I worked on a offshore rig out of Grand Isle, 60 miles out, we took an 80 foot crew boat to and from. There were more than a few times it wasn't big enough...

What amazes me isn't that a doofus even thinks about doing it, we all know stupidity knows no limits, but the fact more of them don't die every year than do. You have no idea what a current is until you see it moving out at open sea, we had a hand fall off the rig, and was swept out of sight in about three minutes. Gone....

Yeah, heard of them, I worked on a Diamond M rig.

i've taken a party charter out of Port A. a storm hit right as we were going out through the jetties. lightning hitting the water around us and rain pounding. only about 4-6 footers, but i thought i was gonna shart myself. took some dramamine before we went out too. and this was on a 30ft+ boat.

if i was in a 20ft boat in those waves, that boat would sink.

Worked for War Bonnette out of Victoria ,when I was runing
around Seadrift Tx and many more off and on in my late teens
and eirly 20's...

LOL , then you too know what it is like out in the gulf...

haha, yeah i don't wish Marx any harm. i kind of want to see how it pans out. but he really needs to understand the risks involved. those waves and the current are no joke.

Those currants are amazing. The couple I was speaking of earlier went in the water about 0100 or 0200. We came onto their boat about 0830 and called it in. The Coast Guard helicoptor was on the scene about 0850 with the jet showing up about 20 min later. In those 7 and a half hours they were allready out of the first search grids. Even with the Coast Guard cutter and several private boats searching they weren't found till late that day.
It wasn't the coasties that found them but the 35' "Bill Busters II".
I had Reese send me the GPS coords of where he found them and calculated they has rode that currant a good 6 or 7 miles.

I don't think anyone here is wishing Marx or anyone else any
harm...

I know thats right spiny..

Good Morning Texas .

I have a friend that is a retired USN commander.
He told me last year that The GOM is one of the 3 roughest
& unpredictable seas in the world, beaten out by the Bering sea & Cape Horn/ Weddell sea in the S. Atlantic.

I agree. A couple years ago, (Hamster was there) we were on the Scat Cat headed to Perdido, solid 30k head wind & 10-15' ers quartering. )one in the middle of the night was estimated at over 20'!)the boat handled it, but not many fishermen did!
Literally 9 hrs later in the same location, we were enjoying 2-3' swells & light winds, & the tuna bite was incredible!
The GOM is very unpredictable, with VERY strong currents.
those who take it lightly, usually end up as fish food.

LOL , Either fish food or crab bait ...
It's been a long while sents I've vivited the GOM ,
But not so long that I've forgotten the lessons she
has tought me & the respect I have for the GOM.....

***UPDATE*** WOW I can just imagine what it would be like to find a boat out in the gulf with nobody in it, that is terrible.
I thank everyone so much for the input. this information is invaluable to me... This is my first real boat I have had and I am a beginner to say the least... Since I started this thread I have been out in the boat 4 or 5 times. I am thinking I have this big boat, I need to catch some big fish!!! My reasoning was if I go to the GOM I can catch the biggest fish... Well upon consideration I am thinking the only place safe to take it would be Grand Isle where the oil rigs are less than a mile off the shore... I went out saturday before last at tawakani and it was windy as heck. after dark the swells were pretty high and I noticed some water was washing over the deck. the boat has a small spot for a bilge in the hull that would hold 50+ gallons. it was full and we were riding low.it was no big deal, I had to turn on the 2 pumps and bail it out. One thing bad was the boat would stall out with all the water, if I tried to take off it would stop then all the water would wash over in the wake. In my boat you could not be in 3 or 4 foot waves. I guess you call it broaching the stern. Now that I know that I will be screwing around trying to turn into the waves if a bigger boats wake trys to come in the back of my boat. I am now looking at ways to lighten up the rear of the boat so I have less draft but the bottom line is: I wont be able to drive this boat in waters above 4 foot waves. A catamaran with twin yamahas would be perfect for me.

