Comments by "Hermit Oldguy" (@hermitoldguy6312) on "Why There's ONLY 25 Blimps Left | Tales From the Bottle" video.

  1. I chased one across the North Sea once. It was tethered to the ground until a small cloud came by and struck it with lightning, breaking the tether. Then it headed off for Norway - albeit looking rather floppy. We spent about 12 hours in a fishing boat chasing it and dragging it back to land.
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  2.  @werbnaright5012  Your version of events is very different to mine.
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  3. t's the outline of a great story - a comedy with a few moments of real danger,  but for the most part it was miserable. We had no food or drink, nor even any cigarettes. It was cold, damp, noisy and uncomfortable.  My only contribution to the whole event was when I nearly stabbed my friend in the face with a boat hook. .
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  4. A few more details, since I'm not busy ... When the balloon was "struck" it just sort of fizzled and smoked from the  cable net that surrounded the body of the balloon. Then there was a  bucket-sized flash down at ground level, next to the winch. The winch  operator ran. Then the tether began falling out of the sky, and the rest  of us ran. (Yes, I know that seems contradictory - just accept it.) Because this was not the first time the balloon had wandered off, it had  been fitted with a radio-control so that it could be remotely deflated. It didn't work well - I think the balloon got out of range quite quickly, but it worked well enough to make the balloon "touch down" a few miles from shore. Then sea-water got in and shorted out the battery.  Once we reached the balloon, the big problem was in trying to rope it. Our captain was loath to get his boat under it, because it could tip us over and sink us. Since we didn't have a single life-jacket between us, I approved of his caution. (For that same reason, we passengers couldn't all stand on one side of the boat, hence my doing nothing to help, beyond finding the  boat hook and nearly killing someone with it.) What the others did manage to do was remove the battery box with the remote controller inside. I can't say if that was a good idea or not, but while that was going on, the lifeboat arrived. They ordered us away so they could try to rope it.- which we did. They came in and fired ropes over the top of the balloon. That didn't seem to help. Then we went back in for another go. After a long  time, the life-boat crew told us to give up. We didn't, but they did - they went home . Eventually we got the balloon secured alongside, and it tried to pull us further out to sea - the tide was going out. We spent some long time just staying still, until the captain announced we were making half a knot - which cheered us greatly. Some time later we were making one and a half knots, and at last the lights on shore seemed to be getting closer.
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  5.  @jonnawyatt  Thanks, Jonna
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  6.  @J3diMindTrix  Perhaps it looks fictional because it hasn't got any facts in it; no place, no date, no names.
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  7.  @jamestuccillo  Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)
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