Your worst memory when you were trying to spot or take pictures of the ships?

[ftakma]

I have so many.
The shipyard's security put me in a room for an hour trying to learn why I was taking pictures in NY.
I felt down so many times, once I almost broke my leg.
I was chased by dogs, luckily, did not get bitten.
I got a traffic ticket because I slowed the car on the bridge.
Two drunk men wanted me to take their pictures which I did. They gave me their emails for me to send them which I did again.
What are your memories?

[Tom Walker]

Travelled 40+ miles to Calshot in Hampshire (UK) to photograph a Shell VLCC leaving Fawley and just got there in time, only to find I had forgotten my camera!!

Best regards

Keep Safe and Well

Tom

[Robert J Smith]

When, after a good days shipspotting, I realised that the film hadn't been gripped by the wind-on spool 
Don't have that problem with digital 

[lappino]

Getting detained for trespassing.
Getting chased (and bitten) by dogs.
Tripping and falling, with blood all over the place, several times.
Getting my car stuck on an icy road in the middle of the forest, in the night, with wolves howling nearby.
Making a "leap of faith" after being unable to climb down the cliff fifty meters above ground.
Being called a spy and had the police called on me.
...
...
...
Oh, wait, that's my other hobby.

Ship spotting wise, I had my share of losing equipment and missed opportunities, but the worst memory of every ship spotting trip was time not spent with the "significant other".

[Kyle Stubbs]

Had a great month of taking some fantastic ship photos both around my local harbor, and on a short road trip to the Columbia River. Then, had my home broken into, with my camera, and the camera card with all of those photos, stolen...

[Simon Olsen]

Hmmm
Quite a few over nearly 40 years but, among the worst:
Breaking an ankle while trying to reach the riverfront at Gravesend for a Chinese general cargo;
Watching an ex Bank line inbound to Rotterdam (I was in the B&B packing to go back to UK);
Arriving at Vlissingen with no spare film (luckily Kodachrome was available in the town);
Being arrested as a suspected terrorist in front of an unmarked British consulate house on the Bosphorus;
Stepping on broken glass at Kandilli on the Bosphorus and, three hours later, patched up, being soaked to the waist by the wash of a passing coastguard vessel (which at least cleaned most of the blood off the promenade)
Happy days

[Petros Psarras]

Had a small car crash chasing a ship...it was neither my fault nor other driver's fault... just a lorry was parked illegaly and hided both my and other driver's road view and when the crash happened the lorry left , so the driver of it would not be the one to take the blame... Both insurances paid us due to camera but couldnt find the lorry car plate....

[sisko111]

5-6 years ago,winter time. I slipped and fell into the sea. luckily the camera remained dry.
Also detained for trespassing.
And lately, on April 28th
I chased Eurogracht by my boat and the bloody honda 5 outboard engine had a failure and called for help and the good guys from the port authority towed me back into the port..
Cheers Sinisa

[Patrick Hill]

My worst was sadly seeing someone jump off the Humber bridge as I was heading on to it to take ship photos 

[Adrian Ford]

Travelling 200 miles up to Teeside and the day I got there they went on sy=trike for my whole holiday

[Jens Boldt]

Had the same sad experience as Patrick. I was sitting on the banks of Kiel Canal when someone jumped from the Grünental bridge. As I was the one who called the police I had to witness the police dragging the poor soul out of the water. And a woman standing next to me asked me (and she was serious) why I didn't take any photos of the salvage of the corpse...

[shipcam]

Lots of things but here are a just a few.
About 20 years ago was rushing to clamber down rocks to get to water level so as to hide background behind a small ship coming in. Rocks were wet and I had sand on the soles of my shoes so slipped and landed on the rocks heavily. Fractured three ribs and smashed the camera lens completely !
One day out on the bumboat at Singapore a small hair somehow got into the back of the camera when changing films (remember those). Several weeks later when I received the slides back found about a dozen films of those takings were ruined by the hair mark across each picture. It was the only sunny day of the whole 10 day trip there.
Being on a cruise and not having my camera up on deck with me. Sighted an approaching old freighter so dashed down into the labyrinth of corridors to my cabin many decks down to get the camera. Dashed back up again just in time to see this oldie disappearing into the distance astern. Combined speed of two passing ships is deceptively fast !!
Similar to others, travelling 150kms, one way, to get a particularly unusual ship arriving and finding it had just berthed, one hour early and no way to even get an alongside shot and nothing else moving that day so back home another 150kms without a shot fired !

[Emmanuel.L]

My worst memory comment is not of something from yesterday ,but I am thinking in  the future , the worst memory and I think of lots of others is because of the Corona Crisis ,the ports are closed and nothing worth photographing can be seen, Cruise ships are a thing of yesterday, even container ships and others are at a minimum.Let us hope that it will a bad memory soon.
Hope that our hobby will be resurrected soon, I am resorting to digging up old photos sent in by my friends and from my shoebox.
Keep safe my friends.
regards
Emmanuel.L.(Malta)

[libertyshiplad]

A crowded Gravesend Promenade around 1950,around high tide,typical Thames procession of ships up & down."Hermes" appeared built 1881,iron hull,1317 GT with timber cargo.
Always great to see old ships,but couldn't get much older than that! Probably best memory.
Soon after badly bitten by a dog that jumped out from behind someones deck chair.I suppose on balance really a best memory though !!

[Paul Finnigan]

My worst memory was riding down to the port on my bicycle only to find on arrival that my pannier bag had fallen off which contained my camera , phone and wallet somewhere on the 15km trip.I rode back the same way and found it 6km down the road , someone had picked it up and placed it on a fence with camera and phone ,wallet still in it so thanks to that person who ever they are.