[Miss Beryl Charters]

With the upcoming season not too far off, I thought it might be interesting to share some near disasters which may
have happened in the past. This may
give food for thought and possibly help to find a sleeping hidden problem.
Heres one that happened to me. One
summer day a few years back, Im running
my 20' inboard boat offshore and
start to smell a strong odor of gasoline. So I shut off the engine,
open the hatch and to my horror, I see
a stream of gasoline squirting out of
the steel gas line ahead of the carb.
The entire mainfold is covered with
puddles of gas! The bottom of the gas
line had rusted, and pinholed. I cleaned
up the gas, aired it out for an hour,
was able to start up, and get home by
holding my finger over the hole the
whole way home. Im know that wasnt the
smartest thing to do, but it worked,
and I made it home safely. I shudder to
think how lucky I was, Im sure I could
have easily blown up, or been burned up.
Anyone else have a hair raising experience to share?

 

[614892]

A few years back

we cleared shinne**** inlet on my friends 31 Bertram at midnight with plans to have the lines in the water for sunup. Forecast was for scattered thunderstorms and after being blown out for 3 weeks in a row, we decided to go.(bad decision) We arrive at the tails at 4, conditions couldn't be any better(i guess thats where they get the phrase, the calm before the storm!)
So our pattern is all setup and everything looks perfect when all of a sudden it starts raining and the wind starts to pick up. Within 10 minutes it was hailing the size of golf balls with 40-50 knot winds and seas building quickly. We thought it was just a passing storm and tried to manuever our way out of it through the radar but we were in the middle of a nasty squall line and it looks like we maybe in this one for awhile.
At this point the captain tells us to bring in the lines we're going to have to try run offshore, out of the storm. While reeling in the lines, a wave breaks over the side of the boat and knocks me over and i fall to the other side of the boat. Now the captain sees it's too dangerous, cut all the lines and get inside. We'll I'll cut out all the particulars, 4 hours later and 110 miles from shinne**** inlet we're finally in the clear. It proceeded to take us another 8 hours to get home in 10-12 footers but we made it. I honestly didn't think we were going to.
Believe it or not, the captain sold the boat the following fall and died of a heart attack the next year. It was his last day on the ocean. What a day to remember.

 

[SummerBrz]

On the hook

Two years ago Nov. 12 when flight 587 crashed in Belle harbor, Me and 2 other guys where blackfishing at Scottland light on the hook. When we saw the plume of smoke we knew it wasn't good. The 3 us us are from Howard beach and from scottland we could tell it was from around JFK. As we were trying to raise somebody from the area via VHF and listening to 1010 news radio I happend to look up towards the bow of my boat to see a tug pulling a bardge headed right for us. He was no more than 1/2 mile away. I quickly started blowing my horn with 5 long blasts and had one guy go to the bow with a knife in case we had to cut the anchor line. At the same time I am trying to start the motor to get out of the way because this tug is not seeing us. Finnally the motor started, so I start heading west to get out of the way using the ball to pull the anchor, the tug passed right over the spot we were fishing passing us by 50 feet wich is a little too close for me. As he passed I was still blowing the horn, we saw nobody was in the wheel house or on watch. This tug never knew we were there and could have run us over without a clue.

If we had been fishing off the stern we may have never seen that tug coming and could have been a statistic.

 

[MakoMike]

Breezy,
Did you report that tug?

 

[wader]

EASILY 25 TO 30 YEARS AGO

My father owned a nice 25 foot Chris Craft. Well he spent a good amount of time cleaning & fixing it up the first year in preparation of the maiden voyage. Stocked it up with all sorts of goodies & invited the whole family to join him for the first voyage. All 3 of my brothers, the grandparents & of course MOM.

At that time he kept it on a mooring in Northport harbor. He I row out in the dinghy to unhook her & bring her into the dock where the rest of the family is waiting for us. We load family & goodies aboard & then shove off headed to a marine filling station for gassing.

There my father is - got the family, got the boat - lookin' good. Well MOM decides she'll help out & fuel the boat. No - I don't need any help.

