i try looping a rope around a post

Ah, yes. Easy in theory. Even when the situation is slightly complicated by the fact that the ends of the rope need to be attached to a 76 foot boat (the idea being that the rope looped around the post will stop the boat drifting back into the $3 million Sunseeker on the post behind you), it's still pretty easy...

It was easy. I chucked the rope around the post, gave it as much slack as I could, and tied it off on the boat. I was happy. The skipper (we'll call him Brian) was happy. The big boss (the owner) probably didn't really care either way. And I can't speak for everyone on board but I'm pretty sure, if they cared, they would've been happy with loop/post job I had done too. The charter continued on in a very jovial manner for the next hour or so.

I went inside to do stuff and generally be productive. I felt a slight jolt run through the boat. It was a little odd. I went onto the bow to investigate. The people on the bow were chatting away merrily. But something wasn't right. The post we were supposed to be attached to was now much further away and we had just drifted back into the post that the $3 million Sunseeker behind us was attached to.

My knots were still in place. The rope wasn't broken. The loop was still there. It just wasn't around the post. See? It's harder than you think. All I had to do was put a loop round a post and somehow I managed to screw it up.

We started the boat up and reapproached the post. This time I wasn't taking any chances. My rope was going to loop around the post and, Goddamnit, it was going to stay there! Or at least one of them was. Always good to have a backup.