Over Under Adventures - Anchor Cut off by Squid Boat
So, I've been meaning to put this up for a while, but just hadn't gotten around to it. Couple weeks ago, we were sitting all by ourselves inbetween a couple canyons, anchored up on the 100 line. When we got to the edge, just before dark, the FLICKA was sitting there laid up. We went over and talked to them a bit...they were actually trying to catch a tuna. They were real nice...threw us some squids and we told them where we were gonna anchor for the night. No other boats around...no issues
Ok, so like maybe midnight or something another squid boat (i'll leave the name out I guess) starts working around us. they keep their distance, but were reasonably close..i'd say 3/4 mile or so. We kept an eye on them, but never had any real reason for alarm.
Maybe 6:30 am or so (it's daylight by now). We were cleaning up, getting ready to pull the anchor, when I notice the squid boat angling very close for our bow.....by the time I get up to the bridge to survey the situation, i can see it doesn't look good. I hailed him on 16...no luck. FLICKA comes back to us right away, tells us to call him on 77...do so and he answers that his gear is on it's way down. I tell him, he's gonna catch our anchor.
Well, long story short...he claimed he had no idea we were anchored...never thought anyone anchored in 600' of water...thought everyone drifted or used sea anchors...even though we had been in the exact same position as he worked around us all night.
It became pretty clear that he had our line, as our bow slowly turned into him. We untied, and threw a poly ball right away. he hauled back (reluctantly...complaining that he was loosing his tow), but never-the-less he did it. He was not to eager to have his nets torn up by our anchor either....Got his gear up and said no anchor...well, we hoped that throwing the ball had allowed it to somehow float free, but all that had happened is his gear sawed through our rope. So we got back about 2/3 of our rope, lost the anchor/chain and 600' of rope, couple shackles, ec...about $1200.
He offered a half hearted, kinda "back in my face", apology, but that was about all, seemed to indicate that it was as much our fault for being so stupid as to anchor in 600' of water... and went on his way.
Couple lessons here I learned that may be helpful to others...certainly I will do a couple things different next time.
- 1st, they are on 77....knowing that gives you a chance at getting them when you need to.
- 2nd, some obviously seem to be totally oblivious to what seems obvious to most of us..ie: that we are anchored, or even that we are there...
now when a boat approaches, i hail them as soon as I know they are working in the area we are anchored and tell them so. If a boat is headed for me, and won't respond, i think next time I will run up the anchor line and try to get the boat as close to over top of it as possible...to effectively "gaurd" the anchor. If it's rough, forget about it...very difficult, but otherwise, decent shot at getting there and that should get his attention. I just didn't contemplate that he could possibly be so clueless to the fact that we were anchored, when it was broad daylight and our bow was sitting there facing into the wind and we were clearly not moving...
not sure what the financial liability is here or what, but this was a totally ridiculous situation in broad daylight...he towed 100 yards off my bow after dropping his gear less than 1/4 mile from me.....he was just totally oblivious to the fact that we were even there....he even said on the radio when I first hailed him "oh yea, i just saw you there..."
Also, I dont' want to generalize, because we saw 2 totally different interactions/responses from 2 boats out there..The FLICKA on the one hand and this other boat on the other...
Also, for what it's worth, when we drop back on the hook, we lie .2 to .3 miles from where our anchor sits....the difference depends on how much of our 1800' we let out. This what i would tell the squid boats now, if the situation arises...that our anchor lies .3 miles off our bow....
anyway, a story i felt was worth passing along....
Post the name of the squid boat, lets see how he treats other sport boats during the rest of the season, if someone else has a problem with him then the Coast Guard needs to have a face to face with him.
Sad to say but this has happened to a number of boats out there in recent times including the 125' Jamaica. In a number of occasions people have come very close to serious injury. A lot of this has been documented in "the Edge" BGFJ.
Please post the name of the boat & thanks for the info, good and bad.
You need to talk to Phil Geissler and Len Belcaro. I will shoot you the e mail addresses.
Phil knows about the liability/USCG end of things as he has been working on it for over a year. Len is kind of keeping track of sportboat/squidboat interactions.
Trey heard that from another person that you were cut off by a squid boat the other week. Sorry to hear, and you would think that after sitting in the same place for 11 hours that you would be "drifting" come on now thats bs.
Don't worry, things will change when someone get seriously hurt or worse. for now, some outfits, don't give a rats behind. The rigs are being paid by someone. that's where the $ are. If we can have dolphin safe tuna, cant we have sportboat safe squid?
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