# Post your most dangerous situation offshore !!



## brentwhitis (Jan 25, 2008)

This should be fun ! Everyone has a Story Or Two!! Let's Hear 'Em !

We just finished the trip from Ft. Myers, Fl. to Matagorda.
We had a great trip, took 7 days total. Fished a little, nothing great. A few groupers at the Middle Grounds off Florida. 1 quick short day in Venice with nothing to report. The new 36 Cabo did great !! What a fishing machine ! Can't wait to really fish it hard here in Matagorda. The boat name is the "Bottom Line"

Thanks again for all the PM's about the trip and advise from everyone ! tHANK GOODNESS, WE HAD NO DANGEROUS SITUATIONS.........this time !


---- LET'S HEAR ABOUT YOUR DANGEROUS SITUATIONS OFFSHORE ---------

Brent


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## freespool (Oct 1, 2005)

Being a yacht engine mechanic for 20 years traveling the globe there have been quite a few.
Been in the engine room when they ran aground several times. Been in there when something caught fire a couple of times. Been down there a couple of times when an engine blew. A run in with a Tunisian naval boat at 2:00 am off the coast of North Africa was interesting. When they finally identified themselves it got a little calmer. Seas big enough going to Brazil the entire back deck was awash most of the time.

But once in my boat we got down to the last beer and I had to fend the crew off with a gaff to get it for myself. That was a close one.


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## SharkBait >*)\\\><( (May 16, 2012)

was a wireman in a marlin tournament in Kona, we had a double on, one fish going on way the other going the opposite with line disappearing fast on both tiagra 80 wide spools..the captain throws a life jacket and VHF at me and pretty much throws me overboard in 20,000+ feet of water..took about 15-20 minutes for them to land and release the bigger marlin and come back and get me (felt like an hour, they have some F****** big sharks there) got back on the boat and landed my 400pound marlin..won the tournament (the owner of the boat made around $178,000, i got less than two grand lol) don't ever want to do that again..the Pacific ocean is terrifying...


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## Swells (Nov 27, 2007)

Ever been in a white squall offshore before?


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## Captn C (May 21, 2004)

*Two for me!*

The first was in 1977 or 78...we were fishing out of Freeport in a 19' single engine boat. That was the CB radio, compass and flasher style depthfinder! We were about 25nmiles SE from the jetties when a TS formed around noon. We were tied to a shrimp boat when we felt a cool steady wind. My dad said something was wrong! Being tied to the stern of the shrimp boat it was hard to see into the wind, but we un-tied and there it was. The sky was BLACK north of us!

It was the first time we ever reached for the life jackets! We put them on and I set a compass bearing! My dad was trusting a 16yo at the helm in a he77 of a storm! Seas built to 10' in no time...we later heard the winds were steady at 50 knots!

3 hours later the storm starts to break and we see land. We are 3 miles east of the surf side bridge! By then the seas were better and we could run in the direction of the jetties.

The second was a 4 or 5 years ago. I had a group out fishing and picking up to move to a different spot. The boat wouldn't come up on plane! I backed off the thottles enough to maintane the speed we had. I thought the boat was full of water. I had one of the guys hold a course toward a maned rig while I checked the the bilges!

The hull was full and water was coming out of the hatch in the rear of the boat! I had recently added another bilge pump and both were not working!

At that time I did not have a manual pump onboard! Do now! So the only thing I could get into the bilge was a one gallon bucket! You ever bail a 25' boat hull out with a one gallon bucket! It seemed to take all day to get it down to a level I felt we were safe so I could figure out what was wrong. The new float swich failed and the new swich for the new pump must have had a little grease in the contacts. I did the in and out thing a few times and that pump came on! We fished the rest of the day.

When I got home I found a switch board that has lights that indicates when a pump is on and a horn to let you know you have high water.


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## Bottomsup (Jul 12, 2006)

Around 1978 or so when I was 10 I went out on my dads Hydra Sport with twin 135's. Some ex Navy man convinced us he knew all about navigating and driving a boat so we went out estimated 70k miles. Great day of fishing when there were no limits and as we headed in we noticed things didnt look right as in we normally rig bounced in and out because all we had was a CB radio and compass. Well it got dark and fuel gauge was on empty and we had no idea where we were. We finally saw lights and felt better but still no idea where the jetties were. Then all of the sudden the engines were dragging bottom. My dad slammed the throttles back and grabbed the wheel from Navy man. He knew we were about to beach the boat. We got lucky cruising the beach and found the Galveston jetties and almost got run over by a tanker in them. Bad part was we left out of Freeport. Good part was Navy man's wife was at the hotel in Freeport and was able to come get us so we could go back to Freeport get the truck and trailer. I was around 5AM when we got back to the hotel. Do any of you remember the public boat ramp across from Bridge Bait?


