Worst boating situation you have encountered

[greenbush future]

I have been boating on the Great Lakes for 40 years, and have seen quite a few situations where we needed to be careful trying to get home safe from a day of fishing or boating.
On Lake Michigan (Frankfort) a few years ago, we fished all morning and the conditions were great, but this changed in 20 minutes, and we needed to get home. With 20 mph winds heading onshore, we new it would be a long rough ride home.
We are usually running 20-25 foot boats, which will handle these conditions, if you know what you?re doing.
We were returning to port, about 7 miles due north, meaning we had to run along the beach, not much more than 2 miles out. This meant hitting the waves almost sideways all the way home. We were using the throttle to make our way home; and navigating through these 6-8 footers. All we could do was kind of go at them at a 45degree angle, and zig-zag back home. This trip took us about 2 hours to go 5-7 miles. We did take several waves over the bow and some from the side, but the captain was very seasoned, and has been in much worse. I never feared for my life, but it was by far the roughest water I have ever been on.

Anyone else care to share a boating situation that will help others?

 

[Mischief Managed]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

Got caught in steep 3-4 foot white caps in a 21 foot bowrider once. Wind picked up rather suddenly and we were 6 miles from port. Had to run into them an extra mile or two to get into the lee side of an island before I could safely turn around and head in. I did not want to take these waves on the beam.

 

[airdvr1227]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

In June trying to go from East Harbor to PIB. 5-6 foot rollers every 3 seconds. We could have continued but with only one powerplant I decided it wasn't worth the risk. Good thing too because I ripped my transducer from my transom and was taking on water. Boat died as I turned into my slip.

 

[sasto]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

Been in many situations like the rest of you. The one that scared me the most, I had no control at the time.

We were traveling the Barge Canal in NY. I went down below for a few minutes to fix some sandwiches. When I returned to the helm the mate was headed for a waterfall.......not the lock.

 

[airdvr1227]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

Yikes! Good thing you weren't making a dagwood.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

I think the worst jepordy I was in was while fishing in the ocean in Oct/Nov. The waves grew to 5-6 and the water was so rough that bilge water was propelled up into the carb of my mercuriser, which stalled immediately. That had never happened before nor since. Salt water also got on the distributor cap amd spark plug wires which caused the motor to miss badly.

I tossed the hook and we ended up 50 years outside the breakers, which as you might guess were not friendly. I carefully removed the distributor cap and rinsed it and the spark plug wires inside and out with fresh water and dried it as best as I could, all in a pitching boat. I reassembled the motor and it started, but I was afraid it would stall if I let it idle or tried to rev it up. I kept it at fast idle the whole time.

I put her in gear and revved it to 1500RPM, and had my fishing buddy pull in the anchor like a madman, since I was afraid to stop or it might stall. I ran all the way to the inlet(3mi) at 1500RPM, steering left to right to fight off the waves at that speed. I was too busy to put on a lifejacket, and afraid to stop. Of course it was wind against the tide in the inlet, so the waves stood up tall for me.... Just what I needed.
Somehow I made it into the bay and got the nerve to rev up the motor, since if it stalled, Seatow was close by. To my disbelief the motor ran smooth and the boat picked up speed normally. The rest of the trip was uneventful.

 

[tadams7]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

My worst boating situation happened years ago when I was about 13 - 15 years old (I'm now...ahem, years older). We had a 19' Renken bow rider. My dad and I were on Lake Norman in NC, just like every other weekend spending the day fishing then water skiing. We were headed back to the landing when a huge storm came up. This one was stronger than your normal afternoon summer thunderstorm in the south. Anyway, I dropped my dad off at the dock to get the trailer while I waited in the cove...along with several other boats. Just as he was getting the truck/trailer the bottom opened up even more and we had 3-4 ft white caps...in the cove! Well, it was so bad that several people took shelter in a building at the landing and left their trailers on the ramp and their boats at the dock...blocking anyone else from attempting to trailer their boats. I was left in the cove with several other boats trying not to slam into each other and keeping our bows pointed into the wind. Telling the story here doesn't do it justice, let me just tell you that for a 13 - 15 year old, it was a scary situation. Thank goodness the storm passed quickly and I was able to trailer the boat with out any damage.

