. After the nurses finished dressing the wound (and the patient) and I was almost knocked out from exhaustion I asked a nurse why it was all so painful. I will never forget her explanation, "you have to understand that surgeons do not normally operate on people who are wide awake!"

The post script is that as a joke the surgeon had his billing people send me a rather funny invoice for his services. The joke went away when I received a notice when I had not paid the bill in within 30 days. Also, the surgeon and I are still great friends.