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## lordbater (May 21, 2004)

In our last boat, a deep V I/O not really designed for offshore, but handled it just fine on good days, and I believe this could happen to a better designed boat under similar circumstances..

Probably 2005
We fished about 45 miles out, overnight on a rig. Got limits of snapper some mahi. Had a buddy meet us out at first light. We put him on the snapper and found the mahi again, it got time to go home. I am almost always the navigator, in this instance the person who was not me was driving. It was really a no brainer. flat calm seas on top of 6-8 foot rollers about 15seconds apart, you could run pretty much wide open and have it timed just right, and every now and then have to lay off the gas just a little so as not to come off the top of one of the swells. well, the other person that was not me that was driving didn't lay off the throttle and we slightly broached and nailed the next swell face first. It separated the deck from the hull about 15' (read 7.5' each side) around the nose of the boat which promptly let in whatever knee deep is in a 21' deep V cuddy cabin.. which in turn shorted **** out on the dash and started a small fire killing the engine. my buddy boat was very close by, less than half mile behind me..

First thing I did was cuss the driver then hand out life jackets, they were easy to get to, they were floating right by me..

hit the fire with the closest of 3 fire extinguishers.. I'm still not sure what caught fire on the electronics behind there, probably the high amp relay for the windlass.

I wired this boat and did all the pumps myself. I always overpump boats, its a good habit.. The 3 THREE automatic pumps came on, I hit the dash for the manual pump which was a monster, the boat was dewatered in about 15 minutes, about 5 minutes longer than it took me to hotwire the motor (Chevy 350's are easy)

Anyway, we had a less than desireable cruising speed back home. On the way home found a monster weed line and I pulled in my personal best ling of 52lbs..

A

Edit, I always wire at least one auto pump directly to the battery with no fuse, this particular pump was the highest of the 3 and had a horn on it. I figure if a zip tie or something binds the pump up A) its under water, and B) it will burn the wire through. Fuses on bilge pumps make me nervous. We check our pumps every trip and the bilge almost as often as a beer is retrieved from the cooler..


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## DoubleDip (Sep 3, 2009)

Bringing in Snapper on July 18!!!!!!


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## FISH TAILS (Jan 17, 2005)

DoubleDip said:


> Bringing in Snapper on July 18!!!!!!


That is pretty funny right there i am sure it would suck!!!!!


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## lordbater (May 21, 2004)

so? nobody else gonna own up?


a


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## Swampus (Sep 1, 2005)

Fishing with 007 and he sunk the boat----nuf said!:headknock


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## Law Dog (Jul 27, 2010)

Off shore fishing several days and all of a sudden the blender broke, then the ice machine. What next? (LOL)


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## Swells (Nov 27, 2007)

Law Dog said:


> Off shore fishing several days and all of a sudden the blender broke, then the ice machine. What next? (LOL)


Running out of beer. Or mebbe too much.

Fortunately we remembered we have a couple 12's of Natty Light for shrimper trading, and iced that down fast while on the last 18 pack of the good stuff. The captain had his obligatory "2 beers" because he was driving, so us three deck apes finished all them beers each about the time we cleared the jetty coming home. Peed for 10 minutes passing all them jetty tuna fishermen.

Even had a real Oklahoma Indian with us - the fish stories were getting so wild I had to put on my shrimper boots. I think we had a few dogpile wrestling matches, but when the girls saw us pull up to the dock they busted out laughing - we were covered in blood, guts, snot, and bilge grease (something broke), and we couldn't hardly walk. One old boy fell into the mud but saved the International 50 wide ... took all of us and the girls ta get him outta the hole.

The indignity of it all. :cheers:


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

We were fishing a huge school of spinner dolphins about two months ago with tons of big Tuna in the school. We noticed a pretty nice sized storm coming in, but we were nailing the tuna and decided to just put the rain gear on. Wind started getting crazy, and then I noticed there was a particularly large amount of wind right in the center of the school! A waterspout formed right in the middle of the school we were fishing on and we had to jet out of there quick. It was throwing so much water around and you would actually see it spin the dolphins as they would jump out. Blew the top and the shade and everything cloth out of the boat, but we made it out alive  And we never lost the Tuna we had on either, just had a ton of line out...


