Team Gettin' Rowdy

Nick Eldridge

Roll Tide!!!

Team Gettin' Rowdy

Nick Eldridge

Roll Tide!!!

Life & death are set before us,,Choose Life !!

Looking west across Mobile bay from South of Weeks bay

Ok, now that yesterday is over, I can breath a sigh of relief and talk about the situation. I have a 1802 Trophy WA. I am the second owner of this boat. Yesterday was rough as hell but we went out to Ft. McRae anyway. Well we decided to put in at the old Nichols Seafood ramp over here in Milton and make the long journey to McRae. I live in Milton. Well about the time I passed NAS Pensacola, I had to pull the throttle back a bit to slow down because the chop was getting a little much for my boat. And I noticed the boat was running a bit sluggish. As a slowed down, all of sudden I felt water come rushing by my feet. I look back and about pissed myself. There is water (about 4" worth) on the back portion of the deck. This means that my entire bilge is full underneath the deck. The 1802 Trophy's are not a self bailing deck. I throttle back and then think, what the hell am I doing throttling back. I should be heading to the nearest shore NOW. Try to power back up on plane and she almost does not make it back on plane due to the weight of the water in my boat and I had to leave the helm and go to the bow just to get back on plane. Then I make it to Ft. Pickens and beach the entire boat. Open my cabin only to find a foot or more of water in there also. The bilge was going but wasn't doing it's job good enough. Reach down into the bilge only to find a bunch of junk in my bilge pump. Clean that out and the water finally starts to go down. It took over 20 minutes to get all that water out.

Now, where the hell did that water come from. I wasn't about to go anywhere without knowing where the water was coming from. Well the previous owner had re-rigged a washdown pump at one time. The pump no longer worked, so he simply pluged the hose coming from the pickup underneath the boat. Well, because of the beating I took from the choppy waters, that makeshift plug that was in that hose came out and the water pickup underneath just started to fill up my boat from who knows when on my trip yesterday.

Got the water out, pluged the hose with a more permanent solution and enjoyed the rest of the day at McRae with the family.

I never again want that sinking feeling while on a boat. That was the worst day on the water that I have had yet and hopefully I will not have to experience something like that agian on the water. So just a friendly reminder to check all avenues of water entry into your boat often, like livewells, raw water washdowns, etc...

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Jon

Fishing out of Panama City Beach.

Woke up a little before 4:00a.m. and started to get the boat ready. We left out with a crew of 4-My Dad, His friend Mike, my uncle James and me. We had a dozen live pinfish waiting for us in a trap and we had bought a box of squid from Outcast on the way to the ramp. On the way out in the morning, the wind was not blowing at all and there was just a little bit of residual swell coming from the south. So we decided to head out to the Yellow Gravel area after some big Grouper. We ran into a dense bank of fog on the way out that slowed us down a bit. I guess it was a bit of foreshadowing that the swells in the fog looked huge because you could not see them coming to well but they were really pretty small. We made through the fog then it cleared up for a while then we hit another patch of fog that was not that bad as we approached the spot about 40 miles out. When we stopped the wind and current were not doing anything so we decided to drift instead of anchoring since the boat was not moving hardly at all. As I was getting things ready they all dropped down some pinfish and the bite was on immediately. My dad hooked up on a monster grouper that pulled the 6/0 out of the gimble and the butt of the rod flew up and knocked him in the jaw and he barely was able to hang on to the rod. He got it off the bottom a little ways and the hook pulled, both of the other guys lost fish as well. So I moved the boat back over the spot and we all dropped down but this time nothing was doing so we tried to catch some bigger baits with little success. Well the wind picked up from the South so we decided to anchor. We could not get a consistent drift but we had a bunch of rocks marked in the same area so we kept moving the anchor around to get on the spots. We finaly caught a couple 1.5 to 2.5lb Mingo's for bait and as soon as one hit the bottom a big Grouper would be on but it was just not our day as they kept getting off. Well we decided to run about 10 miles North to another ledge in the Yellow Gravel area where we knew that we could at least catch some bait to fish with. As we approached the spot the cold front was bearing down on us. It was pretty amazing to see, it was clear and sunny where we were but the front was coming quickly from the West as a straight wall of clouds. We slowed down enough to feel that the wind had shifted from the South at about 5 knots to North at about 20 knots with gust to 30 and a large change in temperature so I layed the hammer down headed for home. Once we got about 22 miles from the pass the wave had gotten just plane nasty and we were in way over our heads. The waves were the biggest I've ever been in and verrrrry steep. We took 100 or so waves over the bow with about a dozen being bad enough to go over the bow up the cabin over the windsheild and dump several gallons of water on my head as I was driving at a speedy 4mph. All it would of taken was 1 mistake and it would have been all over. We did not get out of the real bad waves untill we got about 8 miles from the beach and let me tell you that was the most intense 14 miles of my life. My dad was puking in the back of the boat because it was way to dangerous to get it over the side. The next 7 miles were sloppy to say the least but gave a little more room for error, and we were not able to run good untill we got about .25 miles from the beach. The whole way in I kept hearing my crew talk about being freezing but I had to much adrenaline pumping to get cold the only way I knew it was cold is because my jaw was freezing up not wanting to move. But in the end we made it in with angels over our shoulders. Final tally for the day 4 very releived guys with 1 Gag Grouper, 2 Mingos, and 2 Scamps and my dad caught and released our first moray eel. This morning I feel fine other than a sunburn and some sore muscles. I need to call my dad and check on his jaw as he took a pretty good shot that was still hurting him when we got home. Other then that I am ready to go again hopefully next time with some better seas.

