When I was about 10/11 I was living in Torquay, a large seaside town on the south coast of Devon. In the summer you could hire small motor boats from the harbour for two shillings and sixpence per hour. You were only supposed to use them in the confines of the inner and outer harbours but me being me, got bored and decided to take it out of the outer harbour into the REAL sea. The weather was calm and I set off around the coast towards Hope's Nose (a long promontory to the east of Torquay and about 2 miles away), there was a large sea cave there I knew about from fishing and I planned to explore it from the inside. Mission accomplished, after about an hour I set off back to the harbour but ran out of petrol about half way back. The tide was on the ebb and i was rapidly being taken out into Torbay were the waves were more than enough to swamp a little boat with no power. I was taking on water at a fair rate and if it hadn't been for a passing motor yacht I would have eventually sunk, there were no safety rules back then so no life jacket, and although I could swim I don't think I could have made it back to shore as I was probably a mile out. I was taken back to the harbour and severely admonished by the boat hirer AND made to pay another 2s/6p for the extra time.
I was late home for tea and made up some excuse why I was late, missed the bus or something. I never told my parents about my little adventure although it could have turned out much more serious.
My "odyssey" (approx) ...