Weather weekend

[biggun]

Hi Guys from MC 522 & 474 BP Na Kika.

Wouldn't plan a long trip out starting Thurs. night into Saturday. Winds SSW 18-23 gusting to 28 kts. with 6-8 ft'ers. ocasssional 10-12

Friday SSW 25-32 gusting to 35 knots 12-14; seas. Winds shifting to NNE 25-30 gusting to 40 knots. Seas 12-14'.

Thanks

Gunner

[Micah]

Yikes

[weedeater]

been there done that on some nasty crew boats for 12hrs man I love my boring land job

[fishinpox]

Thanks for the heads up! We were headed out Friday night ,

[latravcha]

Did that on a 26' cat with one motor down and one pontoon taking on water Hell of a story from that trip

[Jordan]

Originally Posted by latravcha

Did that on a 26' cat with one motor down and one pontoon taking on water Hell of a story from that trip

Do tell....

[latravcha]

Couple years back we had a trip planned to go out and catch tuna at the floaters. We were going out in my buddies 26' pro cat. There was a tropical storm that was at the tip of Florida that was header to the gulf. I had been on this boat several times including a two day trip for the tarpon rodeo with out an issue so we had no reason to believe we would have issues with the boat. We checked the offshore forecast and it called for one to two footers till the next day around noon then seas would quickly build. Well the plan was to leave the afternoon before make the hour and half run from [SIZE=3]Caminada [/SIZE] pass to devils tower hit the tuna and run back just after day light. Well everything went as planed and we tore up the tuna. Just before daylight we put out the out riggers planning on making a couple of passes before we head in. We made our first pass and hooked up on a 100+ lb plus tuna while fighting it one of the engines shuts down. We get the tuna in and start looking at the motor to try and figure out what was going on. After 30 minutes with no luck we did not have a choice but to run in on one motor. Well this caused the boat to list bad to one side and soon noticed the starboard pontoon was taking on water due to the rub rail that keeps water from entering where the cap of the boat and the hull meet. By the way this was not discovered till the next day when we were putting the boat on the trailer. There was enough water coming in that the bilge pump was not able to keep up. At that time it was about 10am and seas were staring to get bad (Steady 6’s). This is when we also realized we had other problems. Due to running on one engine with high RPM’s we were burning twice the gas as we should have been on two engines and the calculation from our current point to [SIZE=3]Caminada[/SIZE] pass would require more fuel than we had on board. We look out our options fist being continue to continue to Caminada pass skirting the shore line incase we run out of fuel we could nose the boat up on the beach and call for help. Second run till the we are almost out of gas and then tie up to a platform and get the *hit beat out of us for 12+ hours. Third plot a course for the closest protected water, The Mississippi River. Well after much discussing we plot a course for the mouth of the river. We figured that this would be a better course because if we did run out of gas at least we were in protected water. So here we go change of course. By this time it was about noon and seas were getting big. 8 to 10. About an hour later we could barely make out the channel markers for the river between the waves. The seas had gotten extremely rough due to the current of the river pushing against the waves. Really don’t know how big they were but when we were in the trough the waves they were about a foot above the t-top. Finally an hour later after fighting the current we make it through the mouth of the river and were in protected water. I don’t think I have ever seen 5 guys so happy to see the Mississippi river. About then we start planning of our next issue. We had launched in Grand isle and were on our way to Venice. We start making phone calls and finally find someone willing to come pick us up in Venice and bring us to grand Isle. By the way those of you who know you can leave Venice and be in grand isle by boat in about 40 minutes. To drive from Venice to grand isle takes over 2 hours. Well we finally make it to cypress cove marina and just about the time we pull through the cut into the marina the motor dies out of gas. I still can’t believe we made it to the marina. Finally a GREAT friend of mine picks us up in Venice and we make the long drive back to grand isle to spend the night and drive back the next morning with the trailer to get the boat. We wake up the next morning walk outside to smoke and look out to the beach and the seas are flat calm talk about enough to piss you off. Oh and by the way we ran out of beer when we changed the course from caminada pass to the mouth of the river.