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Dan’s Satellites “Legendary Service Since 1988”

20ft Bayliner Trophy Cuddy w/150 Yamaha 4-Stroke
MMSI# 338069659     Some of my Pic's
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Happened about 5-6 years ago I was deck-handing on the Reel Eazy, We had a 8 hr charter. We were holding up over our first spot waiting for the downpour of rain to stop so we could make a drop, I was in the pilot house with Buddy and BANG! Sounded like a 12 gage going off right next to my ear, at the same time saw a bolt of electricity go over me and Buddy's head , ears were ringing could not hear a thing me and Buddy just looked at each other in shock , and it immediately killed the electronics and engines. We smelled smoke it was the brain box to the single side ban totally melted. Ran down stairs to check on the charter guests everyone was O.K. We lost all electronics, but were able to restart the engines. Had a handheld GPS as a backup we went to a large wreck that we new the #s were right on and anchored up on the # and caught our limit of snapper and went home . That is one of many close calls that sticks out in my head............

Capt. Brandon Edgar
info@ExtremeOffshoreCharters.com
www.ExtremeOffshoreCharters.com
(850)529-8425
2007 31 CAPE HORN
250 EVINRUDE E-TECS
FURUNO 1824 C-NT NAVNET Vx2

 We were running just on plane, around 17 knots. When I passed over one wave, the bow darted away from the next wave. I heard the ice chest sliding, and turned to see Bill going over the starboard side of the boat. I threw the throttle into the neutral position, then into reverse and lots of throttle. It seemed like forever, but we stopped in a matter of seconds.

Bill's left leg was still in the boat, wedged between the ice chest and the side of the boat. The rest of him was in the water, his head and shoulders under water. We pulled him up enough to be able to breath, then freed the trapped leg. Bill had had both shoulder joints replaced, so we couldn't pick him up by his arms. We finally pulled/twisted him inside the boat.

I came very close to loosing a close friend.

It was a freaky accident, but could have been avoided.

Sea-r-cy

.

