Glad y’all got home safe. And I appreciate your willingness to be objective and share with us any “mistakes” you might have made. Well done all around, sir.
“I’m not a hundred percent in love with your tone right now…”
Thank goodness you all made it home safe and thank God for the Coasties and the other boats. I imagine the pucker factor was pretty high for a while.
“Apathy is the Glove into Which Evil Slips It’s Hand”.
Glad to hear everyone is safe !
2013 Tidewater 180CC
115 Yamaha
quote:Exactly the reason that I don't fish in the winter months. To me, going out in January to catch BSB's is not worth the risk of what you went through!
Originally posted by brysonThe fact that this happened in June instead of January was a blessing.
Glad you guys made it back!
Just curious, did you ever try to get the boat underway or did the batteries get swamped and kill the engine?
quote:
Originally posted by skinneejJust curious, did you ever try to get the boat underway or did the batteries get swamped and kill the engine?
My next quetion would be, did the fact this is a Cat have anything to do with the bow being able to load up and sink that fast?
Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.
- More Maxims of Mark, Johnson, 1927
31’ Contender
“Touche”
250 HPDIs
Thank you guys for all of the support. It really does mean a lot to me to read all of your responses today.
Skinnee, I did try to get the boat up and moving, but I couldn’t get on a heading that didn’t make the situation worse – the faster I was moving forward, the more water came over the bow. I gave up on that pretty quickly before deciding to make the Mayday call.
2000 Sportcraft Sport Cat 255 - “Morning Bite”
Wilderness Systems Tarpon 160
Touche, I think that it’s not so much that it was a cat in general, but I think that this particular boat’s design did contribute.
A lot of the new cats have significant rise at the bow (like the World Cat), or flare at the front (like the Freeman). I think that is to combat what we experienced yesterday. The design of my cat doesn’t make for any real increase in buoyancy when the bow hits a wave. The sides are pretty much vertical, and the keel is like a knife. There isn’t much in the design that would lift the bow when hitting a steep wave face.
2000 Sportcraft Sport Cat 255 - “Morning Bite”
Wilderness Systems Tarpon 160
quote:Makes sense. Thanks for the response!
Originally posted by brysonThank you guys for all of the support. It really does mean a lot to me to read all of your responses today.
Skinnee, I did try to get the boat up and moving, but I couldn’t get on a heading that didn’t make the situation worse – the faster I was moving forward, the more water came over the bow. I gave up on that pretty quickly before deciding to make the Mayday call.
2000 Sportcraft Sport Cat 255 - “Morning Bite”
Wilderness Systems Tarpon 160
They say it’s not what happens to you that’s important, it’s how you handle what happens to you that matters. You couldn’t have done better, except maybe with a life raft. (**() the boat, you got your people home.
Capt. Larry Teuton
Swamp Worshiper
Good job on keeping everyone safe, sounds like a cool head prevailed. Out of curiosity, what was in your ditch bag? Did you have the rope in there for tying the life vests together? Where there any flares?
Glad y’all are safe.
Good job to the captain and crew.
Thanks again for the kind words, guys. A raft would have made my fiancee feel much more at ease, that’s for sure.
Yeah, Phin – that’s the model. I think it’s pulled from the same molds as a SeaCat SL5.
Demasb – I keep paracord in my ditch bag, but I didn’t get it out. There was a bumper floating by that had enough line on it for us to grab. Had we been out there longer, we would have actually tied ourselves together so that we didn’t have to hold on, but the neighboring boats really responded quickly. Also, the ditch bag is buoyant, so I wanted to open/close it as quickly and infrequently as possible so that it wouldn’t get much water in it. In the bag I keep a first aid kit, the floating handheld VHF, the PLB (also floating), extra whistle, flare gun and flares, spare sunglasses, a stainless bottle of fresh water, a stick of heavy sunscreen, a folding knife, self-vulcanizing tape, and probably a few other things that I’m forgetting.
2000 Sportcraft Sport Cat 255 - “Morning Bite”
Wilderness Systems Tarpon 160
Sounds like a well supplied ditch bag. I really need a bag for my stuff. I have PLB, handheld VHF, first aid, flares, etc all on board…but, mine is not well consolidated into one readily accessible floating ditch bag. Been putting off buying one for over a year now. That and I need to put the handheld GPS back in the boat too.
I also have had for a while now this rechargeable flashlight that has settings for steady light, strobe, and distress (3 flash cycle). It’s unbelievably bright for how little space it takes up. Need to buy another and leave one on the boat for good.
Every months (or one a year?) or so, acr resqlink runs a special where a plb comes with a free ditch bag, a strobe, first aid kit, and some other goodies. It’s a pretty legit deal for those that are reading this and may not have one already
https://www.acrartex.com/info/us-summer-plb-promotion/
Looks like they are running it now.
“Wailord”
1979 17’ Montauk
90 Johnson
Wilderness Ride 115
quote:
Originally posted by FishingDuoCG chopper was deployed, saw it pass overhead while out there yesterday. Also, he says in his post “The CG chopper arrived a little while later, and the CG vessel made it out to pick us up and take us home.” Always thankful we have them here.
We were on a boat/beach family day at Bull Island and saw the CG chopper go overhead sometime mid afternoon…2 PM or so? Every time I see that bird in the air, I’m wondering what’s happening and hoping everyone is OK at it’s destination.
2014 Key West 203DFS
1987 Landau
Glad y’all made it back safe. I know the feeling. Now that everyone’s safe, what was on the boat? Anything worth recovering? How deep? Do you have good coordinates for where she went down?
PM me if you want to talk privately.
Stephen Goldfinch
“Sleep When You’re Dead!”
Glad you guys made it home safely. As a Cat owner who has taken many waves over the bow I hate to hear stories like yours. Also, after almost sinking my Glacier Bay on a dive trip due to bilge pump failure I always test the bilge pumps before every trip by running the fresh water hose into each bilge until both pumps come on. My GB has a fore and aft pump in each sponson. And thanks to your report my ditch bag which has been sitting in my den for the last month actually accompanied me offshore today!
On another note, we were boarded by the CG at the outcrop several weeks back to chide us for fishing in a MPA. I assured them that we were actually permitted to troll there and after re-reading the regs they had no choice but to concur. Since I now had them over a barrel, I decided it would be a good time to test my SPOT SOS function. BIG MISTAKE! At 9:04 am I pushed the SOS button after they alerted the mothership Yellowfin of the test. Around 9:08 I realized something…my SPOT will beam an SOS to some satellite. That satellite will send the SOS to SPOT central somewhere in Texas. At SPOT central some nice person will get that message and start to call my contact list…me: thats going to voicemail, my son…he is with me, then…Uh, Oh!..My Wife!!! There is no way this is going to end well! So this is how it plays out: at 9:32 my wife gets a call from an unknown #…Hi Mrs Bowers, this is officer so and so with the USCG. I just had a very nice visit with your husband 50 miles offshore and he said he was going to be in the Doghouse big time if I didn’t call you and let you know that the SPOT SOS message you probably just received was just a test and they are all fine. In the middle of this call from the CG she gets the call from SPOT!
Throughout this whole encounter the CG were great; polite, professional and they certainly saved my ass! For me the take home message is that SPOT is a great device for checking in periodically to let the home team know all is well, but if things really go south go EPIRB