Have you ever been scared?

[Sculpin]

One of the scariest experiences I have had on the water was in my early twenties. It was my first time fishing out of Tofino with a buddy in his 15.5' K&C runabout. Weather wasn't that bad on the way out but they were calling for some Southerly winds etc. This boat had two life jackets, no paddle, no flares, a compass, a handheld gps that ate batteries for breakfast, a depth sounder that barely worked, no life ring or throw rope, an old two stroke Yammy that made funny sounds (found out afterwards had barely ever been serviced), and a floor that seemed quite spongy under my feet.

I knew this wasn't the greatest set up from the get go but I'm pretty adventureous. Well we got out fishing off of Portland Point and my buddy almost falls in setting the gear because of the waves we are taking over the bow. First fish hits before we can get the second line down and it's a nice 20 lber. so we keep fishing of course. Well it got so bad that the water was rushing through the canvas top now and we decided to head in. We got to the entrance to the harbour and it was quite flat there and we both looked at each other and said " bigger boat". We hit the Method Marine fuel dock and both fell on the ramp going up from being punch drunk from the weather (neither of us had anything to drink).

That was probably the best life lesson I learned about fishing the WCVI. Number one have a big enough and intact enough hull to float you. Number two have a motor that can get you there but more importantly get you home. Number three have the proper electronics and safety equipment on board.

 

[chris73]

Few years ago out solo and anchored my 17' on Constance bank. Weather, tides fine. After couple hours the ebb sets in and some wind from west made it somewhat uncomfortable. Better to leave now I thought and started pulling the anchor. Being not very experienced in anchoring up alone I lost sight of the slack anchor line for a second as I motor forward and guess what, ran over the anchor line and tie up the prop. Motor stalls and immediately the boat swings stern first into the current. First wave comes over the transom and probably dumps 200 litres of water into the boat. I flip up the motor and just can't reach the anchor line even with my knife without risking to go overboard. 20 sec later the second wave brings the same amount and I see my stuff floating inside my boat. One more of those waves and I am done. I had the radio in hand to call Mayday when saw my boat pole and thought to give it one more try. I see the anchor line was only wrapped 3 times around the prop and I managed to wrap it back with the telescope pole quickly. Very, very lucky. Ran back with a boat half full of water - didn't even get it up to plane fully with that much balast. Few seconds away from sinking my boat in plain sight of downtown Victoria.

 

[Gypseas]

omg chris, that got the adreniline going and im only reading your post, holy smokes.....holmes*

x2 on that
yikes!!

 

[wolf]

YES lesson learned and Im sure he was shiating himself just another reasin why anchoring can be deadly, worse part out there it happens so fast you dont have time to even blimk.
Last year for me it was the Sooke classic derby that was crazy weather i wasnt sacared but concerned more scared for the 16 ft bow rider infront of me thnking what the hell is he doing out there??? 6 ft seas very tight crazy crazy.....

 

[Seafever]

One time years ago me and my wife were jigging off the north side of Gerald island in a 14ft. Thorns tinner with a shortshaft 15hp Johnny on it.

2 p.m. in afternoon. Flat calm water. Idyllic.

A couple of ripples on the water...then from out of nowhere in nothing-flat it was blowing about 25 knots.

Had to get back to Schooner.....waves blowing right at us bow-on. everybody and his dog was heading back too.

Gong show.......yachts and powerboats alike were cutting us off to make a beeline for the marina.

We both strapped the lifejackets on......the engine was at full throttle and almost couldn't make headway.

Every time we crested a wave I thought we were going under in the trough.

As close as I've ever come to taking an uncalled-for bath.

The toughest part was swinging around to get into the marina without being taken out by larger boats...

Just after that I traded in for a bigger boat and bigger engine plus a kicker for spare.

 

[Prawn Connery]

Bought my first boat (23' regal 2250) Aug 28th 2011 in Vancouver, brought it home across the straight to Victoria Sept 1. Have never owned or operated a boat before this. Got my operators license the night before, walked on the ferry, and powered her back. My a$$ is still sore from the bumpy ride. I went a long time seeing no boats, I was the only idiot out there. It was like a ride at Six Flags that lasted 2 hours. God times!