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## crazytripp (Aug 14, 2011)

Last year we left city service A-133 and my boat wouldn't get on plane, I opened the rear hatch to find the hull completely full of water, bilge was shot, we had to close the live well intake valve and cut the hose so the live well would suck the water out of the hull and go out through the over flow, kinda tough to do when your shoulder deep in hull water and feelin around to try and fix a bad situation, I had a good buddy in the boat that is super smart (Chief Engineer), probably couldn't have done it without him. It allowed us to fish the rest of the day!!


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## Mulletmaster (Mar 1, 2010)

lordbater said:


> hell of a first post, keep up the good work..
> 
> a


 LMAO


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## Fishtexx (Jun 29, 2004)

lordbater said:


> hell of a first post, keep up the good work..
> 
> a


LMAO! He's a natural for the jungle!


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## flat185 (Jul 6, 2009)

Mulletmaster said:


> LMAO


X2


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## lordbater (May 21, 2004)

Ok, let's get this back on track.

Taking trolls or assclowns fishing with you is hazardous. When you have both those traits in one person disaster is imminent. I'd rather take a bushel of bananas personally..

A

Sent from my 8086 using Edlin.


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## FISH TAILS (Jan 17, 2005)

LMAO 
Man that is flat awesome!!!! 
Green coming your way!


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## Gold Nuggett (Sep 29, 2010)

I am also a sailor- went on the 250th Anniversary of the Royal Cork Yacht Club inb Ireland- 3 days of Irish hospitality and ready for a liver transplant we are racing to Brest(France) when the weather fpolk say "FULL GALE for all the coastal areas around us. Gale force wind is >35 knots- we had 85 knots for 3 days.- Gave up the race, converted to survival mode- Storm jib, storm trisail, then problem of boat too fast and was dropping off the 35 ft waves, so shortened the storm trisail for a smaller one and trailed warps(ropes) behind to slow us down. 3 days later the wind fell from storm down to gale force and the howling in the rigging calmed down a bit, got home to Cowes in one piece.
Most impressive is at 85 mph the whole sea surface is driving spume- like standing in front of a fire hose. Everyone with safety harness & full life jackets. one guy steers the other guy pumps the blige manually ( got to save the battery)
Point of honor to get the crewman next on watch out of bed with hot soup and give him no word of the drama of staying on course while steering the boat!!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

I'm surprised assclowns doesn't get the stars. "*******"


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## lordbater (May 21, 2004)

SailFishCostaRica said:


> I'm surprised assclowns doesn't get the stars. "*******"


Shhhhhh. I have a few in reserve, I try to use them only when necessary..

A

Sent from my 8086 using Edlin.


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## BIG PAPPA (Apr 1, 2008)

*Wow.. Only one other guy I know would do that for Me.*



SharkBait >*)\\\><( said:


> was a wireman in a marlin tournament in Kona, we had a double on, one fish going on way the other going the opposite with line disappearing fast on both tiagra 80 wide spools..the captain throws a life jacket and VHF at me and pretty much throws me overboard in 20,000+ feet of water..took about 15-20 minutes for them to land and release the bigger marlin and come back and get me (felt like an hour, they have some F****** big sharks there) got back on the boat and landed my 400pound marlin..won the tournament (the owner of the boat made around $178,000, i got less than two grand lol) don't ever want to do that again..the Pacific ocean is terrifying...


If I told Konan he was goin In... He Might say "REALLY"? Then I would say "YEZZIR" and then he'd be saddling up the floatation and jumpin In.. So Yes I believe that story Cuz My Man Konan Would do it too..


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## Johnboat (Jun 7, 2004)

*Shrimp boat cable*

Several years ago I was fishing behind shrimpers out of Venice in the W. Delta area. I was by myself in my boat but with other boats I knew also out there. The process was to motor up very close to moving shrimper, put in neutral and toss unweighted sardines at transom foam...one or two casts as you drifted away from the Shrimper...keeping bait from sinking into the net rigging. Caught several blackfin tuna that way....everybody was doing it...sometimes staging and taking turns behind one shrimper.

Well, I paused to rebait and didnt realize the Shrimper stopped or really slowed and was pulling in its net or try net (I think thats what it was....port side had more cables out than starboard). I looked up from rebaiting and realized a shrimper cable was on my port side rub rail and down under my hull rubbing and scraping its way back towards my propeller...real tight and pushing me towards the hull of the shrimper. I remember considering this could pretty much cut my boat in half. I looked up at the crew and they had blank expressions and did not speak English. I put it in reverse and jerked myself free and away. No damage but a little scuffing. I paid a lot better attention after that.


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## mredman1 (Feb 4, 2007)

*Scariest moment*

My scariest moment was running into a terrorist while fishing Texas state waters.


