# Pictures from the storm



## CHA CHING (May 21, 2004)

What was weird about this storm is that is just came out of nowhere. I saw it in the Houston area early in the afternoon on the Sirius. There were a couple of isolated thunderstorms 85 miles to the east of us, nothing alarming. Made it to the hilltops with tile and barrel fish in mind. First drop, current is ripping. 9 p10 pounds of weight on the tile gear wasn't enough to keep the baits on the bottom drifting at over 2 kts. 1250 feet of water and had 2600 feet of line out on the lip's just to hit bottom. Wind has picked up out of the northeast, 1 ft chop. pull up one to add weight, meanwhile the other has come up off the bottom. Next thing I know rod is bouncing reel down and we're hooked up. Starting peeling the 120 diamond braid off the lp. This isn't a tile fish guys. 15 minutes into it we now have 3900 ft of line out and still pulling really strong. Wind is now 25 kts on my airmar weather station. seas are 3 ft with the tops getting blown off. Sky is darkening and this storm is building right in front of us. It's now wrapped itself around to the south of us from the Nansen area. It's like a half moon shape with all the wind being directed straight at us. We have a big swordfish dumping this lp and no time. I had to bump the drag up with hope of slowing this fish down. Line parted 380 ft up from the gear. Seas are now getting dangerous sitting in the trough. Waves are slapping the rule sides with breakers coming over the sides. Put the boat in gear while we are pulling up the 3000 plus ft of braid we had out. Tried running down sea but they were moving way to fast and the tops were breaking over the motors. Ended up heading 275 degrees towards Corpus. Within 30 minutes and 3 miles we had very dangerous what I would guess to be solid 8 footers with the occasional 10-12 and breaking. A few times I got the cat caught on top where the breaking wave got in the tunnel and spun us around and surfed us down the face like a boogie board. 600 cavitating horsepower was no match. I finally decided I needed to run the trough and turn up the wave face at about 30 degrees to keep them from grabbing us. This went on for over an hour. Highest wind speed I clocked was 52 kts sustained for over 45 minutes. My main concern was that if I didn't get far enough west before dark it would be impossible to navigate these seas after dark when you couldn't see them coming. Luckily the skies were clear on the western horizon and we had a beautiful sunset that kept the skies lit a little longer than expected. My port motor, the one that was taking the beating popped a cowling latch and I lost a couple of cylinders for a few hours. 3500 rpm wide open throttle. I can only assume the bottom coils got wet. Stopping the boat was not an option at this point. After 3 1/2 hrs of creeping it settled down and I was able to run 25 in the trough. The guys I had with me were lets say very concerned. The buoy weather forecast was 1-2 ft all night with seas building to 2-3 ft by Wednesday afternoon. Our plan was to be back at the dock by noon. Turns out we got back a little early. I'm glad it was't a busy Friday/Saturday because I have a feeling the Coast Guard would have been pretty busy. I wasn't able to take any pictures during the worst part of the ride but you can see it wasn't pretty.


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## elgatogus (Oct 27, 2010)

Wow... Thank God that you made it thru!!! Pat on the back for keeping yourself focused and determined to get you and your crew out of this situation! I'm sure you all where glad to be back on land. 

Great job Capt!


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## CHA CHING (May 21, 2004)

pictures


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## CHA CHING (May 21, 2004)

pictures 2


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## CHA CHING (May 21, 2004)

pictures 3


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## CHA CHING (May 21, 2004)

pictures 4


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## HTJ (May 26, 2011)

Thas ugly, bravo zulu to you for keeping a cool head and getting everyone back safe.


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## TeamJefe (Mar 20, 2007)

Glad you guys made it back safe. Just goes to show you have fast things can turn ugly out there. What did you use to clock the wind speeds?


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## Blue N' Brew (May 24, 2004)

*.*

I feel your pain... we were just west of you at Big Fish when it hit. We packed up and headed in to.


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## bjd76 (Jan 12, 2008)

Does not sound or look like any fun. Glad you made it back in.


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## Kingofsabine18 (Oct 29, 2008)

Good on you for keeping your head and making it home safe. Everybody thinks they got a plan till hell is looking you straight in the eyes!


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## hog (May 17, 2006)

WoW!!
What a mess.

Fella's, yall had a extra passenger on the boat and were be'n watched over on that trip... !!!!!

Glad yall are home safe and sound....


