What was your worst day offshore!!!

[hamer31]

this summer was trolling the 20 fathom line out of tonwsends inlet. on the way out the boat had problems getting enough gas from the auxiliary tanks. burned some fuel and lost some weight and the engines were getting gas fine after about 45 minutes. the ride out was gorgeous as predicted. however, the weather did not remain as it was supposed to. while we were trolling we really didn't realize that the waves had gotten to a sloppy 7 to 8 feet. we contacted a few other boats in the area early on and they hadn't seen any fish. it wasn't looking good. the first bite we had was a NICE mahi. he was never actually hooked but following the lure and occasionally grabing the head of the lure. he came right up to the transom of the boat and was at least the length of half of our beam. my boat is 11 feet wide. next fish was a nice wahoo. he pulled off at the boat as well. third fish was a decent mahi, jumped and spit the hook. by this time we were ready to head home and we made 12 knots as the weather had calmed a bit and there was a little more time between the swells. now this doesn't sound like a completely terrible day, but the pounding on the way home ended up cracking 6 out of 8 motor mounts that would all break the next trip out and cause a looooong tow home

[RHoos22]

To make a long story short, went out in a 28 foot topaz in 1980. Was heading out to the hudson but never made it. Got 50-55 miles offshore in about 3 hrs and suddenly the winds whipped up out of nowhere. A typical NOAH forecast. WRONG AGAIN !!!! Had to turn around into the wind with waves breaking on the bow. A few 12 or more footers thrown in. Broke the windshield. We were drenched, no place to hide. Took 7 hrs of hell to get back. PHEW

[Jack Hexter]

Tried to outrun this out of Ft Pierce one day. Realized I was not gonna do it and turned around and ran right back thru it.

[squirtis]

Get invited to fish the MAW (make a wish tuna tournament in san diego) two years ago, it was the same weekend as Hurricane Rita was approaching Louisiana and Texas.

This guy had a 29 Topaz that actually was rigged pretty nice and ran like a top it seemed. I was pretty stoked and after meeting the rest of the crew and leaving the capt's meeting we hit it.

The wind was blowing pretty solid 20-25kts NW and the swell was also NW 5-7 and pretty tight at maybe 7 second intervals...maybe 6

We could have run south and had it on our backs for the most part, but the word around the docks and from the day before was Yellow Fin's on the Bell Bank. That's 92 miles from Mission Bay inlet

One guy I had fished with before and even though he was a little "different", he knew his shit pretty good and was a nice guy to boot. The other 2 guys were the boat owner who at first seemed cool as hell, and his buddy who owned a 23 foot walk around and was talking ALOT about his history and experience in tournaments etc. "this trip this, that trip that" BLAH BLAH BLAH...

So the owner has to grab some chit and my buddy and I take the Topaz to the fuel dock at Dana Landing where they meet us. When we return they are ready and jump on. We are staying out the whole trip from Friday night 8pm (boats can leave time) till Sunday 2pm (weigh in limit time).

The owner asks me to take the wheel leaving the marina and I do without hesitation. After a few minutes and some manuevering in traffic he realizes that I can infact drive the boat and sort of just lets me keep driving. We confirm the plans to head for the Bell bank and I am fired up!! Let's go get one and win this chit.

As a 29 we were in the small boat category (30 and under) and with 5-7's out there I knew very few others would go for it. Plus my buddy's were in a 42 bertram and were heading to the same place.

About 40 miles out we start clearing the shadow affect of San Clemente island and it starts to get a little nasty

The owners buddy starts telling me how to drive at night and watch this and that and BLAH BLAH BLAH....

Then the owner comes up from the galley and opens a little container of WTF "white stuff"....R U KIDDING ME....WHAT A TOOL...

"want some" no thanks I reply and then after all 3 of them do there thing they go on to tell me "this is just a once a year tournament celebratory thing"...you know what that means right....

yes "SNUFFALUFAGUS" is on board and his little buddy's too...

Great...now I can't even have a beer because I have to make all decisions if necessary....

About 12-15 miles shy of the mnumbers we take a bomber over the bow and it rocked us pretty good...yet solid reaction so I was calm especially since we had already endured 80 miles with only regular snottyness.

The owners buddy "you remember mister know it all" comes up from the galley and is puking all over the deck "SEASICK" WTF R U CHITIN ME

So the owner comes up and takes over the wheel and says, "we are going to head downhill so the ride is better" HUH!! we are almost fricken' there....

