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Folks, I've navigated that inlet a number of times a while ago in my Dad's Grady White 20 footer. We had a really scary ride in once, getting back from beyond Gooseberry in a sunny afternoon, when the waves were 5 feet high and breaking over the stern. We were hanging on white knuckled, praying our engine wouldn't die or we would get swamped in the inlet. It was terrifying.
Now. Colby was out in a PEA SOUP fog in waves 8-10 feet high. I'm sorry folks, but you just don't do that in Westport Inlet in a 25 foot OPEN boat. That inlet has submerged rocks, breakers, and serious current The guy was CRAZY to go out in those conditions, period. He may have been swamped by a rogue wave, but under those conditions he could never even have seen it to try to bring the boat around, and even a regular wave could have swamped him or pushed him on the rocks if it broke wrong. He was seriously negligent, and almost got his passenger KILLED. They were both lucky to get out alive.
For people on this board to try and excuse this is simply wrong. This is so stupid as to be beyond belief. No captain with his level of experience has ANY business doing ANYTHING that dumb. If his passenger had died, he could have been guilty of criminal negligence.
Hopefully, his story will get some publicity, so that people will understand the real dangers of dealing with places like the Westport
inlet (or the North River, which is even worse). These are NOT locations to take stupid risks, period!
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