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## nook (Mar 5, 2015)

Glad y'all made it back safe. Bet a experience to learn and talk about it for a long time . Now what was it at the end of the line ?


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## bigrome12 (Mar 14, 2008)

Dang Jeff! Glad you got back safely


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## snapperlicious (Aug 11, 2009)

Dang! Glad you made it back safe Jeff! Been there done that and it ain't no fun.


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## king_bullet (Mar 20, 2013)

Wow. Good job Captain.


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## airkeith (Jan 9, 2011)

Perhaps the Colts cap... I'm just sayin...
Glad you made it!


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## Harbormaster (May 26, 2000)

Good job Capt. Jeff! That was a surprise blow for sure!


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## John the fisherman (Nov 19, 2012)

Glad you made it back safe, looked bad on radar, hope I am never in anything like that.


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## troy a (Oct 23, 2006)

congrats guys for keeping your focus on the right track and getting back in safely, you definitely had an extra passenger looking over you, to bad you didn't get to see what was ripping that braid off the lp:question:


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## Jolly Roger (May 21, 2004)

wild ride for sure, thanks for sharing


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## Hotrod (Oct 11, 2006)

Good deal your typing this Capt. Thats some scary stuff for sure. 

Did the life jackets and ditch bag come out?


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## hilton (Jan 28, 2008)

Capt.,
I'm glad you got your boat and your crew home safely and out of harm's way.


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## mrsh978 (Apr 24, 2006)

Feel your pain - got caught 7 miles out of poc jetties at dark time , wind change to north at 50-54 - could not see swells to combat.( taller than my t top) Got wash tubbed for 45 mins trying to get thru .... Made it in ok but as of this day / week I am re powering boat - I will not let a motor failure put me and crew in harms way


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## gordaskipper (Feb 26, 2010)

Way out of my league for navagational skills...it's obvious someone else never having been in this predicament would fail miserably or one might presume...I know your supposed to keep your cool...however lots of valuable information about what to do when the sh** hits the fan...congratulations on a magnificent voyage despite the shortcomings Capt!!


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## Charlietunakiller (Jan 30, 2013)

Glad you guys made it back safe!!!
THANK GOD!


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## mo fishing (Dec 18, 2013)

That's not supposed to happen in August. Pretty scary for sure, thanks for sharing


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## marshhunter (Mar 20, 2008)

incredible! Would have loved to seen some Gopro footage. Good job on getting you and crew in, in one piece!


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## Where'dMyBaitGo (Feb 15, 2015)

Great job sir, looks like the crew were in good hands and just overly worried


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## kingtender (Oct 12, 2005)

I would have kissed the pavement when I touched land. Glad yall made it back safely


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## wahoo chaser (Jun 22, 2004)

I'll add our experience. We were 25 miles out of Galveston in a 22' Pathfinder bay boat, saw the blackening sky to the west and started making a bee-line home. Didn't make it!!! At about 18 miles from the jetty's all hell broke loose. The biggest thing was the wind, guesstimating 50-55 kts. Sea rapidly building to the point we couldn't run toward home and taking on a lot of water. Turned to trailing sea and just tried to keep water out of the boat. Ran South just trying to keep from sinking. We took several over the bow and filled the boat completely several times, at that point getting to land was secondary to keeping the boat afloat. We were in a real bad spot for 20-30 minutes, put vest on and tried to Hail CG. First time i've really thought we weren't getting out of a very bad situation. The only thing that saved us was we were able to slowly make to a super tanker anchored at 17 miles out south of Galveston. We sucked up right behind it, literally 5-10 feet behind her rudder, almost under the hull. Initially just stayed there with engine , but was able to actually tie off to a cleat under the hull. Things got dramatically better with the protection of the super tanker, she didn't even move, and gave us much needed shelter for wind and waves. Our concern then became making sure the crew was aware of our position and didn't start up. We were able to raise them on 16 and advise our situation. they checked on us several times during the 1-1.5 hour we sat there. Finally weather broke and we made it back home in mostly smooth seas.

I've been fishing offshore for 20 years and my buddy with me, his boat, literally has 1000's of days on the water, as he was a charter Captain in the Keys for many years. Neither of us had ever seem anything so bad offshore. I've run from storms before and the occasional water spout but this was a whole new level.

I checked NOAA WX driving down 45 at about 5:30 amend the forecast was winds northeast at 5-10 seas 1 foot and SLIGHT chance of showers and thunderstorms(like any day in the summer)

We obviously wouldn't have been out there in a 22' Pathfinder if we had any idea of what was coming.

