My first time out, 1982, Virginia Key, ocean side. I just bought my first cat, H-18, and had never sailed a boat before in my life. There were several cats on the beach, none were putting up sails. The wind (in retrospect) was 20 plus. I proceeded to set up the boat and hoisted sails. While hoisting the jib, it ripped from the flogging. A little duct tape later I was sailing east at 15 plus, never having sailed I had neve tacked or jibed, and was heading to Havana. Soon, I was in the shipping lanes and almost out of sight of land where we decided to turn back. We noticed that the lee shroud was hanging free just as we turned to tack.
The mast came down.
The rescue.... A friend of mine, George Griffin, just happened to see us out there. He was the owner of a Nacra 5.2 and a solo sailor. He saw us in the water and sailed by us and threw us his jib sheet with his #4 float attached, I swam out to it and grabbed it as he flew by. I got stretched as I slowed the boat down and fought to get back to my boat. We finally made it back to my boat and George toed us back. The Coast Guard Chopper came by and put an eye on us, we gave them a thumbs up and waved them off as the 5.2 towed us back to the beach.

My first time out, no clew about wind or weather....