White knuckling

[Ol Mucky]

What’s your story’s? Size of boat size of the seas.
what’s some of your best (worse) story’s?

[bluewaterposer]

See my post in May on the 21st!


I've not been off the coast since that day.

BWP

[DaleH]

Short story ... you can fill in the blanks ...

One of two 14-year old kids in a 13' Whaler with a 30hp Johnson. Head out the Merrimack River (dangerous river on the northeast coast) and proceed to have a blast heading offshore 'jumping' the large swells!

Later ... the wind picks up, tide's coming in and we now have the sea, the tide, and the wind, plus fetch from Europe, forming an angry dark wall of cresting following seas all the way back in to the West. Even had the USCG chopper over us for a bit, saying over a loud speakah ... GO BACK TO SHORE ...

Well ...yup, they are unsinkable ! I've seen God out 'there' twice ...that was the 1st time ...

[Jughed]

My dads 71’ Price built head boat. Delaware Bay - had to run the length from Cape May to Philly. Stacked up, steep and breaking 10’-12’ head sea. Middle of March - cold blue water coming over the bow.

A slow moving Navy ship nearby hailed us and told us to get behind him… he knocked it down a bit for us.

[jmike]

A few years back I had my wife, my mom, sister and her boyfriend on board my boat. Going offshore Brevard. It was a dead calm WOT kind of day with a bit of overcast sky.
Drove all the way out to the 20 mi. weather buoy and proceeded to catch one lizard fish, best and only catch of the day.

Called it and headed back in. About 8 miles out of the port coming over Canaveral bight a huge storm moving west was headed straight for us with no way to outrun it. Told the wife unit maybe it was time to put up the enclosure, na it'll be fine. 5 minutes later all hell broke loose. From flat to 3' in 3 minutes, total white squall conditions and a 30kt wind.

Sister and wife went into the cabin, mom was standing next to me praying out loud and the crazy Aussie my sister was dating was dancing around the aft cockpit laughing his head off. He did a hitch in the Australian navy and had rode out typhoons so this was nothing to him.

AT first I had a bit of a panic, maybe some terror too, but I kept it into the wind and made headway towards the port hoping the storm would pass quickly, which it did (about 20 minutes later).

Went back out a few days later with the usual suspects except for mom, she had enough offshore. We put Mahi and kings in the boat and had a great day..

[LFBB]

Hurricane Belle was hitting NJ, I was 13 in 1976, it was maybe a cat 1 storm but had everyone in NJ scared to death (as my 13 year old mind remembers it). Well as the front part of the storm passes by and the calm of the eye sets in me and my friends declare victory and toss our 12' tin boats in, strap on our 7.5-15 HP outboards and go exploring the bay. The entire way out the lagoon adults are yelling for us to "Go back in, it's just the eye." We being smarter then they ignore them and hit the bay.

We're doing normal kid stuff, hitting the creeks, zipping in and out under the Manahawkin bridge when all of a sudden the winds start kicking up, the sky darkens and we piss our pants. We gather together and make our way to the shelter of the lagoons, "SLOW SPEED/NO WAKE" is now being yelled at us from all those adults we were smarter then less then an hour ago, No dice man, we hi tailed it all the way back home, yanked the 80 pound hulls from the water, tied them to the docks and watched the show from the safety of our living rooms.

[DaleH]

OMG ...the irony of the 'lagoon adults' made me laugh!!!!!!!

[LFBB]

It was comical for sure, we knew we wouldn't get in trouble and had our minds made up we were saving our lives.

[Sans Peur]

I have had a few. Each was as scary as the other.
One time I was heading out of Port Canaveral. Cut across the end of the large shoal to the north about 8 miles out. Seas were calm but there were big spaced rollers moving along. About 5 miles out on the flat there is a place that will actually have a perfect break for surfing. (Shark Bite, You listening?) I know better than to go there and was past it when I made my cut. Just as I was getting off the shoal and into about 30' of water a giant wave just came up in front of us. I had a 27' boatand it stood it straight up vertically. One guy slid and for a split second was standing upright on the transom with his back on the floor. The wave dropped out from under us and we landed flat on the transom and then the boat fell forward back on its bottom.
I fire walled the throttles and got the hell out of that zone. Scared the living shit out of us. We circled back off to the side and watched another one form and drop out. The bottom had come up from 30' to 4' and just stood those swells straight up.
I never crossed the shoal after that. I always run out 9 miles then make my turn to head north.

