Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating - View Single Post

179 · 10-07-2002, 12:44 PM

GB,
Great job.. I think like the others you probably may have saved a life or two. They were lucky you followed your gut.

I am guilty on not wearing a life jacket myself. Yesterday was a perfect example of how it may have gotten me in trouble. I headed out to BI's northrip about 5:30am and the seas were a solid 2-3' with the wind to my back. After getting to the North Rip and fishing for 20mins I noticed it was getting much rougher, and decided to head back to PJ. Immediately when I turned into the wind and the on-coming chop I was in solid 4-6' ( I remember swearing at the NOAA forecast which stated 2-3' and 10-15mph winds) white watered waves coming towards me, and wind around 20-25mph. There were a few waves that I climbed into that were real dicey for my size boat. I thought about putting the jacket on at that point but to be honest I was afraid to let go of the wheel and throttle, I didn't want the boat to turn sideways into the waves. My jacket was in the forward storage comparrtment.

After about 2-miles of this nasty chop and seas finally calmed to 2-3' again and I was ok. Thinking about your post above made me rethink yesterday's adventure. Hopefully I will be more cautious in the future.

10-07-2002, 12:44 PM	#9
179 Registered User iTrader: (0) Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Outer Banks NC, Charlestown RI Posts: 1,053	GB, Great job.. I think like the others you probably may have saved a life or two. They were lucky you followed your gut. I am guilty on not wearing a life jacket myself. Yesterday was a perfect example of how it may have gotten me in trouble. I headed out to BI's northrip about 5:30am and the seas were a solid 2-3' with the wind to my back. After getting to the North Rip and fishing for 20mins I noticed it was getting much rougher, and decided to head back to PJ. Immediately when I turned into the wind and the on-coming chop I was in solid 4-6' ( I remember swearing at the NOAA forecast which stated 2-3' and 10-15mph winds) white watered waves coming towards me, and wind around 20-25mph. There were a few waves that I climbed into that were real dicey for my size boat. I thought about putting the jacket on at that point but to be honest I was afraid to let go of the wheel and throttle, I didn't want the boat to turn sideways into the waves. My jacket was in the forward storage comparrtment. After about 2-miles of this nasty chop and seas finally calmed to 2-3' again and I was ok. Thinking about your post above made me rethink yesterday's adventure. Hopefully I will be more cautious in the future.