Vessel...Bodacious

I remember sitting in the bar in the Oyster Bar with Kevin watching the Weather Channel before the Captains meeting.  Saw a little line of showers moving to the SW from around Montgomery to Jacksonville.  Didn't look too intimidating.  I remember me and Kevin talking about how it shouldn't be too bad.  Should move on through and be nice.  Figured an hour or so of bumping around.  Nothing serious.  After the meeting we headed out to the Spur, gonna see if we could nail a sword first night out.  All the way out lightning was popping off to the NE.  We didn't think about putting the Weather Channel on....should have.  Arrived on station at the Spur at 2300.  Radar was showing a narrow line to the NNE.  Lightning was really starting to pick up about 10-12 miles north.  After we stopped, Creech went down to get a shower.  I stayed on the helm while Hal, Doug and Trip put 2 lines out.  By the time Jeremy got back up on the bridge, the radar was marking the line at about 4-5 miles.  After a quick discussion, we decided to get the lines in and move SE.  The stern was facing the north.  Seas were just short of glassy calm.  Still clear overhead.  While clearing lines, there was a fresh breeze form the north picked up to about 10 knots pretty fast.  At that point the temperature dropped about 30 degrees in about 3 seconds.  "Oh shit!.....Ya'll get everything latched down!!"  At that point the wind went to about 30-40 knots.  We were running 20-25 knots south and the wind was blowing so hard it took 2 of us to zip the enclosures up, one to hold and one to zip!  It was getting real ugly, real fast.  The radar was still showing the line being only 2 miles thick or so.  After trying to go SE around the end of it, it started wrapping us.  At that point, we decided to turn around and go into it.  We were listening to a couple of the other boats on the radio and they were reporting it wasn't too awfully bad just going into it.  Seas went from flat to around 8 foot best we could tell.  That's conservative.  We had waves blowing over the hardtop of the boat.  But, what really was frightning was the lightning.  I have NEVER seen it that bad, never!  I'm talking about the flash/boom being simoutaneous.  Me and Jeremy were taking turns on the wheel.  You couldn't see 50 foot any direction.  Water would fill the cockpit with about 8-10 inches of water when we went down a wave face and blow out the scuppers on the way up the next.  Doug was sitting on the bridge with me and puked a fine cloud of brown down the side. It was washed away instantly.  Hal was down below asleep.  That amazed me.  Slept right through it.  One thing we found out, the radar was not burning through the rain it was so heavy.  Along about now there was a short exchange..."Jeremy?  You been doing this longer than me...you been in this kinda stuff before...right?"..."No, this is about as bad as I been in Wade"..  (ME).."We gonna F'n die"..  This went on for 3-4 hours.  About 0330 the waves felt like they were starting to ease up a bit.  The rain slacked up enough to see a mile or so in the flashes.  There were 2 boats, one to port and one to starboard less than a mile away.  First time we had a clue they were there!!  We decided to kick the boat over on a 120 heading.  Still raining pretty good at this time, but a hell of alot better than it was.  About 0430 I could see a little tiny light spot on the horizon.  I headed towards it.  It was down to 3-5 seas now and the rain had slacked off to regular portions.  The worse was over.  We put lines in and started fishing as soon as we could see what we were doing.  We punched out the backside around 0545.  Seas calmed down to glass in a couple hours.  Amazing.  When the line had reached the gulf, it blew up.  When the boat got stable enough for the sat tv to work, we put it on the Weather Channel.  They were talking about naming the damn storm!!!  Late that evening when we got back in close enough to recieve cell calls, all of us had messages.  The Coast Gaurd was looking for us and 2 other vessels.  Found out they called the tournament off at 2300.  Wound up weighing in and still winning a categeory.  Made it in safe and sound though. 

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Go Blue Or Go Home!!!!!

No Bill? No Thrill!!!

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Go Blue Or Go Home!!!!!

No Bill? No Thrill!!!

1. fishing an SKA tourney out of Biloxi this past August, we we're on a line and had spinner sharks and kings coming out of the water everywhere and where on the troll headed towards them about 1/4 mi off.  we where already in a pretty heavy down-pour and watched a few spouts along with a squall line coming straight at us about 1 mile off of course the lightning was everwhere.  everyone was under the t-top and ready to leave and I was still working the deck.  didn't want to leave the area because the fish where lit up with the front and I had already seen several big fish come skying out of the water but we decided to head towards a nearby drilling rig that would take the strike if it got too close.  about 3 minutes later the was a hard strike....CLOSE!, I looked at the rest of them and all 4 where big eyed, staring straight at me and pretty much on top of each other under the t-top.  I finally said lets go even though I knew we where pulling off posibly a winning spot that I knew wouldn't be hot after the front passed.  did every bit of the 55 mph that boat would do to get away from the storm.  watched it on radar the entire time and knew it was a big one.  what they didn't see that I did was the last strike was so close, I saw it hit the water and the orange flash come back up out of the water.

