Watched the weather all week putting the crew together, everyone was stoked. Left Greenwood right about 4 with Oneal and Blackmon, picked up RDW in Cola headed for Remleys with the target species being grouper, still need that one off my list. Watching the smartphone weather didn’t look so great anymore. Looked like it would rain at least until we got there and probably for a while after.
Well, we had a delay. Tire blew on I26 just below Orangeburg. I’m a dumba and don’t have a spare… I know stupid. Tandem axle torsion supension, 2 miles to exit with tire shop. Slowly get there and wait until they open. As we wait, decide to replace them all because they are probably dry rotted. They open and get to work. Rusty lug nuts soaked in penetration oil started stripping or breaking studs. Head into town to get lugs/studs… need 15 to be sure, only 8 exist in town. Squeak by with 1 left over.
All new tires, no spare rim available or would have picked one up as well to stop being stupid. $400 later headin’ east again…
Get to remleys just shy of lunch and the chop is up, Sumters flags were pinned straight out. Passed through the jetties to see the sub coming in fully escorted. Probably saw offshoresc behind it. We steered as south of it as possible to avoid target practice. With the 4-5’ chop, movec to plan B which was Chas60.
Dramamine working hard, but doing its job. 6 or so miles out saw a pile of birds picking glass minnows with spanish blowing up under them. Started trolling some spoons and tossing little gotcha plugs in silver, white and chartruse. Tore them up. Every toss was a good size spanish with RDW working the back scoring doubles on the spread. Oneal and Blackmon proved that the silver or white plug was where it is at. Not sure how many we landed, I drove the boat trying to keep eveybody in it.
Bored of that and out of plugs from cutoffs, turned back towards the 60. Never mad
You forget to add,…Valve on Scuba Tank turned itself on from all the bouncing. Everyone’s first reaction was “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!!!”
We were still within sight of the CG. My first internal thought was “they shot one over the bow”
Sooner or later every boater has an experience like this. Well, maybe not to the degree you had but, the proverbial “bad day”. Seeing so many trailers on the side of the road has made me fanatical about checking lugs and tires and lubing my hubs.
Sounds like a case of “We drove a long way and are going fishing come hell or highwater.”… Eventually you will get enough “hell” and “highwater” and start cancelling before leaving the house…
Our modified strategy based on this experience will include an early morning weather check. I don’t typically ride down and back but the forecast and the crew dictated it.
Our modified strategy based on this experience will include an early morning weather check. I don’t typically ride down and back but the forecast and the crew dictated it.
BG
Lot's of people have been there. Tip #2. Don't listen to your crew. They are always "ALL IN". You have to make the call yourself.
Checking weather before we left wouldn’t have caused us to cancel, forecast was still good and 41004 was showing N/A and stayed that way until between 10 and 11 o-clock. We should have been on the water by 7:30-8:00.
Sirus showed that the edge of the storm was right at the jetties and pushing North. We came out and headed South, looking for calmer water. Skies were clear towards Edisto.
I don’t think anyone was ever “All in” or had the attitude of “We’re going fishing come Hell or Highwater” at least I know I wasn’t thinking that.
Given the resources we had, we felt that a change of plan for nearshore to the South was a pretty safe bet. The beating was worse right at the mouth of the jetties because we had to go directly into the wave. Once the turn to the South was made the ride was more tolerable.
After fishing the Spanish for a while, we tried to go a little farther South, but we saw the conditions was not going to get a WHOLE lot better and the call was made to pack it in.
We went expecting rain early but not rough water.
Once we saw the water was not going to calm down we put her on the trailer and called it an “adventure” topped off with a chicken sandwich. For what it was worth, just before we saw the Sub, we saw two guys heading North in a little skiff with a small tiller steer motor.
btodag, i am the worlds worst, i have owned 5 boats… i have had a spare for one of them and the only reason is becaause it came with it haha. the boat i have now, has dry rotted tires and i pull it everywhere no worrys haha no spare either. prolly should consider investing in a couple tires.
Its part of boating, especially in the saltwater when you live 3.5 hrs away. I’ve got a spare expected tomorrow, $101 with trailer tire and rim. The rim is steel, but it’ll never touch water so it should be a fine spare. I paid that much for the tire last time.