[Smitty45]

I've had several . When we first started going out on the ocean I owned an Epic 22SC with a 175 Zuk . We were over enthusiastic and went out before a hurricane was approaching . It was ok going out , we went to the six mile reef area and anchored . We caught a couple snapper , and I noticed everyone else had left , but one guy , who was in the process of leaving and giving us the look , you know , like "I wonder if that guy has any clue?" LOL .
So I caught on and started preparing to leave . Of course , the anchor was stuck . Just me and Kim , and trying to circle to break it free was scary as F**k . Just when I was ready to cut it , it came loose . By this time the swell was breaking over the bow as I was pulling it up .
The swell got steadily bigger and we got our first taste of big water , LOL . Nothing was breaking , just big swells .
In the trough , the swell was way over our heads , and while I was scared , it was really kinda neat .
The scariest part was when we would try to climb the swells , it seemed liked I didn't have enough power and was going to slide back down , backwards . That was a high pucker factor moment .
Then , at the inlet , things were starting to break , tide was just starting to go out , it was major pucker factor , to say the least .
We made it in , soaked and thats when it set in , how stupid we were , or I was .

[Smitty45]

My worst moment was on the Ohio river . Carrollton Ky , at the NBAA (National Bass Anglers Assc.) year end Tournament . 206 boats qualified . The river was six feet over flood stage and it was rising , the channel markers were underwater , just a huge swell.
I had a brand new Ranger Z520 . It was a two man tournament and my partner just got sponsored by Fish Head , a mask/ slash half helmet supposed to help with the rain when you were running . So he wanted us to wear them , I hated them , they would fog up and was hard to see out of .
The blast off was late , the current was ripping , so we waited at the shore rather than line up in the river . The clown running the T decided to call the boats from the shore rather than actually getting in a boat like he should've . No one could hear anything over their engines and the water . We took our place , boat number 26 , and when it was our turn I punched the throttle but couldn't get on plane , the bow just lifted . My trim showed all the way down , but flotsam had gotten in between the motor and was stuck .
So I'm half blind by the Fish Head , messing with the trim , and my partner yells "TURN" , and points to the left , so I did , right into the path of the boat that took off in front of us , he had circled and wanted to go through the line of boats and up the Kentucky river .
Jim was pointing at the boat and I thought he was pointing the way he wanted me to turn .The other boat hit us broadside right in front of me , and totalled my 12 week old Ranger .
No one was hurt . It was just a cluster f**k of stupidity , we should've never been there , but the owner of the NBAA was getting a percentage of whatever we spent collectively from the Carrollton Tourism Board , so he didn't want to go to the alternative , Kentucky Lake .
I should've never wore the Fish Head and known my trim was up , or stopped instead of trying to free it while running .
And the other guy should've turned the other way , toward shore instead of trying to cut through the line of boats .

We ended up fishing in the Ranger the rest of the day , the cracks went under the water line , but it floated like nothing had happened.

It could have been deadly , but it was scary . Mike Crissenberry (spelling?) at Ranger boats built me a brand new boat , the insurance company fought it , they just wanted to have the boat fixed , but Mike told them they would be responsible for the lifetime warranty on the hull and would have to sign a waiver , so the ins company agreed .

[jtw18]

Watched the weather for a solid week and all signs pointed to 1-3' off the Cape which is perfectly fine for us. We get a few miles out and it's more like 3-5' since we've been planning this so long beforehand and this was our time, we kept going and launched a drone 26 miles out. Oh yeah, we were on PWC's. And yes, I had a VHF, PLB (which the other rider on the blue ski knew how to use and the ride plan with my closest people and a copy left on my desk at home) and an extra 20 gallons of gas on board.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v4tAl914Lo