Not realizing that it would make a lot of sense that where the fuel would go would have a cap on it - she proceeds to pump the gas into the hull of the boat via a rod holder. She must of gotten a couple of gallons into the hull when my father all of sudden realizes what she is doing. With a tremendous yell he screams for her to turn off the pump. Pretty much everyone on the fueling dock now sees what MOM is doing & a panic ensues as every able bodied soul quickly flees the immediate area in anticpation of the impending explosion. Luckily there was no boom. I gues the enging wasn't running long enough to create enough heat to ignite the fuel vapor.

Needless to say, brothers, grandparents, goodies & MOM never got out on the boat that day.
Harbor Patrol towed the boat away from the fuel docks to our mooring.

Me & Dad?? We spent the rest of the day cleaning out the hull trying to get all of the gas out of there.

 

[SummerBrz]

MakoMike,

We never thought to take the name of the tug, we were more concerned with the plane crash and getting in touch with our families. Were so twisted the rest of the day thinking that the plane might have crashed on our homes. We eventually got in touch with a friend that has a phone on board and had him call home to find out what was going on.

 

[620797]

Joeyg7, Them Bertram31s' will bring you back!!

 

[Fishmeister]

Man, I could think of quite a few stories to tell!!! one in paticular was around 12 years ago, it was a november morning, and the bass were in pretty thick off the needle, by jones...
there musta been 50 boats out that day trolling big bass. conditions were good,60 degrees, light s/e breeze, 1/2' chop. off i go to join the fleet in my 21' cruisers, have compass, vhf, and fish/depth on board. picked up 3 35-40" fish in 50' of water before i heard the guys talkin bout the fog rollin in. paid little attention to it, but didn't see the J.B. Needle anymore! no prob, i'll just wait it out? 2 hours later, and nuthin changin, and dark acomin' with 6 butts left, i said time to go! figured i'd troll back to the inlet? my caculations told me it took me 15 mins @ 4500 rpm to get to where i was, so common sense told me it'd be @ 45 mins-1 hr. @ 1500 rpm to get close to the inlet. Remembering that the first buoy was in 28' of water, i tried to maintain that depth the whole way back.
close to an hour gone by when all of a sudden this 40' sportfisherman with the name ALBA on its transom comes within 25' of my bow, and **** near swamps me with his wake! keep in mind visability was only to the bow, pea soup... so i get on the horn an ball him out callin him every name i could think of. when i finally cooled down, it occurred to me he was makin his way through the inlet,so i get back on the horn and call him and ask him diresctions to J.I., he said you're right on top of it. so i decided to hang a right, and go ever so slowly, before long, i hear the sound of breaking water,(got the speed down to a crawl) the fog finally started to rise, couldn't believe it, the E. jetty was directly on my left, and i was in the 2nd breaker to the beach! hard right! up and over a breaker, and outta harms way...wow was that a scarey day! made it home ok, but totally forgot about the fishin poles, wire line, and spoons! lost it all, lol. From that day on i learned all about loran c, and started to trust in it and use it all the time! now there are times when i can "get out" and see many boats still sittin it out in the inlet...

 

[spygull]

Fog stories

Some years ago I had left Moriches for a day of offshore trolling and things were very slow. It was a glass calm very hot day in August I believe. It was mid afternoon and we found ourselves In about 200 ft of water south of Amaganset We decided to stop on a wreck I knew of in the area and try jigging some cod or pollock before heading home. We located the wreck and the fish were in clouds all over it. We were bailing pollock from 20 to 30 lbs on every pass so we decided to stay a little longer. Getting in after dark was no problem as the weather was perfect. On the way in I was down below takeing a nap, I had told the boys to wake me when we got close to the beach so I could bring it through the inlet. We had over a thousand lbs of fish aboard which had been pulled up from 200 ft. and I was beat. I get a call "George come up and look at this". I run up to the bridge and I see the biggest fog bank I had ever seen right in our path. We still had about ten miles to go and it was starting to get dark. The fog was so thick you could not see the bow of the boat. I called the CG for conditions at the inlet and was told they had zero visability. We made our way into the vicinity of the inlet and things hadn't improved. I notice some lightning flashes in the distance but I didn't get concerned until I heard a CG Weather alert on 2182 about violent thunder storms working their way along the south shore with winds up to 70mph. I had managed to get over the bar at moriches and knew I was close to the inlet but I didn't know east or west. The lightnig is gettin bad now so I make a decision to head out to deep water to ride it out, the last place I want to be in high winds is sitting in twelve feet of water almost in the surf. OOPS Continued.