Lessons Learned.
Have very good closed cell PFD's
Have a EPIRB or better yet a good PLB
I thought for sure we were going in the water and I would have been OK with that as long as I someone was coming for me.
We took some much water the electronics went haywire when we needed them most. Had the boat sunk we couldn't call the CG.

Learned a lot on Tuesday.


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## Gearman (Nov 13, 2012)

Wahoo chaser I am very glad things worked out for you. Amazing situation both of yall were in and glad to hear both boats knew what it took to survive.


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## AOK (Nov 29, 2012)

was a very bad day out there. Wahoo chaser what color pathfinder were you in? think I saw you out there


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## Marshman (Jul 24, 2008)

This storm thread has reminded me of a couple things I need to take care of:

1. Replace ACR beacon battery.
2. Put extra GPS ( handheld ) in boat bag.
3. File float plan with someone that can help.
4. Might be time to look into a new VHS, old one is about done for.


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## John the fisherman (Nov 19, 2012)

We really like the Spot, it tracks your position so my wife always has our location and can pull it up on the computer or her phone. There is a track button, a sos button, a preprogrammed message button and I think it is only $99 per year. 

I tell her if she sees us coming back very slow and is late that means we are coming in on one motor and ok but if she does not hear from us and see we are not coming back she can give coast guard are coordinates. We also keep a ditch bag that has two hand held radios with GPS, a ACR Beacon, a flares, strobe light, and a throw cushion in it. I keep the spot on top of the console so it reads easy.


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## wahoo chaser (Jun 22, 2004)

fathernson said:


> was a very bad day out there. Wahoo chaser what color pathfinder were you in? think I saw you out there


White with blue and a t-top


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## bjd76 (Jan 12, 2008)

Glad I missed all that fun! Glad everyone was able to get back safe.


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## planohog (Nov 1, 2006)

WC thats a great experience to share, I often wonder how much my two scupper holes
will actually drain. I too have a 22' ( different vendor ). There is an advantage of galvez and that is the often crowded fairway great place to hide, Glad all is well.


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## Mcat (Aug 27, 2014)

A lot of people posted replies talking about safety gear, but I only saw one or two mention a hand-held VHF. NEVER go offshore without one. There is a long list of reasons that you can lose your main VHF--short, battery failure, lightning, fire, getting swamped, sinking, antenna failure...

You can usually raise someone with a hand-held, who can relay your situation to whatever resources you need. In the worst situation, if you are in the water with no boat, you hope your EPIRB continues to transmit until help is there...but how old is your battery? Your VHF (carry a waterproof one!) can allow you to direct the help (helicopter or ship) to you.


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## Fired Up (May 29, 2013)

glad everyone came out OK - been there done it and wish I hadn't. Not being trying to be an *** but weren't they calling for a front that day?


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## CHA CHING (May 21, 2004)

Fired Up said:


> glad everyone came out OK - been there done it and wish I hadn't. Not being trying to be an *** but weren't they calling for a front that day?


No sir. All forecasts had the front moving offshore on Wednesday mid day. I was going to be at the dock by noon on Wednesday.


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## CHA CHING (May 21, 2004)

airkeith said:


> Perhaps the Colts cap... I'm just sayin...
> Glad you made it!


That's exactly what I said when I saw that guy get on the boat with the colts hat on. Somehow that colts hat didn't make it back to the dock and I have no idea what happened to it........


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## wetsounds1 (May 3, 2011)

Glad you made it in Jeff, that was one extremely bad storm.

We also got caught in it. Here is a pic I took when we stopped about 35 miles from the Galveston jetties to put down the poles and planed to try and run in-between these two cells. I figured if not, had enough fuel to head to Freeport and run the ditch in. I had no idea what we were actually headed into. Half way in between the two cells the wind hit us, had to be 35-40mph, and you should have felt the bow. Had to start to turn and try and run around it but noticed that the storm was actually pushing me back offshore. It just swallowed us. Seemed like once the storm got into the gulf it went nuts. I had no choice but to turn in and take her on. I wish I had a radar pic at this point, but wasn't on the mind! No doubt 10-12, at one point I could only see - maybe about 100-150 yards in-front of me, pitch black/dark grey and lightning all around me. Never seen lightning zig zag like it does before it hits the water and hope to never again, way to freaking close. I think there may have been a point for about 30 minutes or so we never moved, just stayed in one place throttling the waves. It was scary for sure. I called Ralph with SeaHunter first thing the next morning telling him about it and thanking him for building such a solid product, it got us home safe and no one got hurt. I also saw a 29-33 light blue cat out that day, maybe a Freeman? Hope they also made it back in safe. Hell of a way to celebrate your birthday!


