Staying offshore

[Gmofftarki]

Barring long-range trips, which are a topic in and of themselves, what's the longest you've spent offshore in one fishing outing on a private boat or charter (6-pack, 12-pack, whatever).

You see boats like that 92' Hatteras, which are obviously meant for being able to live aboard while fishing (even if most people with that kind of money would pick up a chase boat to dock in the mothership for actual fishing purposes), something like a 50-65' boat should be good for 3-5 days at a time (if you can get along with your buddies in such a cramped space for that length of time).

Just curious about whether anyone's really attempted to make a go at a week-long offshore fishing cruise in a pleasure boat.

EDIT: Obviously, it's more than just fuel and food with weather concerns and whatnot, and you'd need to have a crew full of people fully qualified to receive instruments, read weather faxes, watch radar, steer the boat, take shifts, any number of other things, and be sure that you have a safe port within a decent steam if things went REALLY bad. With proper preparation and decent weather (this was brought up by the post regarding 12 hour windows for NC and 4 days of decent weather on end) it might be doable?

[canyongear]

3 3/4 Full days ..2 Nights..110 miles out..fished Atlantis to Hydro..had a great weather window which made it an unbelievable experience..would have stayed longer but the ice got low and the fish boxes and coolers were chock full..actually had to start loining fish to make room..real nice when you don't have to rush..it will be indelibly etched forever..

The Reel A Fish Al..owned by Capt Al Redway, one of the best put your ass on the fish captains' ive seen, is a custom built one of a kind Aluminum hull "Wetsig" in 1987 as a 46' and then stretched to 50' the next year. Holds 850 gallons fuel, twin cummins QSM-11 660hp, Furuno 72 mile Radar, Northstar and Garmin GPS, double Furuno Sounders 1000 Watt ducers, Sat Phone, Full compliment of Safety Gear and Immersion Suits for 8, crash valves, double redundancy on all bilge pumps. Full keel which water fills. 36 GPH at cruise of 25 knots..

[Innovator]

3 1/2 days, 2 nights. Fishing last summer with the Castafari, we took a trip to the sea-mount. I think we were 40 miles east SE of Hydro. I was the furtherst and longest offshore trip I have ever done, I have to say it was a little weird being that far offshore and not seeing ANYONE!!! But we had a good boat, safety gear, and top notch crew. Unfortunately, the fishing was not so hot, small yellowfin, a few whitys in the spread, but we did catch a nice 400+ Blue MArlin.

[capt. jakeg]

Spent 6 days out on a commercial boat sea bassing one time. Couldnt fit another fish on the boat. This was back when virginia still had the derby style sea bass seasons and the season would only be open for six days. Had the cockpit full waste deep with remaining ice douched on top of them for the ride home. I think a 2 foot wave would have rolled the boat. Had sea bass- up to 9 pounds, big bluefish, dolphin, flounder, a mako shark, and a handful of false albacore. One of the albies would have been the all tackle world record at the time, but we were commercial fishing so wouldnt count. Thing weighed 32#. Broke off the biggest dolphin I ever seen on a tld 25. Thing woulda went 60 easy. Got hit by a squall line at midnight one night and the 60mph winds and golfball size hail had us all grabbing life jackets and calling the man upstairs for help. After about day two, you start losing track of time and you get so exhausted that you dont even feel tired any more. Like you body gets used to it. One thing about spending a long time out there that is strange is that I almost never get the craving for a fast food burger. They normally disgust me. When I spend a long time out there, the first thing I wanna do is stop at Mcdonalds and get a quarter pounder on the way home to see my woman.

Most I spent on my boat is recreationally fishing wasthree days and I have done that several times. Leave tuesday morning, putt out to the grounds at 15 knots to save fuel, fish for 50ish hours straight, and make it home to charter fish friday,saturday, and sunday.