As of 7:15pm this evening, I was instrumental in the accidental (and irreversable) sinking of a $15,000 yacht.

What did you guys do this week?

Drugs, Mah Jongg, food, and television-- in that order. Nothing exciting.

My sincere condolences. I hope nobody was hurt. Is this the sort of situation which can be viewed humorously in retrospect at some far future date? Will you have a funny tale to tell your friends, or will it be upsetting and best forgotten? Were you wearing protective gear? Will lawyers track you down? Should i be careful to never make you cross, for fear of moist consequences?

Most of us are just starting our Mondays.

So thanks for giving us a low-water mark to measure our day against, so we can say "At least it didn't suck THAT much!"

In Response to Teledildonix (#15090):

humorously in retrospect

In retrospect? We were laughing all the way to the shore! (which was quite a swim, actually).

In brief: we capsized the (old and decrepit) yacht, then successfully righted it, but the buoyancy chambers were leaky and the whole thing slowly sank, taking with it my singlet (don't ask), several mobile phones and a set of car keys. It looked very Titanic. All hands survived unharmed, apart from the odd case of hypothermia. We sang Old Man River all the way to the bank.

On the swim into shore, we met a lone kayaker and convinced him to deliver an incredibly slow SOS to the yacht club. We clambered onto the bank in front of a ute with two guys in it, just sitting there. Don't know if we were interrupting anything, but we managed to get a lift back to the club, all five of us sitting on the tray and giggling hysterically. (And me in my bra. It was nuts, i tells ya).

It just kept getting better ... the skipper wasn't meant to be there at all - he told his girlfriend he was going running and he told the running team he was working. As we jumped off the back of the ute, dripping wet and laughing like absolute loons, the entire running team jogged slowly past.

In Response to tynic (#15092):

What a relief to find that you and your bra have such an unflagging sense of humor.

In Response to tynic (#15092):

ute

What's a ute?
(No, I'm not looking for obscure reference here, there's no applicable definition in Webster's dictionary.)

Glad you're all ok.

In Response to Rich (#15102):

I assumed naïvely that it was a "utility vehicle"-- perhaps like a "pickup-truck" in American English-- and not quite the same as an "S-U-V".

My weekend was strangely the same as yours. Except you'd replace $15,000 yacht with recently renovated chicken coup and then sank it with burnt it down like a mofo.

In Response to Rich (#15102):

A ute is kind of like a pickup truck, except being non americans we didn't go through the evolution of turning them into vehicles that can fit other vehicles in the tray...

When I was in the states I saw vehicles that, from a distance look like utes, then you realise they are actually a lot further away than you thought and are actually some form of heavy industry vehicle. Oddly enough they were almost all completely shiny and clean, i.e. non work related dirty.

We are slowly getting these vehicles imported, this is bad.

In Response to Rich (#15102):

To clarify (and fortify) all this here, I'd like to say for the record that a ute is not the same in any way to a pickup. That's a truck.

Imagine this: you have a 4 door family sedan with a 6 or 8 cylinder engine. As of the b piller (between the front and back doors) you cut everything behind then replace it with a tray. Viola, a ute! No beefing of the chassis, no V12 turbo-diesels, nothing. Just a family car with 2 doors and a tray.

In Response to unFalln (#15121):

Just a family car with 2 doors and a tray.

Nope, that's an El Camino, hoss.

Think a Subaru Brat on Meth.

In Response to deerboy (#15125):

Ute.

In Response to tynic (#15126):

The only previous time i'd noticed the word was in this other context [nau.edu]. I was watching an episode of South Park, when Wendy Testaburger was orating at an elementary school play, for the American Thanksgiving holiday. She mentioned the "hearty Ute indians", and the genocide of the nineteenth century.

In Response to Teledildonix (#15131):

Ah, but I think in that context it's pronounced "yoo-tay", whereas in Aussie it's a straight-forward "yoot".

In Response to tynic (#15133):

And to think all this time I thought I pronounced ute as 'ute'.

By the way, to appeal to these American-types, you could've used something a little more strayan than a jap trayback.

In Response to unFalln (#15134):

It was the first ute I came across on the google image search. You're welcome to dig deeper, of course. Actually as a depiction of the rescue vehicle, it is somewhat inaccurate, as the ute we utilised had no side-boards, but was rather a completely flat tray.

In Response to tor (#15120):

We are slowly getting these vehicles imported, this is bad.

I am truly, truly sorry. Even without George Bush, I'm sure the exportation of SUVs would be enough to make the world hate us.

In Response to tynic (#15092):

Against all warning, I am now asking about the singlet.

Was there wrestling involved? ;)

In Response to mcgrue (#15148):

Against all warning, I am now asking about the singlet.

Well, it's not that interesting. Another girl and I swam out a few hundred metres to get on the yacht in the first place, because we didn't want to wait for the dinghy. I took my singlet off to try and dry it a little.

What's slightly more interesting is that the three other (male) yacht inhabitants were all naked when we finally got there. I was hauled aboard at eye level with an unfamiliar penis.

Some (clothed) wrestling was later involved.

In Response to tynic (#15151):

an unfamiliar penis.

So, did you introduce yourself?

In Response to zamphir (#15152):

Sometimes there just isn't time ...

In Response to porcupine8 (#15138):

I am truly, truly sorry. Even without George Bush, I'm sure the exportation of SUVs would be enough to make the world hate us.

Does it count as exporting if they're not made here?

In Response to Teledildonix (#15131):

From Merriam-Webster's online dictionary:

UTE
Pronunciation: 'yüt
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural Ute or Utes
Etymology: short for earlier Utah, Utaw, from American Spanish Yuta
1 : a member of an American Indian people orig. ranging through Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico
2 : the Uto-Aztecan language of the Ute people

When I brought up "What's a ute?" I was refering to the line from 'My Cousin Vinny' but didn't know what a ute was.

In Response to tynic (#15136):

I have no real idea what they actually look like generally, but maybe this is a better photo of an Ute [martybugs.net].

If this is true, then yes, the El Camino is fairly similar, althought it is not nearly so chunky looking.

Oh, and by the way, most Americans need big, powerful trucks because we live in a large country, and you never know when we might be asked to help haul away a giant mountain or something.

In Response to tynic (#15151):

What's slightly more interesting is that the three other (male) yacht inhabitants were all naked when we finally got there. I was hauled aboard at eye level with an unfamiliar penis.

No wonder he lied to his girlfriend.

Um, was this planned or expected nudity? You know, like sometimes you see naked and you think "OH no, I was not expecting naked."

In Response to tynic (#15153):

So, what you're saying is that you climbed, naked, onto a boat.

Which immediately capsized...

They must be tremendous.