I went to sleep sorta of for about an hour and a half and then got up to help rig up in the morning. We start putting out the gear (keep in mind guys out west locally anyway we are fishing with much smaller gear on average) a couple of TLD 50's, a couple of TLD 30's and then he has one Penn KG10 or some crap and he starts to put it out..I tell him, "hey I have this AVET 4/0 2 speed that is backed with 100lb spectra and 80lb mono top shot....let's put it out in-case we get a striped marlin....." He responds, nah this will work fine....

O.K. I say

and of course he picks all the shit to go on etc. etc.

about 8:30am we get a short bite...damn but better than nothing

9:00am another short bite....WTF is going on.....

all day nothing but a couple short bites until about 3:30 in shit colired water and not a sign of life for hours all I hear is ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ..............

Game on bitches that is a solid fish whatever it is.......I looked up and bam it is a striped Marlin just greyhounding port to starbourd...absolutely beautiful.

I am at the wheel and the owner grabs the rod.....

He starts yelling that he is getting spooled (WTF)spooled....yeah right

Then I realize he is on the Penn 10KG...chit

He keeps yelling, and so I am cranking it up a notch as at this point the marlin still greyhounding is starboard side looking at me in the eye and gaining

The owner yells slow down....what r u doing....WTF

Then the wonderful sound called "snap"

After that the two of the friends (owner and puker) are cussing up a storm about this and that and shoulda woulda coulda....

I am just pissed at this point.........catch and release on a marlin (with the camera provided) is a category and again we are a small boat category...BLOWING IT...

I walked up to the rod and reel after everyone had calmed down and were running back up the line to check it out......I spooled up about 20 yds of leader just to test the drag on it and see for myself....if there was 15lbs of drag on that reel I will wear a skirt tommorow

So it wasn't even a reel error...mr do everything himself and mr don't worry I got it never set his drag and it was virtually non existent

His buddy Mr. Tournament was "sea sick"

and to make matters worse, they were Johnny Depping it up "blow" style all weekend...

THE REAL KICKER

At the banquet come to find out my buddy wins the tuna division with a 27lb fish caught "that's right at the bell bank"

best part,

that striped marlin lost......would have given us first in the small boat and 2nd overall


then the boat owner tells me after the banquet.."you know I think we got spooled because it was a small blue" WTF...

Blue marlin in 65 degrees water off san diego huh.....not impossible but down right nearly so....

To top it off, Hurricane Rita jacked up my grandparents house in Texas and flooded my uncle's hometown in Louisiana so I had to jump in the car monday am and drive to Texas to help them pull a giant tree of the house and also bring in about 400gls of gas so they all could get out.....BRUTAL

Never fished with him again obviously


Curtis

[JD5652]

Mine came this past season. I had spent over 300 manhours in the engine room over the previous winter getting my boat ready for the NE canyon season. All new hoses, clamps, exhaust elbows, fuel coolers, cleaned intercoolers, transmission coolers, so forth and so on.....

I spent the entire day of the trip making sure everything was just right....fueled up, iced up (500#) and ready to go.

We left the dock at 11 PM for the 6 hour run out to Block Canyon..... NOAA predicted 4-6 footers with wind out of the SW at 10-15. This was a marginal forecast for me to leave the docks, but the predicted tendency was for it to lay down. About an hour after rounding Montauk, it was easily 6-8 footers with an occasional 10 thrown in... it was difficult to gauge the wind in the dark...but I'm sure it was more than 10-15 and was right on our nose. I backed the Maggie B down to about 15 knots to make it tolerable. The spray from almost every wave was right on or over the bridge.

After five hours of this we finally got to Block Canyon and came off plane in 5-6 footers (@ ~4 seconds) and 20 knot SW winds. It was going to be a tough troll...I thought. As soon as we came off plane the port engine began belching while smoke...something was wrong...very wrong. I opened the engine room hatch and found 18 inches of seawater underneath the port engine....WTF!.... I jumped down into the 200 degree engine room pawing at the engine room bilge pump....it was full of bilge crap which included insulation material from where I had a A/C unit replaced over the winter....then just as I got the engine room bilge pump cleared and the water going down...I saw smoke coming out of the port engine air filter....now I'm thinking I have a turbo fire......a friend of mine had just went through an engine room fire from a turbo the previous season that burnt the entire engine room of a 44 Henriques..... I grabbed a fire extinguisher and removed the four springs holding down the air sep one at a time while pointing the extinguisher into the turbo....as the last spring came off...I knocked off the filter expecting a flaming dragon...but no fire and no more smoke....again...WTF!

