OC Report last Sat 7/23

[Second Shot]

Well, I just read GW204s report and it is remakably similar to my story.

Left the inlet at about 5:30 and about 10 minutes later heard a slight thud. We slowed down, looked around and thought we hit something. Powered up to see if we had any weird vibrations and nothing...she was running like a champ. Ahh, the bliss of naiveté and stupidity!!!

We headed to the 50 line inside the Poormans and trolled east. By now she is blowing pretty hard. We have all naked ballys out and went 6 for 8 on Dolphin. Our gaffing left a lot to be desired on those dolphin but man we had fun[smile]...b@st@rds are quick. Also, had a marlin in the spread several times but couldn't get em to eat. Anyway, we had solid action all day so it was great fun and we had 6 in the box. Surprisingly, no tuna.

Ok, so we are headed home...50 miles from the beach and the boat is running fairly well in a nasty Northerly blow. As we got closer to shore, we were enjoying the ride home and talking about how this is the Second Shot's last fishing trip. You see, our new boat is arriving this week. We commented about how much fun and what a solid boat she is. Then, my fishing buddy says, John, I think I feel a strange vibration. Uh, oooh...revenge from Second Shot???

I power down and he says put her in reverse to see if we caught up in some rope or something. Then all of a sudden, no steerage. Put the stbd engine in gear and no response. Damn, we lost a wheel and broke the shaft right at the keyway. Luckily we were 10 mile off the beach and putt in at 8 knots. We made the 7 pm bridge and luckily there was no current through the bridge. We had help from our friends at the dock getting in the slip and washed her down...what a day.

I think she was pissed we were trading her in for a new ride. You know how ornery those women can be. She still has a lot of great fishing in her and she knows it. Fell asleep at 9pm and slept until 9 the next morning.

Man, it is never a dull moment on the high seas. Thanks for the memories Second Shot! Make way for the STREAKER.[grin]

John

[VanN]

You are fortunate that your situation wasn't worse, if your shaft actually parted. Also on Sat. AM, several Coast Guard boats were converging on HotDog, where a boat was taking on water, apparently from a ruptured seawater intake hose. As I was reading your report, I first thought you might have been that unlucky boat. But you are correct in calling boats fickle. They can punish us severely if we don't treat them with respect, and they are particularly vindictive if they think they are being cast aside.

Van "Classic Hooker"

[tolmaz]

We were starting to get the lines in and head to the boat that was having trouble, then heard someone was closer than us and was on the way. We were about 8 miles away, heard the CG tell them to put on PFD,s and they said they were hand bailing. Anyone know what happened to them. Wind kicked up and water got a little snotty for our 25' so we started back at 12:30. No tuna just lots of bluefish. Started at the fingers , around the bones, no tuna[sad] Nice talking to Classic Trade.

[Stryperswiper]

as for the boat that was taking on water they was towing it in and sunk near the lumps . thats what i was told . sunday fishing was good dolphin , yellow fins