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## McDaniel8402 (Dec 7, 2011)

mredman said:


> My scariest moment was running into a terrorist while fishing Texas state waters.


Oh now thats just yucky! Somebody buy poor Rosie a razor, or two, or a whole pack...


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## WestEnd1 (Jul 26, 2012)

Does't seem to bad after reading GoldNugget's 85kt 3 day wind blast (must have been nutso on a sail boat). Had a handful of not so pleasant trips. Had a oil pump burst on way in during TIFT a couple years back on second day (no fish worth weighing anyways), alarms sounds while everyone is alseep and check engine room only to find big orange flames and black smoke everywhere. Luckily we got it put out fairly quickly and had almost no other damage. Salon was chalk full of black smoke/sut and billowing out of the cabin. Couldn't see your hand right in front of your face if you wanted too. Me and other deckhand are sitting in cockpit waiting on smoke to clear as we are watching all other the other boats from the fishing grounds head in. No one stopped or hails us on radio. Much thanks to our mechanic who had us full steam in about a hr and 1/2 from putting out flames. Only fire on a any baot I've been on. 
Another time, Me and my pop were offshore many years back and were going to move to another spot but one motor wouldnt crank, so we started to head in. After long 7 or so hrs of 5-8 kt ride in, we get about an hr from Galveston Jetties and a very nasty squall rolls in and went from flat calm to white caps, then to waves coming over bow (center console). Big rain, wind and lots of lightning/thunder. Made it to entrance of jetties but we were going so slow we couldn't keep a straight course in wind and waves, long story short we basically got lost inside jetties. A pilot boat noticed us doing slow, big circles and signalled us with q-beam to follow him, so we did and get to just shy of Coast Gaurd station and everything clears completely. No more wind, rain and lightning moved off to houston and went flat calm again. We left our fishing spot at 1-2pm and we arrived at GYB around 11-midnight. Thanks god for not being on a single outboard
Another trip we got towed in from a crew boat due to both engines not cranking, very long sketchy ride. 
I think the more that happens to you, the better boater/fisherman/waterman/etc. you become. You use all of your knowledge and each situation and it almost becomes like a database of what you should do or not do. You know what will work and what won't, and what you should try or risk, given the situation(s).
Keep this thread going, some useful info in here and good stories as well


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## crawfishking (Apr 23, 2007)

Hair stands up on my back reading these but I think it keeps you on your toes.

Back before having an offshore boat my wife (gf at the time) and I headed out the POC jetties in our 21' bay boat in sporty conditions. I'd taken off work for the 4th and had been down there all week but it had rained every day. 19" in 36 hours at one point. The town was flooded and it was the first time I'd ever seen the bays rise several feet from storm runoff. Well this was the 3rd 4th of July offhsore trip that we had planned and spent tons of money on that had gotten blown out by weather so when she made it down that weekend I was a little too desperate. 

We made it out through the jetties and while it was rough it wasn't the worst we'd been in. We fished out about 20 miles without a single fish to show for it. The water was orange from all the fresh water mixing with the sea water. Well we headed in to fairly rough seas following in a sportfish that peeled off to a corse north of the jetties when it got about 6 miles out. I didn't know why at the time but could only figure it wasn't going the same place I was so I broke off and left the safety of it's wake. About 4 miles out we were in the worst stuff I'd ever seen. All of that fresh water that was in the bays was coming out of the jetties and stacking the waves up high, tight and disorganized. (By the way my tilt trim went out so I couldn't manipulate the bow). Well I told the wife to get the life jackets out. I was putting mine on with the boat in gear at idle, looking down when an aft wave pushed us through the one in front of us. A 2' wall of water washed over the bow and our gunwales were sitting level with the water in a second! I freaked but somehow held enough composure to immediately turn the boat into the waves which almost flipped us starboard to port. It felt really scary to have to boat move in complete fluid motion with the seas. Wife immediately started tossing anything with weight and bailing water. It took about 20 minutes of her bailing, shifting weight and the bilge pumps running before I felt I could turn her back around. The sun was setting and we watched the last boat go by us about 10 minutes before we stabbed the bow so we felt very helpless. 

We were SO close many times of taking another wave over the bow and it wouldn't have taken much to roll us over. If I would have lost power it would have been over. We would have been done for because there was a crazy strong current pushing offshore and we were still 4 miles out nearing sunset. 

I'd been in swamped boats before but never that bad. I used to make a living running boats for the state, pulling gill nets with waves crashing over the bow etc. and I guess that experience helped us out but the best lesson I hadn't learned yet. Never drive down the mouth of the jetties with an outgoing tide! (and leave the bay boat at home).