Just then the port engine began making a noise like the pistons were going to come through the block. I yelled up and had the port engine shut down. By now, the bilge pump had taken care of the sea water so I went up to the cockpit to cool off and puke. As I'm hanging my head over the port side, I see the port side fuel tank cap is holding on by nothing more than the chain. Then it hit me..... When I fueled up, I left the fuel cap off and during the trip we ingested salt water in the port fuel tank.

So I had a lot of things to think about during the 15+ hours on the way home.... could only make 6-8 knots and had over 100 miles back to port. Where did the water come from??.... back at the dock, I found that the aft bilge pump wire had a high resistance short and did not pump out the water that we were getting in the cock pit from the run out and once I came off plane the water ran though the stringer holes up to the engine compartment. I spent the next three weeks pumping over 10 gallons of sea water out of the port fuel tank and replacing injectors, filters and a few other items.

[squirtis]

Tried to outrun this out of Ft Pierce one day. Realized I was not gonna do it and turned around and ran right back thru it.

EEEWWWW that doesn't look good

[LuckyLady]

I think my most miserable trip well not really that bad was on an overnight this summer, the trip and crew and fishing were fantastic

Its what ever time and I'm taking a nap. On the 36 I sleep up on the walk around console, grab a blanket and pillows out of the cabin and its nap time.

I decided to take out my contacts and put my glasses on because wearing contacts for 46 hours just feels like sand in your eyes. Took them on and off a lot checks volts, and getting stuff and just relaxed.

I finally fell asleep and heard the generator shut down...No WTF? Jump up slid down of the console to the helm floor. Landing right next to someones head he we was kicked back relaxing.

Going thru my brain. everything is on and running and there is 5 batteries but who knows, I rather be safe than sorry being by yourself out there.

Fire up all 3 engines.

Open the generator compartment crank it, no water flowing. Head for the strainer in the bilge.

Shit its back too far I hate being short, I can't make guest work and not fish so I crawl in the bilge. I can hear the waves lapping the transom and water was coming up and under the door just enough to run across the deck and butters and with the bilge lid open and me it right smack dab over my head. Just lovely butter chunks and saltwater in my hair and I am soaked head to toe.

They guys are laughing looking for the camera, I went thru this twice then I was pissed out of clothes and gave up and left the motors running at ldle for the rest of the night.

Decided to go sit with the skipper on the bow, I was urked about all sorts things and started not feeling to good as I had been all night wearing my glasses on and off. Got sick from wearing the glasses.

I can't wear my glasses while I drive I get the same feeling. I think that they are too stong.

But hey we caught fish and that was what it was all about. Otherwise there are some comical ones but nothing serve!

[neilinov]

About 10 years ago we were fishing out in the baltimore on my uncle's shamrock. It had been a good day of trolling and we were all wrapped up and ready for the ride in. It was one of those flat calm days that you never see. No swell just flatter than flat. We turn and point her west and crank it up. All of a sudden there was a loud explosion in the engine compartment and the engine becomes louder than you can imagine.

We shut her down and check everything out. Nothing seems to be wrong, no hoses are unattached, no visible signs of smoke or water intrusion. Fire the engine back up and again louder than a 747 taking off. Were 62 miles out and have only the one engine. Capt puts it into gear, and everything seems fine except the noise is un freakin believable. We can manage about 7 kts. About an hour into it the exhast fumes start getting horrible. We can't find out where the exhaust leak is comming from, but we know it is bad. Shut the boat down again and look the engine over and over, and can't seem to find the source of the problem.

Fire the engine back up and open all hatches windows and such to make sure no one gets CO poisoning. We then continue in at 7 knts. It takes about 10 hrs to get in with the most unbearable noise you can imagine. By the time we reach the dock everyone is smoked out and deaf. Get the boat tied up and kick back a few cold ones and try and decipher the problem. After about 5 miller lites we pull the engine cover back off and are going over everything around the exhaust system. One of us accidently snags on a coil wire and it pops off the spark plug. We go to put the plug wire back on and realize that the ceramic had snapped off. The whole time we ran in with a broken spark plug. The whole ordeal could have been avoided if we had just replaced one of the spark plugs.