I wanted to share a "story" about the exploits of my tamer, who is not a member of GRI. Violeta is in DoJ. I hope it is alright to share it here. Kinda funny, kinda sad...

Violeta is in desperate need to train her taming skills. I've never played a tamer before, and I thought I'd give it a try. She was created using an advanced character token 2 months ago. She has had to rely on using a +15 Taming bracelet and a +15 Lore ring in order to be "competitive." Last night, I wanted to finally GM Vet and get Lore as close to GM as possible. I equipped my jewelry and my armor, tamed 2 gaman, and brought them to my house. I was healing them as they fought. For some reason, I got the bright idea to train the skills on a boat. Guess I heard the skill gain was better when moving around. I grabbed my boat and slowly headed South from Haven docks. Everything was going well. Gains still were slow, but I did manage to GM Vet and get just over 98 Lore. Here is where it gets interesting. I ran across a water elemental. When I saw it, I totally went blank. For some reason, I didn't try to kill it. I tried to run away...to the other side of the boat...hehe Mistake #1. well, it killed me and my gaman. I wound up guiding my boat just north of Vesper. By this time my corpse turned to bones. As soon as I got off the boat, I saw 2 wandering healers. I thought my troubles were over. NOPE! They rezzed me, and when I opened my pack, nothing was in it! I then remembered that I cancelled insurance on everything when I was out taming cu's a few nights ago. (I die a lot, but the shrine is close enough that I don't worry about getting back to my corpse) Mistake #2. Scared, I ran to my boat only to realize that I must have locked it when putting the gang plank up. (I never sailed much) Mistake #3. Panicked, I tried to open my corpse. I was able to do that after some moving about to get close enough. What I saw made my stomach turn. Not only did I forget to insure my stuff, I failed to empty my pack before going off to train on the boat. Mistakes #4, 5, 6, and so on. Before I got the "bright idea" to train skills, Obsidian and I were sharing powerscrolls. He gave me a big bag of them to pick through. I must have lost about 20-25 of them. Needless to say, I freaked out. Because my corpse was on the boat and I was on land, I had the distinct opportunity to watch my bones disappear, along with an expensive suit of armor, powerscrolls, and other things of personal value.

Chalk it up to my stupidity, inattentiveness, or whatever. It was a sad time. Yet, there is a certain humor in it. It is funny how I went blank and tried to run away from the elemental...What ws I thinking?!?!

Well, at least I gave myself something else to do. I now have to either work back up enough gold to buy the armor I lost or camp Doom to get some of the items back. Heh, probably will be both. Also, if Obsidian doesn't kill me first, I will need to do quite a few champ spawns to get those powerscrolls back to him.

Just wanted to share my story. I hope you enjoyed it. Please note: I am not upset at my losses. I got over the initial shock of my incredible lack of common sense. It is actually kinda humorous now that I think about it. Maybe I should start up a "Stupidity Fund" for those of us who do bone-head stuff like me. hehe. *Hangs up a sign* "Donations Accepted Here!" lol

You are not the only one that wears that t-shirt from time to time around here.

There is some sort of thing about the boat key. When you float your boat, you get a key in your pack and one in your bank box. If you can get to the bank, you can click on the key in your bank box and get back to your boat. Or so I've heard as I've not tried that yet.

I have a similar story to yours. When I first joined UO, I bought a boat because it was a must have item in the old Nintendo Ultima games I played years ago. First few times out I went all over the place and had a great time looking at the unexpected things in the middle of nowhere. Then, still being relatively new and a weak character, I ran across a water elemental that killed me pretty quick. I tried giving my oarsman commands but he didn't listen to me. I figured it was because I was dead. So, as my ghost floated around for a couple of weeks, I went about creating another character. Every so often I'd check in on the ghost to see if she'd floated anywhere near land. Finally she had but it was on a island with nothing but big snakes so she stayed a ghost. One night I met Tidas on a dock and told him my story. He told me how to get the oarsman to listen - I had to walk up next to him and give my commands. It worked. Then the trick was getting to Skara Brae where Tidas was waiting to rez me. I never did make it to Skara Brae but did make it to a dock where I was rezzed and able to put that boat up! After a few days, ran into Tidas again and he has become one of my best friends in UO. He's shown me many cool things about this game, taken me lots of scary places - like Ice Fiends and Wind, given me lots of goodies for my house - which he helped me find and buy, and he keeps my armor color coordinated. Sometimes being dead on a boat works out.

if u can get to the bank get the key from bank box and cast recall on it putting you on the boat...if your pets arent blocking the recall spot...its really tough to get to shore get a rez and get to bank and back to boat fast enough but it is possible