I sat around for a few years hoping somebody would invite me to go offshore with them as I sure as heck wasn't going out again (well once or twice on ice cream days). Finally got the opportunity to partner on a bigger boat with a good fishing buddy of mine.


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## brentwhitis (Jan 25, 2008)

mredman said:


> My scariest moment was running into a terrorist while fishing Texas state waters.


That is the scariest thing i have ever seen......ON SHORE OR OFF !!

----------- WOW ---------


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## brentwhitis (Jan 25, 2008)

I guess since this thread is going on long, i will post a dangerous offshore situation.

in the 70's i had a single engine 20 ft center console. We were coming in from port mansfield. AS ALWAYS WHEN THERE IS TROUBLE, there was an outgoing tide and some fairly large incoming seas. The jetties were a mess, big waves building up out of nowhere, all messy bouncing around inside the jetties. We were trying to idle in between 2 waves, when one 6-8 ftr. just swelled up in front of us. i did not even have time to react. We plowed bow first into the swell and the bow took off about 4 foot right off the top. We were going fast enough that the wave just sheered off and blew right over about 2 foot over the gunwale. It SOAKED MY COUSIN AND I HANGING ON THE RAIL, and mostly just blew over the motor. We were drenched, hanging onto the center console. We looked at each other and laughed and cussed out loud ! it could have been much worse!!!

my moral of the story, .....in medium to small boats, I have never had any dangerous situations that were not in the jetties. Almost always, an outgoing strong tide against some large seas coming into the jetties, it can be a very dangerous place !!!!!!!!

Brent


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## jamisjockey (Jul 30, 2009)

It wasnt offshore but running the lower Chesapeake at night. Pulled anchor and headed parallel to the bridge. Saw the lights for a tug going by and aimed to pass in behind it. Got close and realized the VA beach skyline was being blotted out....by a barge under tow! Pulled of course with a hundred yards or so to spare, but it being night scared the snot out of me.


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## lordbater (May 21, 2004)

jamisjockey said:


> It wasnt offshore but running the lower Chesapeake at night. Pulled anchor and headed parallel to the bridge. Saw the lights for a tug going by and aimed to pass in behind it. Got close and realized the VA beach skyline was being blotted out....by a barge under tow! Pulled of course with a hundred yards or so to spare, but it being night scared the snot out of me.


similarly, before the repower, I had both motors die while fishing real close to a shrimp boat with one tied up off his rear. wind/current waves were pushing me between them, the rope connecting them was somewhat slack. I raised the motors and fended the off with boat hooks to cross their tow line. got both motors started quickly, just not quickly enough to not cross their line..

I don't speak vietmanese, but I'm pretty sure they weren't saying nice things about my mother..

a


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## Top Brass #2 (Jan 20, 2012)

*Rope!!*

Met a friend in Freeport to help run his "new to him" 35 Bert. Great looking boat, new cats, ran great. Took off to putt and fish our way down to Port Mansfield for the next couple of days. 68 out heard a terrifying noise running around 20kts, came to a dead stop. Looked around and saw a very large 4" diameter rope trailing from the transom. Opened engine hatch and water was rushing in from starboard side. Jumped overboard with a knife. Thats when we saw that the rope had wound itself soo tight around the starboard shaft that it actually sheered the bolts and yanked the shaft, prop and all almost all the way out. After much breath holding and cutting, got it free. Tied up starboard shaft to cleat so it wouldnt spin out, stuffed everything under the sink in the hole from the engine room. It was about then that we found we basically had no electronics and racor on port was clogged. Couldnt hail anyone, limped in on one defunct motor that at wot would push us around 3kts. Fought current all night, somewhere around 3am limped into freeport, bounced off a few things and tied up at a bait camp. Good thing there were swarms of mosquitoes to greet us or I wouldve felt spoiled. Did I mention the a/c and generator went out also?? Doors open, mosquitos, hot as hell...BUT, didnt sink. In retrospect, I couldve made this story shorter: We went out, hit a rope, it sucked. The end.