Step one for you should be to go buy the book Chapman Piloting Seamanship and small boat handling. It's an awesome source of information. A big part of being able to stay safe in the salt is having your boat perform flawlessly. Water in the bilge is a huge no no. You should have float switches on both of them and they should NOT be wired through the ignition. No bilge pump can remove water from a boat faster than a scared crew man. Get a hand pump in case you take on water and lose power. There are a lot of things that can cause problems that you may not be aware of. Two of the biggest are through hull fittings and the plumbing for the bait tank. A failure of either one can sink you in no time. Once you spend all the time and money making your boat safe then you have to spend more time and money on the things you'll need if you do sink or lose power. Personally I don't leave the jetties on any ones boat without my ditch bag. It has water proof flares, signalling mirror, whistle, epirb, and a handheld radio with gps and emergency button. In the winter or in cold water like the pacific I take my immersion suit also. In Oregon we fished for tuna 40 to 100 miles off shore and the best piece of safety equipment we took with us was another boat. We hunted in packs, not together but within 10 miles of other boats. I'm going to be ready to do some serious fishing here soon. If you want a buddy boat and run out of POC or Port A then let me know.
Joe

Dude, what part of my earlier post did you not believe?



Forget 3-4 foot waves, you shouldn't be thinking of anything more than 2 feet. Yes, Grand Isle would be perfect.

HOOKUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes it was and even though it happened a good 15 years ago, I can still see it in my minds eyes like it was yesterday. We worried about what happened to those people for the rest of the trip. As we were pulling out of town for the return trip I picked up the Port A newspaper and read where they were picked up. The GOM can go from nice to nasty in a hurry. I have seen it mirror flat with 4 foot sharks sipping a shrimper's bycatch like they were mountain trout. I've seen it with most disorganized 8 footers that beat the living &*%$ out of us. You have to be ready for anything and if you are not, you don't go.

Can't remember if this was mentioned in this thread yet, but if you are only using one anchor, make sure you don't anchor at the stern...

Glad you got a tiny glimpse of what could happen. 2- 3 foot seas are nothing in the Gulf. 4-5 are more common than you think...even a mile offshore. Part of what you experienced ( and there is no disrespect intended here) was caused by not having learned to properly handle your craft in various conditions.

For instance, "Following seas" are something that can swamp you quickly. It can be avoided with constant throttle and trim control if it isnt too bad....but just about the time you think you've recognized a "pattern" in the wave action....here comes a rogue wave, out of sequence...and then your stern is full of water or you center-punch the wave off the bow.

My suggestion is to sign up for a Power Squadron course if one is available nearby. You will learn the limitations of your craft and your own skills. For instance, with that craft, I'd have no issue taking it all around the Galveston area myself...but I'd be VERY aware and careful in doing so.

I wish you luck, my friend. Keep learning and keep fishing.

here's a story from this weekend. ( Ironically, from Grand Isle.)
these are seriously experienced captains in a 31' Cape Horn.

the relevance of this story to the mindset of the OP, is uncanny...........
________________________________________________________________

I really dont want to type this, b/c frankly, I'd rather not think about it, but my experience and recommendations may save one of your lives someday. So here goes.

Artie(Rudeattitude) and I left Grand Isle,LA Friday morning for an easy day trolling for wahoo approx 50 miles offshore. Forecasts were reasonably good-10 knt winds with 50% chance of light rain, then a cold front moving through Friday night--not to worry though, we'd be back 6-8 hours before the front was forecast to come through.

The day was uneventful with just a few Amberjack to show for our efforts we turned north about 2:30 to run home. It was raining lightly, and had been for a few hours. Seas were light (1-3). Roughly 1/2 way home the rain got heavier and heavier, but oddly enough the winds were getting calmer and the seas were slick. As the rain continued to get heavier, with visibility down to less than 1/4 mile, and the radar totally whited out with rain we came across an oil rig to take cover behind and ride out the rain.

As we're idling on the lee side of the rig the winds suddenly increase to 15, then 25, the 35, and within 3 or 4 minutes we're being hammered by winds in excess of 60mph steady, with gusts that were deafening. I'm doing my best to keep the boat behind the rig, as it knocks the wave height almost in half. No more than 5 minutes later, the seas have built to an extremely angry 6-8' BEHIND the rig and I'm really struggling to keep the C Monster tucked in.

In literally the blink of an eye, a huge gust(maybe 70+) picks up the bow of the boat and throws me from behind the rig out into open water----broadside! Before I can move we are crushed with a 10' wall of breaking water on the starboard side rolling the boat virtually 90 degrees. I can see nothing...

At this point, I'm commited to the fact that the boat is rolling over and my only thought are to grab the ditch bag and decide which side of the boat I heading out of. Miraculously, the boat rights itself, and I pull myself and Artie off the floor in time for the next wave---again right over the starboard side. This one didn't roll us, but broke into the boat, which is now calf deep in water, broadside to yet another 10' beaking wave.