 

[CaryW]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

posted this in the "waves' thread but would be better here.

Got caught out in an 18ft SeaRay (closed bow) many years ago in a freak summer storm. The waves were large and very close together. When the bow would go down the outdrive would come out of the water. Luckily I had the canvas top up and it helped to keep some of the water out of the boat. I tried every thing I ever knew about rough water, nothing was working, too big and too close together. I also had 2 passengers in the boat decide to start panicing. Finally figured out to point the bow almost into the wave and then hit reverse while I was going over the wave. I safely backed into a cove that way. Longest day of my life. We saw the storm sink a 32ft Marinette Cruiser.



The absolute worst was when I was 7 or 8 and we were tied up to a buoy out in the middle of a small cove on our 36ft houseboat. A tornado touched down right at the treeline about 100 yards away blowing out the windows and doors and turning the boat into a wind tunnel. 30 seconds of sheer terror but nothing you could do about it so it really doesnt stick in my mind as a boating thing, just a tornado thing.

 

[MarkySparky]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

While on a patrol in Korea on a 110ft Coast Guard cutter, got caught in a huge fishing net, fouling the prop. 3 to 5ft seas off the port beam for about 18 hours from one afternoon to to the next day. Rain, wind, and the boat rolling 30 degrees each direction much of the time. First we tried using pike poles, saws and knives lashed to poles, nothing worked. I got seasick, fed the fish by timing the rolls so I wouldn't get it all over the boat! Had to sleep out on deck because if I slept below, I got more nauseous. The next day navy divers came out and freed us. That was a long night!

 

[ryanr623]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

While on a patrol in Korea on a 110ft Coast Guard cutter, got caught in a huge fishing net, fouling the prop. 3 to 5ft seas off the port beam for about 18 hours from one afternoon to to the next day. Rain, wind, and the boat rolling 30 degrees each direction much of the time. First we tried using pike poles, saws and knives lashed to poles, nothing worked. I got seasick, fed the fish by timing the rolls so I wouldn't get it all over the boat! Had to sleep out on deck because if I slept below, I got more nauseous. The next day navy divers came out and freed us. That was a long night!

They left you out there for 18 hours? Not saying i dont believe you but thats just werid.

 

[CaryW]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

Ha, once you get navy/coastie guys involved all boat stories seem small. Just had the same conversation with a coworker about riding out a typhoon in Hong Kong.

 

[AndrewsArk]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

Wow, mine is nothing compared to you guys. Wind storm caught us off guard one day and I couldn't get up to speed without severely listing to port. Since I'm a Lake Michigan boater most of the boats are larger than mine so they weren't as affected. It didn't help with my Bimini up either I'm sure. But my wife was freaking out because she was almost face into the water.

So I had to baby it the 5 miles back to the ramp.

 

[Beefer]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

1979 - I was 14 yrs old, and as had been for the 3 years previous, it was my job to drive the boat (1977 Searay 24' closed bow) when my dad and I went fishing. We were out by Ambrose light, and we saw a storm rolling in, so we packed up, and headed back. At that time they (whoever 'they' are) were doing some work to the beach (Rockaway?), and had 55 gal drums chained together and floating as a 'restricted area'. We knew they were there, approximately 1/2 mile off the beach. As the storm engulfed us, the seas got wicked, I'd guess 6 footers, and I slowed down to ride the waves, rather than trying to plow through. The rain was a sheet of water, my visibility went down to maybe 50 yrds, and I was glued to the water in front of me. Remember, these were the days before GPS, so I was follow compass heading back as best I could. When we figured we were approaching the restricted area, we really got cautious, although we thought we were further out, but knew we weren't 100%. Sure enough, out from the middle of the wave in front of us, pops one of these drums, right in my path! I turned hard starboard, and gunned it to get away from the drum. Looking back, I must have done the right thing, because we made it, but at the time I freaked out. To this day, I can still see that drum coming out of the middle of the wave in front of me. I was scared as hell after that, and made my dad drive the rest of the way back.

 

[badkins50]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

Been in many situations like the rest of you. The one that scared me the most, I had no control at the time.

We were traveling the Barge Canal in NY. I went down below for a few minutes to fix some sandwiches. When I returned to the helm the mate was headed for a waterfall.......not the lock.

