SHARE -our rough times on the water stories.

i just finished watching ALL IS LOST, the robert redford movie about a sailing accident. it reminded me of THE PERFECT STORM with george clooney. i thought it would be interesting share one of my difficult times on the water and hear other's stories. i was fishing lake mcconaughy in western nebraska in my then 18 ft. lund deep v with a 125 merc. the lake is 22 miles long and 5 miles wide. it lays northwest to southwest and therefore is susceptible to strong nw winds. i launched at a ramp by the dam on se side of the lake so i could follow a nw wind in rather than fight it. a very strong cold front with fierce nw winds passed while i was fishing 15 miles down the lake. i was catching big walleyes, so i stayed out longer than i should have. by the time i turned to go in there were 2-3 ft rollers which would only get bigger as i neared the dam. soon the rollers were 4-5 ft. and growing. after a time i couldn't see the south shore and had to sight on a high microwave tower on a bluff on that shore to keep me on the proper course. i had to stay in the trough between the waves all the way in so i wouldn't take water over my stern and also not catch up to the wave in front of me that could roll me. i also had to tack gradually to the south shore so i would be on the shoreline the ramp is on. eventually made it in and took only a little water. took 60+ minutes, but seemed like forever. nothing like THE PERFECT STORM or ALL IS LOST, but scary and exhausting for me.

As a kid, early teens, I went with some friends and their fathers to spend the night camping on Anclote Key. Plan was to get up early, head out in gulf to do some Grouper digging. One father had a nice boat at the time, late fifties. It was an aluminum cuddy cabin with a big Evinrude on the back. I was riding high and mighty with my legs straddling the bow when the steering broke and sent the boat in a all the way turn going wide open. Except for a rope tied to the cleat on the bow I would probably been killed by the motor after falling in. Scared the devil out of me. Had to tie a rope to each side of engine to steer our way back. Thought I had forgotten about that experience.

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Originally Posted by Yelim

As a kid, early teens, I went with some friends and their fathers to spend the night camping on Anclote Key. Plan was to get up early, head out in gulf to do some Grouper digging. One father had a nice boat at the time, late fifties. It was an aluminum cuddy cabin with a big Evinrude on the back. I was riding high and mighty with my legs straddling the bow when the steering broke and sent the boat in a all the way turn going wide open. Except for a rope tied to the cleat on the bow I would probably been killed by the motor after falling in. Scared the devil out of me. Had to tie a rope to each side of engine to steer our way back. Thought I had forgotten about that experience.

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quite a story. every once in a while i see a boat going wide open with somebody sitting in the front bow seat. your PFD advice is right on. i wear mine all the time i am on the water.

This was 22 years ago(I was 13 yrs old), I got invited to go off shore fishin with a family friend right off the coast of New Smyrna. They had a 40-50 foot sail boat & several people were going to troll & others just along for the ride. We headed out the inlet to fairly calm 2-3 foot seas, as they got further away from shore - the sails went up & the boat was just being driven by wind power. As the day went on with sails up & the radio playing & whatever other electronics they had on while fishin & having a good day, the weather started to turn & it was soon to be dark. A few of the guys on the boat had caught a few king mackerel fish, so as they cleaned the fish & packed them on ice they just used the sails to get us back towards the inlet. As we approached the inlet by a few miles, they prepared to pull the sails & use motor power to get in through the inlet & to dock. Well, that's when everything turned for the worse - they just figured out that after using power for electronics & the radio all day the boat was dead & had no power. The seas were getting rough & the skies darker with nightfall, the captain knew that it would be too dangerous to try & sail into the inlet & there was no way he would make it to dock. We were a few miles out & the waves turned from 3-4 to 4-5 to 5-6 foot swells, we had no power for lights, marine radio or anything. They decided to throw the anchor out & shoot up some flares to signal distress to whoever could see it. As we sat there anchored after shooting flares up the boat was just being beat by every wave that passed, so the captain decided it would be better to pull the anchor & drift. With no power to propel the boat & dislodge the anchor he had to cut the line to what I figure was prolly a expensive anchor & line but it better than damaging the boat. So here we drift bouncing up & down with no power at all & it is dark now, you could barely see a flicker of light on the shore as we drifted south further away from the inlet. We just bounced as each wave passed through the night, 8PM turned to midnight & then it was about 3 or 4 am when we heard a helicoptor in the distance. Then we saw the search light & could see the chopper getting closer, I felt like finally we were saved as the other people on board waved their arms to signal the Coast Guard. They lowered a coast guard unit onboard the boat & he determined that everyone was somewhat safe & the boat was not under any major damage - just had mechanical issues & no power. He told us a tug boat was on the way to pull us back to safety & then he got lifted back to the chopper so they could go land. A few hours later it was light out & we could see a smoke stack heading our way as he would reach the peak of each swell & the he would disappear and then reappear. Finally he got close & a few coast guard guys boarded the boat & tied us onto the tug. Several hours later we reached the dock, it was almost dark again, I was very happy to see & feel dry stable land after that 2 day venture at sea.
Sorry this so long but it was a very long trip on the water & I tried not to leave many details out - I did forget to mention that most of us were seasick through the night too.:puke

you never know when things might go bad on the water.

That was spectacular specktacklure:yikes Seriously I'm very glad you all made it ..I'll ask TNT if your story had anything to do with your handle:scratchhead