 

[scott craven]

Bought my first boat (23' regal 2250) Aug 28th 2011 in Vancouver, brought it home across the straight to Victoria Sept 1. Have never owned or operated a boat before this. Got my operators license the night before, walked on the ferry, and powered her back. My a$$ is still sore from the bumpy ride. I went a long time seeing no boats, I was the only idiot out there. It was like a ride at Six Flags that lasted 2 hours. God times!

Wow, you got some big cojones

 

[profisher]

Back in the 90"s I was doing some time guiding up in Bamfield. I always ran up the outside from Sooke, normally a 3 1/2 hr trip. I always left by 6am at the latest to get out of the strait before any winds kicked up. This one year the seas were already lousy, big swells from offshore as there were big winds out to sea and the system that created them was supposed to land on the coast before noon. The winds were forecast at 40 knots. The ride to Jordon River was bumpy with 3 footers in 20 knot gusts. At Jordon the swells hit and they were 16 to 18 footers and not a friendly well rounded shape. They were sharp and close together. I was up and down on the throttle constantly, powering up and then killing the power at the top to prevent launching. I couple of times I didn't get the power off soon enough and my back paid the price.. Every cupboard and drawer in the boat spilled onto the floor, I lost a top off a rigger and a clasp on the door that hides one of my batteries snapped. I only seen one other boat ( a 40 footer) on my transit. The bar at Nitnat was wild as I passed it with huge breakers. It took me 5 1/2 hours to finally get into Barkley and safety. I wore the skin off my elbow where I had it rested on the console as I worked the throttle. In the end the big 40 knot winds never materialized onshore. I wished I had known that when I reached the half way point because all I was thinking about was this is so bad now I don't know what options I will have if I don't make Barkley before the winds hit. I've made that trip quite a few times and that was my only bad trip.

 

[finaddict]

Wow, you got some big cojones

and small cranium ;-)

 

[Mighty Sylvan]

My wife and I and another couple camped the night at Sandy Island park on the top end of Denman Island. The forcast was for a gale but I was not concerned because of the short distance to Union Bay. I thought we would be sheltered from the wind. Boy, was I wrong. I had to push my 15' aluminum chest deep into the water just to get off the beach and we crabbed the boat into the frothing, white water taking on water every couple of waves. Our friends wife screamed with every spray of water until i yelled... "your f%$&ing screaming is not going to prevent us from sinking! Shut the F%^& up! Needless to say we made it. Ankle deep in water and scared I sat in the boat at the ramp and nearly cried. It was a quiet drive home back to Nanaimo.

 

[adrianna3]

Nice, I like telling people to shut up in my boat too. "Get in, sit down, hang on, and shut up!"

Dave

 

[J.C.W. 500]

When I was only 10, I was out on Medizadien lake BC with my with my parents and two siblings in a shallow hulled 18ft cargo canoe. I was trolling for trout. Any ways, we were most of the way across the lake when this nasty wind blew up. Sure enough my Dad is trying to frantically paddle the canoe back to the boat launch. It seemed like it took only a few minutes until there was 3ft standing chop. The canoe was taking on water fairly frequently and there were a few instances where it felt as if the Canoe was going to tip! By then, my siblings and I were whaling out of fear and my Mother looked frozen. It was a large sigh of relief once we hit the sheltered bay again. It just happened to be at that time too, that the paddle that my Dad was using broke! After an experience like that, my Dad then bought a motor for the Canoe and watched the weather forecast very closely and made sure not to travel very far from the boat launch.

 

[searun]

Here's my experience - lead to a decision to buy a larger boat.

We were fishing on the "highway" outside the north corner of Nootka on my 24 foot Wellcraft with a hard top. Conditions were 5 to 6 foot swells, with 10 - 15 knot winds. Little bumpy, but not a big deal. We had just hooked up on a 20+ fish, and at about the same time I looked north and saw a black line coming. Not good.

Told the guy on the rod to hurry up and get it in...we got big trouble coming. Our luck, the fish was not cooperating so it took too long to get it in. I eventually had to net it in a swell above gunnel level. By that point seas and wind is building - they are starting to stand up. Double trouble.