 

[spygull]

continued

We asked the CG to call our families and tell them we were OK as the electricle interference made the radio phone inop. As I was about to head out I spot a pinhole of light in the fog, I backed the boat into the surf and and find a surfcaster standing in front of his buggy with the headlights on I Ask him with the hailer which way is the inlet? and he tells me it about 100 yds. to the east. I make my way down until I find the rip from the ebbing tide and turn in One of guys is holding a hand held spot at arms length over the side of the boat so I can keep from hitting the jetty. Now the wind is starting to blow. We find the back end of the west rockpile and I run the boat over the shoal to the north set my storm hook and we all head down below. The squall hits with all of its fury. Lightning, horizontal rain, gale winds. Suddenly I see a flashing light, and I see a boat making it way down the east cut. I'm wondering who in his right mind would go out in these conditions. I go topside and light my boat up and the boat heads my way. Are you the Gull they ask. It was 3 guys from moriches CG In their 30 ft open surf boat comeing out the try to help us find the cut. We tied them along side and we all went down below out of the weather. We killed a bottle of bourbon and swapped war stories until the blow was over. I can't thank those CG guys enough. I hadn't asked but they took it on their own to come out in horrible conditions to try to help.

(This post edited by spygull on 02/16/2003)

 

[Fishmeister]

I Sure hope this first post doesn't make "too many waves"!!!

One night 8 or so years ago, there i was out at 2:30am fishin the 3rd meadowbrook on a beautiful june day.
Light winds, with an incoming tide and the place all to myself. i tied up to the ice breakers using a bow/transom line. havin a slow night, picking on here, one there, when all of a sudden i see these glaring spotlights comin my way! now mind you i am one piling north of the entrance... i couldnt believe it, it was a partyboat and he was doin i estimated @ 10-15 knots, and he goes right through an opening just 2 pilings north of me! i'm yellin at the top of my lungs, YOU GOTTA BE KIDDIN ME!!!!
as he goes by, i see Capt. Doug on the side of the boat, nice... no, i didnt call the C.G. or Police... Scared the you know what outta me!

 

[Capt Ed III]

near miss

i'll never forget fishing reynolds channel one drizzly day 4 yrs ago for fluke with my dad. it was early springtime & we were drifting slowly all alone almost mid-channel near buoy 5. there were no other boats in sight because of the damp weather, even though it was on a weekend day. i spotted a single boat near buoy 7 heading our way at full throttle. visibilty was very good as i had seen him coming from afar but i did have on my running lights anyway. as i watched him get closer, he was heading straight for us. i was the only boat in sight and thought he would deviate his course for sure. well this wasn't happening, so i told my dad to reel up fast & i started the engine. he was coming too fast & i wasn't even able to shift into gear as he waked us real good, passing within 10' of the stern on my 23' boat at full throttle.
i withhold the name of the boat here, but after about the 8 minutes i finally stopped shaking enough to hail him on the radio. i try not to curse on the air, but that day i let him have it pretty good when he answered me & invited him to return back so we could "discuss" the situation. i thought it was a kid prank, but the guy swore up & down that he never saw me & apologized for it being totally his fault.
you know, even when you're minding your own business, dangerous situations can occur!
-ken

 

[Scalawag]

Always pull up the chum pot before you decide to throw it in gear !