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## lordbater (May 21, 2004)

Top Brass #2 said:


> Met a friend in Freeport to help run his "new to him" 35 Bert. Great looking boat, new cats, ran great. Took off to putt and fish our way down to Port Mansfield for the next couple of days. 68 out heard a terrifying noise running around 20kts, came to a dead stop. Looked around and saw a very large 4" diameter rope trailing from the transom. Opened engine hatch and water was rushing in from starboard side. Jumped overboard with a knife. Thats when we saw that the rope had wound itself soo tight around the starboard shaft that it actually sheered the bolts and yanked the shaft, prop and all almost all the way out. After much breath holding and cutting, got it free. Tied up starboard shaft to cleat so it wouldnt spin out, stuffed everything under the sink in the hole from the engine room. It was about then that we found we basically had no electronics and racor on port was clogged. Couldnt hail anyone, limped in on one defunct motor that at wot would push us around 3kts. Fought current all night, somewhere around 3am limped into freeport, bounced off a few things and tied up at a bait camp. Good thing there were swarms of mosquitoes to greet us or I wouldve felt spoiled. Did I mention the a/c and generator went out also?? Doors open, mosquitos, hot as hell...BUT, didnt sink. In retrospect, I couldve made this story shorter: We went out, hit a rope, it sucked. The end.


Story a while back on here, maybe 5 years, guy out of Bridge Harbor. Running from Nancen to Boomvang or Visa Versa, hit a huge mooring line. just about pulled the entire engine out the bottom. he made a run for the nearest rig, if I remember correctly he actually ran into it. someone was able to get onto the rig, the rest of the crew got into a lifeboat and the boat sunk almost immediately... took the guy a couple hours to roust anyone and they put in the rig's life boat and retrieved them, got a helicopter ride home..

a


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## Konan (Jul 13, 2009)

BIG PAPPA said:


> If I told Konan he was goin In... He Might say "REALLY"? Then I would say "YEZZIR" and then he'd be saddling up the floatation and jumpin In.. So Yes I believe that story Cuz My Man Konan Would do it too..


No one can fake reality.......

$hit just got REAL....

Get on my level...!!!!!


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## Brady Bunch (Jul 12, 2004)

Swampus said:


> Fishing with 007 and he sunk the boat----nuf said!:headknock


I've heard this one from another who was on that trip. Scary stuff

I was out with my old boss fishing a bit beyond the Clay Piles out of Galveston. It was getting late and so we headed in but stopping at a secret spot at the 40 mile mark on the way. We boated a few more fish and tried desperatly to hook a sailfish that was behind the boat with no luck (the sun was setting at this point). As we put the throttles down there was a line of clouds that looked very much like a cold front heading straight for us but how could that be in the middle of the summer? Well regardless, the seas kicked up and we kept at it. Seas kept building and with 35 miles left we ended up cruising at 8mph in stacked sloppy 6-8's and taking waves over the bow on a 38' CC. It was hairy and everyones nerves were razzled.

Worst part about it was the wives and g/f's at the time were expecting us home when we were at the 35 mile range but we had no way or reaching them until we got a lot closer to the jetties. We finally docked around 1am, then had a boat load of fish to clean. It was 4am when I crawled into bed.


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## Swells (Nov 27, 2007)

Ever been in pea soup fog before? No radar? That scares the peewaddling out of me sometimes.


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## BIG PAPPA (Apr 1, 2008)

*Hey KVaV*



kVaV said:


> Absolutely not believable.
> 
> If you were actually the "wireman", why would they throw you overboard with a $2000 set up? I thought the "wireman" in tournaments handled the leader when the fish is boatside. The captain would definitely be fired for throwing a multi-thousand dollar setup into saltwater, not to mention you would drowned by a 400 lb marlin dragging you around. How would you keep your head above water holding onto a heavy *** 80 wide setup while be dragged with 20+ lbs of drag? What tournament, what boat, and who was the captain that would actually let that happen?
> 
> Not trying to bust your balls, you just sound like you're a liar.


Why not pull up some of SharkBait's past threads before slamming him? This Guy has Paddled out to the Rigs/Platforms in Kayaks and has some really Ballzee adventures with Pic's to Prove it.. He aint SKEERED...He's another Konan..And Maybe a Little Crazy on top of it all...LOL


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## Judaville (Feb 9, 2005)

My scariest moment didn't happen offshore but in the bay with an offshore boat. Put the boat in for a pleasure ride one evening at the Galveston causeway bridge. Went under the bridge and motors shut down immeditiately. Couldn't get them started and we started drifting into the smaller bridge there. We literaly were pushing ourselves off the bridge to keep from getting sucked into one of the half moon looking holes. Didn't have enough time to break out the anchor. Everything happened so fast. Got really luck with a passer by bay boat saw us in trouble. Swung in, we threw a rope and he pulled us into open water. The bottom of the bridge was at just the right height for the t-top to go under but not fit when a wave came. In other other words we were seconds away from pushing our t-top through the floor. Not life threatening but a screwed up situation that happened in seconds.