2. I think it was in '05  but I'm sure plenty will remember it and correct my date.  went out to do some trolling around the nipple hopefully followed by some bottom bumping.  had been watching the wx and there was a storm way out but shouldn't be an issue until after we where back in.  heavy fog and overcast but still had good vis at water level, get there, riggers out and a good spread in followed immediately by alot of lightning.  couldn't see the storm because of the low clouds and fog and we had some non-fisher friends onboard.  decide not to push it with them and head north until we clear the wx then fish.  the storm was so fast and furious that it chased us all the was to the pass and we where running 40. this boat didn't have radar so we couldn't tell how bad it was chasing us but it just wouldn't let us alone until we where at the pass.  we get to the pass and can still see the storm is after us and the boat is now acting very sluggish but will get on plane. go ahead and pull in Sherman Cove and can barely get the boat out of the water. pull the deck plate and this is a 27' boat that is completely full of water to the deck plates...........it's a good thing Cape Horns are unsinkable because we sure must of tried.  the only reason we came in was because of the storm chasing us.  it was the real bad fast moving storm that came in a few yrs ago and dumped all the softball size hail that tore up some 87 helos' at Whiting Field.  who new we decided to go fish under it............

3.  was in June of 93' in the sea of Japan, I was on the USS Abraham Lincoln and we got caught in a my first, only and hopefully never to experience again typhoon.  I sat in CATCC watch the PLAT camera that points straight down the flight deck to the bow.  In amazement, we sat there and watched 20' solid walls of water come over the bow of a 60' (above the waterline) flight deck.   now dem was some seas!

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"Pensacola Area Property Services"

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Scott

NRA Member #168715252

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Last Feb. Me and Matt Dunn  a buddy of mine had a 12 day gig in the Bahamas on a 61' enclosed bridge viking , He had the Captains position and I had mate position on this trip. Had a great trip everything went perfect weather , fishing , snorkeling , clients were happy . We dropped the clients off in Nassau for them to fly home and the next day we set off for Palm Beach about an 160 mile trip. We had a 5 hr weather window before a huge cold front crosses south fl, into the Atlantic . Cold front + gulf stream = big seas . So it was go or stuck in the Bahamas for another week or so until the seas calm. So We Head out early 32knots across the banks towards north light just north of Bimini, and the high engine room temp goes off!!! not engine temp, engine room temp, that's bad . Shut engines down run down stairs open engine room hatch and all I can sea is FLAMES! I run and get a fire extinguisher and Matt runs down in the engine room and Grabs the flaming beach towels that the owners left sitting on the engines to dry out. the day before, and throws them in the water and I go down and finish extinguishing the flames that were still on the engines, all I can think about is the 1800 Gal's of fuel we are sitting on top of. Thank God we got it put out , and we access the damage and its manly cosmetic . With all the rushing around we did prior to us leaving Nassau, Matt forgot to do his routine engine check that morning . It was a hard lesson to learn. But we got the boat back before the front and cleaned the engine room and informed the owners of the damage, it was a bad ending to a great trip.  could have been real ugly. Sometimes its not worth rushing you usually will run in to problems if you do it too often. Also don't put towels in the in the engine room to dry , especially when you are on a boat with a washer and drier.......

How 'bout:

When I was 15, went shark fishing at night about 20 miles offshore in Sarasota. After putting chum out for six hours and drinkin too much, 3 of 4 of us fell asleep. The weather changed and waves swamped the bass boat from the stern -- All of a sudden we were all in the water, no light, just water and a couple of gas tanks and coolers.

In the Gulf , at night, clinging to a gas tank. It was about 10 the next morning a big boat came by and took us in.

I've never really been scared since. Not like that.

15 yrs old, drinking....let alone to much and 20 miles off shore in a bass boat..........yikes!

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"Pensacola Area Property Services"

quality commercial lawn, landscaping, irrigation, tree service, land clearing.....

(850)380-6184

Scott

NRA Member #168715252

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While up in a narrow branch we caught the wake of a boat across the stern of our boat, it slipped under water and no matter what we tried, it was determined to roll.  Jim and I both ended up in the water, both of us were wearing boots, heavy overall, and heavy coats.  In my case I was wearing a new Float Coat from BassPro I had gotten for Christmas, Jim didn't grab his life jacket so I grabbed him. 

We made it to the bank, we were able to get the boat pulled in closer, and roll it over.  What I never expected was the trolling motor still worked.  We made our way to the nearest launch.  I hitched a ride from there to get my truck and trailer. 

Danno

"Scars are tatoos with a story"

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