I gather my wits, give a huge WTF to Artie and hit the throttles. Somehow, both engines sprung to life and popped us on plan instantly, shedding the majority of the water. For this 30 seconds or so I'm running beam seas in 8-10s with the wind continuing to build, we're in full panick mode. There's another rig(a really big rig) 1/4 mile away in the direction we're turned, but I know I can't sustain 1/4 mile in that beam sea, so I point the bow into the wind and spear the very first wave---again we're calf deep in water. Throttle up and brace myself for the next one, they're coming every few seconds.

I'm yelling at Artie to call the CG with our position, and let them know we are in dire straights. 3, 4 , 5 calls go unanswered. Then we try a radio check---no answer. We fight 60mph winds head on, taking every third wave over the bow. the winds would blow us nearly vertical off the top of each wave, I just know the right wave and wind gust is coming and we're going over.

As a last resort, Artie digs out the hand held VHF in the ditchbag and hails the coast gaurd. After 4 or five tries I hear the best thing I think I've ever heard--CG New Orleans. We relay our position and the nature of our situation, let them know that we are currently making 10 mph, but didn't think we could sustain any increase in the conditions, which for the last 15 minutes have only gotten worse. At no point in this ordeal could I see more than 100' in front of me---total white out. CG says to maintain radio contact, which we were able to do for approx 2 min. then we lost them.

5-10 minutes later, we hear them hailing us on the handheld and again realy our position. They monitor us every 3-4 minutes for the next 1/2 hour---conditions still the same. An all out battle to keep the boat going into the waves, slamming down the backs of 12 footers only to have the next one break over the bow, bilge pumps working overtime. Every wave I'd throttle up and by some miracle the engines were there every time. After a while, with no improvement in our situation, the CG asks if they can realease us as safe, b/c there is a capsized vessel in our area with men in the water. I surely didn't feel safe, but I wasn't in the water and realized they needed the radio channel for the rescue operation. After over an hour, the rain stopped and the winds "died" to a mere 30-35knts and left us with a seemingly more managable 6-8' sea state. At this point we tuck tail, and beat our way back at 15-20 mph for the remaining 15 miles.

We hit the pass--call the CG as they instructed to let them know we made it in. My wife and kids were standing at the dock waiting on us, knowing we came through a terrible storm, but the don't know and will never know how close we were to not returning. We were inches from rolling the boat into 55 degree water and 50 degree air temps. I've never been so tired in my life.

I'm not telling this story for sympathy or being dramatic, but to tell you what we did right and what we did wrong...

Lesson 1. there's no way to prepare for the speed in which bad stuff happens. Despite the fact that the ditch bag and liferaft was on the leaning post, I could not have grabbed it when we rolling. There's no way.

Lesson 2. never go with out an epirb---I mailed mine out last week to get the battery replaced(it expires this month) and haven't received it back yet. I was dead without it. The only time I've left the dock without it in the last 8 years--think about that for a second!

Lesson 3. MUTIPLE VHFs!!

Lesson 4. Boats can't be too big

I'd like to say we should have called the CG earlier, but it literally went from dead calm to nearly upside down in 5 minutes or less.

I should've had my kill switch on--I never leave it off, but for whatever reason I didn't put it on this time.

respect the weather--this was the most innocent looking storm I've come across.

Know that you can't survive if you're in the water in the winter--plan accordingly.
___________________________________________________________________________________

Again, not me. My 22' Hydra-Sports in the pic, although perfectly suited, outfitted & ready for big water, will NEVER be outside 35 miles off.

"The boat is a 20 ft center console 1977 Proline. I have a x15 Lowrance graph with GPS. What else do I need and is it safe to shoot out there like this?"





This is natural selection at it's finest!!

Darwin would be proud!!

Does anybody remember that guy on 2coolfishing a few years ago? He was bragging about going in any conditions in his 80ft steel hull sportfisher. Then in Nov. of that year he got caught in a cold front about 100 miles offshore. 3 large waves rolled (capsized)his boat and it went down. As I recall the first wave broke over the bow and turned him 90 degrees. That wave put a lot of water in the boat. Then two more waves from the starboard filled the boat and rolled it. He and his 6 passengers had PFD's with personal beacons and they had EPIRB. Even still it was something like 6-7 hours before a Good Samaritan picked them up. The CG never reached them. The folks that picked 'em up were on their way from LA to Corpus or something.

Just as SURE as you start bragging about some prowess or possession..........something will go WRONG!!