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## CHA CHING (May 21, 2004)

This was just before it hit us. We were out towards the tip on the west side. Middle Hilltops. It basically wrapped around us moving southwest.


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## mattstuh (Jun 7, 2011)

Glad everyone made it home safe. Stories like this push me to purchase things I have on my "amazon wish list" aka need to buy list. Tonight purchase was a new hand held VHF. 

100$ out of the wallet is pocket change compared to a catastrophic blue pond event. 

Cobra MR HH350 FLT Floating 6W VHF Radio... 4.5 stars on amazon.


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## Chase This! (Jul 20, 2007)

CHA CHING said:


> No sir. All forecasts had the front moving offshore on Wednesday mid day. I was going to be at the dock by noon on Wednesday.


Living on the edge. Never count on a weather man to be accurate down to the hour. Glad you guys are OK.


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## CHA CHING (May 21, 2004)

Chase This! said:


> Living on the edge. Never count on a weather man to be accurate down to the hour. Glad you guys are OK.


Brandon, Living on the edge?? Maybe in March. Maybe if they had forecast 10-15 ft seas and 50 knot winds. Forecast for Wednesday afternoon was breezy white capping conditions, northeast wind 12-15 knots seas 3 feet. This was Tuesday afternoon so they missed it by only about 24 hrs. I know if it would have been a nice Friday Saturday forecast with a frontal boundary moving offshore on Sunday there would have been a lot of may day calls on the Saturday.


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## Ledslacks (Jul 21, 2009)

We got hit with that storm in late June, 2013 that brewed up in Galveston Bay. We were about 20 miles out of Galveston in a 21' deep-v. It went from slightly choppy 1-2's to 4-5's with 8' swells, gusts up to 50 mph, and pelting rain, in a matter of 15 minutes. I just nosed into the waves and kept in one spot, and hugged behind a rig (that helped out a fair amount). After about 45 minutes, it calmed down and back home we went. As it was approaching us, we got the throw float, life jackets, water, a couple ropes (tied to the throw float), and made some plans. I kept in mind the whole time that my boat is neutrally buoyant, so we could cling to it in a worst-case scenario. I'm glad I experienced it, as it upped my learning curve and helped me to think about scenarios better.


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## Gold Nuggett (Sep 29, 2010)

As always thanks for sharing
With that height of winds did you feel running the trough that the T-Top was in danger of being caught in the wind and blowing the cat over??
As a new cat owner who in a racing sailboat has experienced 85 mph conditions one learns to respect the sea and all that can happen out there.

Any other bits of advice on motor catboat handling in rough weather gratefully accepted.


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## CHA CHING (May 21, 2004)

Gold Nuggett said:


> As always thanks for sharing
> With that height of winds did you feel running the trough that the T-Top was in danger of being caught in the wind and blowing the cat over??
> As a new cat owner who in a racing sailboat has experienced 85 mph conditions one learns to respect the sea and all that can happen out there.
> 
> Any other bits of advice on motor catboat handling in rough weather gratefully accepted.


My main concern was with cavitation. It was really hard to keep the props hooked up and without power the powerful waves did to you what they wanted. Do not get caught parallel with the wave especially on the top where it was breaking. It seamed to get up in the tunnel and toss you around the breaking face kind of like a surfboard would do without a surfer on it. I could run parallel down the backside but as the next face approached I would turn up the face at about a 45 degree angle until I broke over, and repeat for hours. Overall the cat did better than I expected. I have no doubt that a dead in the water drift would have resulted into catastrophic consequences.


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## prokat (Jul 17, 2010)

Reminds me of the la dude in the 31 ch,no fun

http://www.thehulltruth.com/boating-forum/404268-i-survived-one-hell-ordeal-offshore-weekend.html


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## JimG (May 2, 2005)

Good job, Captain! (Not surprised, I remember you from Sea School. Lots of salt.)