Now that would suck! Good thing you didn't go down to get some r&r.

Our worst was in the old 19ft open bow last year on lake erie and we were greated at the break wall with constant 4ft rollers with occasional caps with an 8 and 12 year old (daughters) and a 7 month prego wife and my boss. We just anchored and fished it out the day. Lucky no one got sick.

 

[ziggy]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

very exciting stories guys...
the hair raising stories are a part of any boating imho...

my stories..

1. when i was 16 at my first job working at a resort up in mn.. i commuted by a 16' alum. fishing boat w/ 10hp johnson on it. one night coming home late, w/o any lights. i found someone else doing the same thing. we were head on and didn't know it. it was dark out. me and the other guy saw ea. other at the last moment. we both turned to starboard. we missed. sure did put my heat up in my throat though. scare me silly. next day i got batt. powered lights for the fishing boat.

2. same lake, same era when i was 16 or seventeen. the lake is lake belletaine. it's part of a chain of lakes called the mantrap chain. 12 lakes or so connected by rivers. belletaine is the last lake on the chain. i decided to go up river in dads 16' glastron w/90hp merc. o/b. didn't have power trim. so i raised the trim peg to highest position + had 12 gal. of extra fuel up front under the closed bow. What I didn?t know was that dad had hit the bow eye on a tree earlier. This broke the seal. Well, with the fuel up ft. I had the bow eye submerged. I was driving up river sitting on the back of the seats. Ya know, back to back seats. Put my foot down to a splash. I was sinking. Fortunately, I came upon the next lake. Got up enough speed w/o sinking the boat to pull the plug from the inside. Siphon action did the rest. Man was I glad I didn?t sink dads boat..

3. Couple years ago I didn?t listen to the weather man. He said winds would come up from the nw to 35 sustained, gust to 40mph over night. Well, I pulled up on the se beach for my over night snooze. It was dead calm when I went to sleep. About 2 am. The weather man was right. High winds from the nw. this beached me sideways. Really beached. Ever beacker pushing me further inland. I tried to get off the beach myself to no avail. 10 hrs later or so, friends from lincoln came out and we were able to get her afloat again. Oh, and it was about 55* out too. So it was cold? anyways. I made it home, mostly unscathed? a little sanding to the bottom of my boat?

Well, that was three things that got me excited. Seasoned, respectful, a more careful skipper even?

 

[Mel Taylor]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

I posted this on another forum two or three years ago. The waves and the boat in my account are both smaller than those in some of the other posts on this thread but the danger just as real.

"Every one of the three or four times I've gotten into potentially dangerous situations it's been because of sudden storms coming up in freshwater lakes either in Mexico or New Mexico.

I've been caught by dangerous winds and waves at least twice in 14 ft., open bowed, aluminum boats with a 25 or 30 horse outboard, at Lake Novillo in Sonora, Mexico.

The Lake is more or less scorpion shaped with the Rio Moctezuma coming in from the northwest forming the tail and body and turning to form one arm and pincher, then heading south toward the dam. The Rio Yaqui comes in from the southeast (forming the other arm and pincher) and joins the Moctezuma on the journey to the dam. There are desert mountains on all sides. BTW, all directions are approximate.

Right where the two arms and the body join, the waves come at you from every direction when the winds get up. If you get caught in that Y when a storm comes up, and they can come up suddenly, you are in for one hell of a ride.

All you can do is try to keep turning the bow so as to hit the next wave coming at you at an angle rather than straight on. If you were ever to hit even one of the waves at just the right angle to dip the bow under, I suspect you would be in the water hanging on to a water filled boat pretty quickly. If the motor should ever die there, you would be in the same situation, maybe with a capsized boat. Every time I've been caught there I've been heading back up the Moctezuma and the area of really dangerous waves really isn't that big of an area. Once you get past that place, the waves are still there but usually coming from one direction and much easier to manage.

Once I got caught in a sudden squall on the east side of the Moctezuma with the wind blowing from the west and piling water from deep water (well over a hundred feet deep) onto shallow flats where the water was at most six or eight feet deep. BIG rollers! Great Big rollers! That was the only time I ever saw my Dad (of blessed memory) ever willingly put on a life jacket. We made it through that one but I chewed the seat to pieces before it was over.