5 years ago I was in my CSkiff v16CC bass fishing in the state channel when it got really dark out & a thunderstorm started to move in. I threw the rod in the rodholder, pulled anchor, started her up & nailed the throttle but forgot to pull in the weighted chumpot { you know the small one that fits that frozen clam chum sleeve?}
Just missed my head & clocked the grab rail dinking it. It wouldve killed me for sure.
I could go on with some boneheaded things of my youth like stuffing the bow in amy 16' checkmate while trying to jump 2 wakes that were meeting, took out the windshild & almost lost the girlfriend. But you live & you learn from these things,

 

[Fishmeister]

2 MORE OKAY???

Lol, okay a couple more!!!
2 falls ago, when the bass were killing the bunker off longbeach, you remember, right?
the bass (30-40lb'ers) were all schooled up but being busy with work and all, i couldn't get out, until friday. so off i went at 3;30, and i took loran numbers and marked it so sat. my friend and i could get there with no hesitation. i remember stopping in at Richie's and gassing up the boat that sat. morn., he said you're not goin out today! i said sure i is! there's a bad storm comin from the north west, better stay inside. did i listen? nope. so we hit the inlet at 8ish, great conditions, outgoing, NO WIND at all.hooked the right past the west bars, and were there off longbeach not even 10 mins. when completely outta nowhere, we're in 45' of water, and the wind just came outta nowhere, all 40-50 mph. of it!!! sonofabitch!it went from a dead calm to 4-6' everywhere! worst part was they were breaking in front of the boat, in back, and on the sides. i said Rob, pack it in, lets see if we can get outta here! it took 10 mins to get from the J-1 to the spot. and it took us 1-1/2 hours to get back! 1500 rpm up one, another crashing off the bow, it seemed we would make 50' of headway, only to go backwards 100' to avoid waves breaking in the stern..
thank God, for the coast guard, they didnt come out to help us, only waited by the 2 buoy to see if we were gonna make it in. just seein them there was a great sigh of relief...lessons?'
trust NOAA and dont sacrifice your life for any Cow BASS!!!

 

[Fishmeister]

ONE MORE AND I"M DONE....I THINK!!!

alas...the bass were off the roundhouse once again, 2 years ago, remember?
correction on last report, that was 3 years ago...twas mid november, and NOAA said there was a storm 225 mi. S.E. off L.I. once again Rob was with me, lol. (really think he's bad luck!)and we're tryin to "break the inlet" but there had to have been 50 boats just parked in the inlet, some driftin, some anchored. i look up ahead of us, and i'm makin my way close to the east jetty, when i saw the breakers... Rob says, LETS GO! you got a good boat, after all, it's only passing the first breaker, and it'll be gravy from there! HEY LOOK here comes a 40' sportfisher lets "just tuck behind him" and let him break up the wave...i let him get about 75' in front of me, and waaaay up he goes, and he friggin disapeared! Good 'ol Rob, Tony, you're committed, keep it strait! we went over the whitewash, and into a friggin gully we went, all i saw was a wall of water,that broke and totally engulfed my boat. 2 waves, 1st the nose of the boat was in the troff in front of us, and it broke right behind my transom!!!
we literally were completely underwater, and somehow came up with motor running to take on a replica wave of the first.3 more rollercoaster waves and we broke through. we lost everything in the boat, thank God it's a self bailing hull! everything ran right out the transom, donated to Davy's locker. i had to wait it out 6 hours, change of tide, drenched and all, only to come back and see it hadnt let up at all, one huge friggin breaker from east to west. Hold on Rob, as soon as i get an opening, i'm gonna run it!
10 mins later, an opening and from 700-5400 rpm we went, literally "jumping over" the whitecaps to get in...
to be honest with you, i fished inside all last year, scored well, very well with the bass, and kinda lost my desire to venture out for a little while...understandable... "WE NEED A BIGGER BOAT"!!!

 

[Scalawag]

Fishmeister, the lesson is, always listen to Woodcleft Richie !

He's always got that radio on , unless theres a good horse race on ! Hey but that guy's chock full of information & bait too .

 

[Fishmeister]

LOL right you are Alan, right you are!
Richie never steered me wrong yet!