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## Gold Nuggett (Sep 29, 2010)

If one reads both this account and the one from Grand Isle the other lesson for us captains all might be that the weather guys are not very good at predicting the magnitude of the cutting edge of a cold front, and so we might be wise not to venture too far out if a front is due, even if the weather guys predict it will stall and come to naught.

Murphy is out there every day!


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## swamp donk (Apr 28, 2013)

Question from one who goes 30 miles out in Venice in a 24 ft one screw Sea Hunt.

I've read not to fight it...throw the drift anchor out tied to the bow and ride it out. As one mentioned after 45 mins the seas subdued and it was manageable to return. 

I know the seas came up quickly and there wasn't time but could you "simply" ride a storm out in neutral, bilge on and drift anchor in?

Thoughts?


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## CHA CHING (May 21, 2004)

swamp donk said:


> Question from one who goes 30 miles out in Venice in a 24 ft one screw Sea Hunt.
> 
> I've read not to fight it...throw the drift anchor out tied to the bow and ride it out. As one mentioned after 45 mins the seas subdued and it was manageable to return.
> 
> ...


I'm afraid a 24 ft boat would have been in trouble in the peak of the seas that we were in. I was in. 33 ft cat and I was taking 3 feet of water over the bow when trying to nose into them. Just imagine the top 4 feet of the wave breaking just like a rough day on the beach front. These waves were moving so fast with more force than I can explain.


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## Marshman (Jul 24, 2008)

Two of the worst pounding we ever had, weren't associated with fronts, just unstable wet air, turning into squall line after squall line, after dark. Both were on decent sized boats, a 38 and a 46, both had radar, and neither one was a storm we could out run or run thru.

Both developed from flat dead calm conditions, in the middle of summer, motoring around first the old A480 rig, and the other second storm the worst, around the Galveston intersection rigs just north of Tequila. 

Conditions went from literally choking on genset exhaust in the cockpit, to 60+mph in seconds. Both times we had kept a good radar watch, and had a few minutes to prepare. If the second one had hit us while tied up to the rig, which we had JUST let go from, we would have been in the rig for sure. I could not have made it up the ladder, fired up, and untied, before we would have hit it hard.

I think the hardest thing is in the dark, trying to see what you are fighting against, two extra guys on the bridge is a big help - one helping the captain look forward, the other facing aft, looking for the blown off tops dumping into the cockpit. Once the sun comes out, then you can decide - keep fishing, or leave while you can.

If it is a front, it's a long wet ride home, usually straight up hill. At least with squall lines, you might be able to be lucky and have onshore movement, you'll be in it longer, but can roll with it quicker towards port. Turning around in the environment Jeff is talking about can be a real tough thing, even more so in the dark. When things FIRST start to go bad, make a decision that you can execute in the conditions present, not waiting until you have to try something you should't be doing in conditions not suitable. Most of the time, especially with a front, it will get nastier before it gets better.

And do all you can, to keep the motors running, if they can run you can usually stay afloat and control the direction of the boat.

Also, have a plan B for return to port - I've run out of Sargent, and returned thru both Freeport and Matagorda due to bad weather. A long ditch ride is cheaper than a new boat.


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## Gold Nuggett (Sep 29, 2010)

Many offshore designs with closed-in sterns are prone to swamping when green water starts to come over the bow at a volume that overwhelms the exit routes,
so one is dependent on keeping the bow up for gravity to empty the stuff over the transom.
I fitted extra scupper drains on my previous boat, but the 3 ft waves Geoff describes 
would bring in more that even they could empty. Hence the need to keep the engines going for directional control.
Not a good option but all there is.

The sailboat I survived 3 days of 85 MPH summer storm in was fully sealed with 2 guys lashed on deck with jacklines and one guy below pumping the bilge when needed.
In the accompanying 35 ft waves on deck it was like a continuous jet from a firehose.
A storm trisail and storm jib kept her under control at 6-8 knots running with the waves at 45 degrees. In deep water there's fortunately little chance of those big waves breaking, but pitchpoling has been described in sailboats facing wind-against-tide conditions while rounding the Horn - something one might have to consider avoiding if coming back to a port like Matagorda with Southerly wind and ebb spring tide.


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## broadonrod (Feb 26, 2010)

Cool pics glad you made it in safe. Looks like it got ugly on ya for sure.


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## Mcat (Aug 27, 2014)

Note that the guy who posted on HullTruth lost his primary VHF (probably lost his antenna), and raised USCG on a handheld. If you don't have one, go get one.


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