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## longhorn1975 (Oct 2, 2005)

*Port Isabel*

When I was 5 years old our family chartered a boat to fish offshore from Port Isabel. We loaded up on red snapper! On the trip back to port, the boat ran out of gas. After several hours the captain of the boat was able to get some gas from a shrimp boat. By the time we were back underway darkness had set in. When we entered the jetties, a shrimp boat was heading offshore. The shrimp boat captain had tied off his steering wheel while he was back preparing his nets. The shrimp boat was listing back and forth from side to side. As our captain approached the boat, we had been forced to hug the jetties to avoid a collision. Suddenly the shrimp boat turned and rammed us almost broadside. It busted a hole through the charter boat just above the waterline. The impact knocked the fighting chairs off the stern of the boat and dis-located my Dad's shoulder. We were transferred to the shrimp boat and they attempted to tow us back to port but the shrimp boat ran aground. Someone called the Coast Guard and they returned us safely to port. My mother would not get on a boat for years after this experience. This happened back in the mid 50's before litigation was so common. If it happened today, the lawyers would have multiple suits filed.


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## lordbater (May 21, 2004)

longhorn1975 said:


> When I was 5 years old our family chartered a boat to fish offshore from Port Isabel. We loaded up on red snapper! On the trip back to port, the boat ran out of gas. After several hours the captain of the boat was able to get some gas from a shrimp boat. By the time we were back underway darkness had set in. When we entered the jetties, a shrimp boat was heading offshore. The shrimp boat captain had tied off his steering wheel while he was back preparing his nets. The shrimp boat was listing back and forth from side to side. As our captain approached the boat, we had been forced to hug the jetties to avoid a collision. Suddenly the shrimp boat turned and rammed us almost broadside. It busted a hole through the charter boat just above the waterline. The impact knocked the fighting chairs off the stern of the boat and dis-located my Dad's shoulder. We were transferred to the shrimp boat and they attempted to tow us back to port but the shrimp boat ran aground. Someone called the Coast Guard and they returned us safely to port. My mother would not get on a boat for years after this experience. This happened back in the mid 50's before litigation was so common. If it happened today, the lawyers would have multiple suits filed.


Wow..

before GPS when the head boats were using loran it always amazed me that they got us home safe. I was probably 6 or so and I'm sure its just my memory, but it seems like every trip we were fogged in on the way back in and the Capt. nailed the middle of the Freeport jetties right where he was supposed to every time...

Fogged in, all the sudden you can see some red and green then some rocks..

I've since done it a few times myself, but that was with GPS, moving as slow as I could go on a plane (trimmed out I can plane around 13smph.) After some scary stuff getting into and out of Venice I went for the slow plane approach to dodging barges rather than the minimum steerage speed..

I've heard several times that those big boats radar can't see a 23' boat on their radar. as many times as I've been spotted by them in the Miss.... I'm pretty sure they saw me on the radar, and I was thankful for the horn... maybe they were just blasting the horn at intervals... I dunno. still, nice to take an extra pair of shorts fishing..

a


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## Swells (Nov 27, 2007)

Wow what good thread. Longhorn1975 was the schiznit. How come none of this cool **** happens to me? What am I, "safety Sam" or something?


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## broadonrod (Feb 26, 2010)

SKIPPA DONT GET SCARED MON!!!! Just Disappointed....:biggrin:


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## lordbater (May 21, 2004)

Swells said:


> Wow what good thread. Longhorn1975 was the schiznit. How come none of this cool **** happens to me? What am I, "safety Sam" or something?


Hence my request to Start a new 'safety' thread geared to electronics n mechanical stuff. I got no response but I think if we start a new thread and try to keep the kraap out, it would be useful. Even the most seasoned offshore expert can learn, teach something or have something along the lines of a refresher. 
I think the rules should be established and agreed to.
The long range guys take for granted (sometimes) the day to day safety stuffs us smaller boats never think about.

Sry bout spelling n grammar, on fon..

A
Sent from my 8086 using Edlin.


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## brentwhitis (Jan 25, 2008)

lordbater said:


> Hence my request to Start a new 'safety' thread geared to electronics n mechanical stuff. I got no response but I think if we start a new thread and try to keep the kraap out, it would be useful. Even the most seasoned offshore expert can learn, teach something or have something along the lines of a refresher.
> I think the rules should be established and agreed to.
> The long range guys take for granted (sometimes) the day to day safety stuffs us smaller boats never think about.
> 
> ...