With the wind/wave direction, to get to the entrance to Tahsis we had to work thru the rock pile by angling back slowly motoring up against the building waves. As we were doing this, I looked and saw a moster wave coming, told the boys to brace for impact. Had just enough time to think about the consequences - not good for the white knuckles or the shorts. The wave was so big it went completely over the bow, greened out the windshield and went over top my hard top crashing over the boat.

At that point I figured we were done like dinner, but the boat managed to split the wave somewhat and allowed the Suzuki to keep running. We were able to drain the water out the self bailers, and carry on long enough into the waves that we could get the correct angle and turn to run with a following sea back into shore and safety.

Just before leaving home on the trip, I was sort of negotiating on a Grady White 265 Express. Once I got back I made a quick call and bought the boat. Don't want another experience like that. Learned a valuable lesson. Size matters on the big water.

 

[pescador]

http://www.thehulltruth.com/boating-forum/404268-i-survived-one-hell-ordeal-offshore-weekend.html

Here is an interesting story we can all learn something from posted recently on THT.

 

[high tide]

NEVER been scared ............ Oh ok I am not telling the truth ........ some times a passion for things we like can get us in trouble ...... not just women.

HT

 

[GLG]

Fishing with my dad.
LOL.
The regulars know the stories......
This year we're fishing for sockeye at Mactush, I'm busy at the back up and down on the riggers flipping them into the boat.
The old sockeye fire drill.
We're right in the bay....I look up we're about 75 feet from the big wall at the fish cleaning station, heading straight for it, the old boy is sound asleep at the wheel.
Wake up I yell, he comes too, sees this big black, wall craps himself and starts cranking on the wheel......
Dan.

Dan I sure miss the stories... any chance you could revive a few and post.
It's been a long winter and could use a laugh.
GLG

 

[ydouask]

Thank you for starting this thread KS. Most interesting stories and lots to learn from the close calls of so many.

 

[Foxsea]

It's about 12 years ago, I'm alone and fall fishing the tide lines for coho in my Tyee on Juan de Fuca. I just get my lines down and then the fog rolls in. It's the olden days - no GPS or radar for me, but a good compass and sounder. Spooky. I can't see 10' but I'm well clear of the shipping lanes and the flood is running - at least I'll drift the right way. So I fish until I pick up my limit. I'm pretty sure I'm on my own - all intelligent fishermen would have headed in by now.

My plan is to follow the compass and contour lines back toward Sooke. I have almost no idea how much I'm being set by the current but worse case, I'll end up in the San Juans. I'm idling along for about an hour and I pick up a nice spring! I hear the foghorn on Sooke Spit and then the fog starts to lift. I pull up my gear. I can actually now see that I'm heading right toward the Harbour. I'm elated at my great luck, toast the benevolent fishing gods with a little Lambs Navy and then look around for the first time. I'm shocked to see a string of seven small boats following me in. I guess they assumed that I had a gps bearing. The blind leading the blind!

Not really scary but the thick fog is Halloween spooky.

 

[Dave S]

10 years ago I was out in Chilliwack with a group of friends dirt biking in an area called Chimpmunk creek. Up in the mountains with nothing around. Good day of riding and we are headed back. I come around a corner on an overgrown deactivated logging road and I see something I am not too happy to be seeing. A big truck. Before I know what hit me, I'm head first into the windshield, then into the bushes. I sit up and know ***** not right. My legs are a mess. Right leg has a 90 degree bend mid femur. Left knee and shin are offset about 6 inches from my upper leg. Instinct tells me to straighten my legs but that doesn't work. The passengers of the truck are trying to hold me down. Then they notice my pants are pretty bloody, so they cut them off to see my femur sticking out. That's where the fear really kicked in I guess. So they wrap that mess up and I lie there for what felt like 6 hours but was only one hour, before a helicopter lands in a clearing and the Chilliwack search and rescue haul me off. Didn't get to enjoy my first helicopter ride. Anyways that day sucked. And yeah I was scared.

 

[Englishman]

Holy smokes Dave that was a hell of an ordeal you went through. A femur snapped like that is pretty serious. Lucky it was your legs that absorbed all the damage and not your back, or you could have been in the same condition as Rick Hansen. Still you must have taken some time to pull through that one and get walking again.....