Got into a very similar situation on Caballo Lake in southern New Mexico. The really scary part of that one was that it happened in February when the water was cold. We (my son and I) both had on life jackets but hypothermia would almost certainly have killed us within a few minutes had we swamped or gone overboard."

 

[Bamaman1]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

I was at a marina, and put 18 gallons of gas into the tank. My father quietly said don't start it. He had looked down and saw raw gasoline coming out of the engine cover of my I/O. The hose clamp had come loose, and all the gasoline was in the bilge.

Had I started the boat, a big bang might have occurred. Had I only put 10 gallons in, we wouldn't have seen the fuel coming out from under the engine cover.

Moral: Always look at your gas gauge after you put fuel into any boat--BEFORE you start it.

 

[jasperboy]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

Worked summer breaks from college for a painting contractor. He got a job painting all the the buildings at a private fishing club on Hen Island in Lake Erie, Canadian side west of Pelee Island. We left out on a monday morning from port Clinton, OH on a members boat with 3 other guys and enough paint and supplies to last us 3-4 days.

Wednseday afternnon the weather turned bad, and some pretty bad storms came through. Thursday (our departure day) came and went without him showing up to pick us up. We spent Friday drinking every last drop of alcohol we could find at the memebrs club, and by Saturday we ran out of food. Sunday he came out to get us despite he fact the winds were NNW at 25-30, and the waves were 4-6' easy.

Needless to say his 34' boat got tossed around, and we all thought we were dead. The ride back was just over 20 miles, and took us 4+ hours. Needless to say that was the last job I ever did for Terry, and it took me a few years before I was willing to venture back onto Lake Erie. Worst part was the guy who kept singing the "Edmund Fitzgerald" song the whole way back.

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

We were fishing on the west side of Bullfrog bay on Lake Powell right up against these 100' cliffs with a very slight over hang, well after a couple hours fishing Stripper Boils we(3 adults and 2 children) decide we have had enough and its time to head back to the houseboat which was beached a little south of the ramp at Bullfrog on the east side of the bay, all the while we had been facing west towards the cliff, well we pull lines and I turn around to see white caps, and were not talking little ones easily 6' waves headed away from us and I'm skipper of my wifes aunt and uncles 15' out board SPEEDBOAT(their description not mine)!! My wifes first words after seeing what we were about to do was HOLY ****! I was a novice captain at best but if you guys knew the entire story of this trip I was clearly the most experienced of those on this trip so after a little trial and error I got the weight properly distributed in the boat, the trim properly adjusted on the motor and matched the speed of the breakers and we pretty much were blown to the house boat. I was nervous as heck at first but my wife was very proud of her captain!! Well that should be where the story ends but it doesn't we arrived at the houseboat to find that it was beached but taking breakers (not huge maybe 3'-4') broadside and in a 70' houseboat that's not good!! So after some talking and then yelling it was decided that my idea of taking to sea for a nearby sheltered cove was the best plan of action and after 30 minutes we were beached right next to 10 other houseboats that had decided to do the same in fact we didn't even have to set beach anchors, the other house boaters had a pretty good system already in place all I had to do was beach the houseboat and have the crew hand out the beach anchors to those on shore!

Pretty tense moments but in the end I felt pretty good about the decisions we made

Just to give you an idea we were invited on this trip by my wifes aunt and uncle, great people just not experienced in what we were doing, I like to say that my wifes uncle may be the only houseboat captain to hit every rock in Lake Powell....

 

[jokaj]

Re: Worst boating situation you have encountered

Launched out of echo (lake mead) with a one flag warning. 22.5' deckboat deep v. Found a secure cove and enjoyed the day. Laughed at a boat that was plowing through the water bow up ...EventUally packed up and started back. Got to past the cove and hit 5-6' waves..ok dealing with it.....as we got closer to the marina, one area I can swear the waves were 8'! Had to roll with the waves and worked the throttle. Got to the marina and two flags were up! The admiral was not happy! She was soaked along with everyone else. Forecast and weather service never indicated wind more than 20 mph,but on mead it gets nasty in the pm. I can say I learned a lot that day!