That "twisted pretzel" line is exactly how my cheap chain hoist looked.

That Phoenix heat would have killed my old Paslode for sure.

That exact thing happened to me on the Olympic coast. The tide charts said 3:15 PM, but the surge started rolling in hard by 2:30. Now I always add a two hour buffer, minimum, and I physically circle the safe exit points on my paper map with a red pen. If you can't see your next escape route, you've already gone too far.