GOOD IDEA SIR, 
I can start with a simple safety tip, especially for smaller boats.
Keep your lifejackets up high in the boat. Life jackets crammed into the bottom of the biggest, lowest box in the boat is a BAD IDEA. Think about it, play it out in your head, if you run over a barely floating steel barrel, offshore and knock a 12 inch hole in your hull, what part of the boat is under water first and how fast. Duh. Keep the lifejackets overhead or as high as possible on the boats somewhere. That way they will be the LAST thing to go down.

Brent


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## Swells (Nov 27, 2007)

True, there are a lot of cool tricks one can learn. The first and foremost is how to tell the old lady that you're abandoning the house to go hang with the guys, catch fish, get drunk, and smell like Boy's Town in old Mexico when ya come back. This takes skill and practice, especially if she doesn't want to come along. My wife kicks me out of bed at 4:30 in the morning!


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## JohnHumbert (May 21, 2004)

*Pretty tame comparatively*

I don't think I've ever really been SCARED in a situation offshore before - thank God! But I have been "really worried" a few times.

The last time was discovering a significant fuel leak while 45-50 miles offshore out of POC in an area that rarely gets any traffic (my secret honey hole).

There was fuel everywhere below decks and I was very worried about running the bilge - and moreover about not having enough fuel to make it back.

The jetties were the most beautiful site I have ever seen that day.

We ran out of fuel just as we entered the jetties. Was able to cross-connect the tanks and get one engine started long enough to make to the ramp - barely - as we ran out of fuel and coasted into the ramp lane. ****** off a lot of folks at the ramp because we cut across everybody else waiting - but they were kind about it when they knew the situation.

Another time we were at the East Breaks in May when a freak NE wind cropped up out of nowhere - not forecasted, no front, etc. It went from nearly flat to 7-8 footers at about 6 seconds in no time at all. I was "very worried" that we might have some problems as we could only go about 10-12 mph on a rear/quartering sea and were taking waves over the Contender. But after about 20 miles, the wind suddenly died and by the time we were at the jetties it was nearly flat again.


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## southtexasreds (Jun 8, 2009)

Might've already told this story here, can't recall; sorry if I'm repeating myself.

Fishing in Cabo, my dad is hooked up with a decent striped marlin. Gets it boatside in no time. Deckhand leadered the fish but it was still too green so deckie let it go. I'm standing on the gunwale next to the cabin, filming. I see the line turn across the transom and head my way. Fish comes screaming up out of the water, bill enters my leg, nicks off my shin bone and impales me in the calf (but not through). I guess I was lucky the fish was at the top of its jump, otherwise it would've run through and been even more messy. But it was a bleeder!

Picante sportfishing didn't have much for first aid (a roll of paper towels and tape). I don't have any permanent damage, just a cigar sized hole, some cartilage pushed up into my leg, and a story to tell. 

The video was on my sister's exboyfriend's camera; it disappeared with him. Couldn't see much on it, but the commentary and bloody aftermath were pretty cool.


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## fish'nchipper (Feb 8, 2006)

Being offshore when lightning is so close that your fishing rods are sizzling/cracking while running in at full throttle. I said a few hail Mary's that day.


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## BIG PAPPA (Apr 1, 2008)

*And also....*



fish'nchipper said:


> Being offshore when lightning is so close that your fishing rods are sizzling/cracking while running in at full throttle. I said a few hail Mary's that day.


And also fishing, and watching your fishing line Raise up out of the water Straight up in the air and straight back down to the water like a McDonalds Arc will get the PUCKER FACTOR Goin....
What tha HayYell....


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## WestEnd1 (Jul 26, 2012)

BIG PAPPA said:


> And also fishing, and watching your fishing line Raise up out of the water Straight up in the air and straight back down to the water like a McDonalds Arc will get the PUCKER FACTOR Goin....
> What tha HayYell....


Daannngg!! Thats some serious energy. I've had the T-Top humming and rods buzzing but never any dancing line. Hopefully I never see it either


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## BIG PAPPA (Apr 1, 2008)

*Yessir*



WestEnd1 said:


> Daannngg!! Thats some serious energy. I've had the T-Top humming and rods buzzing but never any dancing line. Hopefully I never see it either


It was about 7-8 years ago, Ms Blind Date and I. We were Fishing Just north of the Kennedy LandCut Across the Ditch back close to Yarborrough Pass. Basically directly across from Rocky Slough. I said to the Wife, "hey Hunee, check this Out" and then her line started doing the same thing. She say's, "Now what"... I said "Reel in fast, Lay all the Rods down in the floor(Graphite Rods) and lets get the HayYell Outta here".
Never have heard of this either until sharing it with some fellow fishemen, and a few had also experienced the same thing. The Crackling rods and Line Raising straight up....Yup... Pucker Factor at it's Finest..


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