Just a quick story.
Fishing in my 204c Grady in here in NJ off the coast of LBI on Monday June 4th.
With 2 gentlemen in there late 70’s
Weather report was for partly cloudy skies with wnw winds 5-7mph. with building winds from the N after 11 am to 20 . seas 2-3ft. building to 4-5 through the afternoon Rain 30% chance and possible scattered thunderstorms. No craft warnings. So ,I figure we should be good till at least noon before the winds would chase us home.
We head out at 8:00 am and decide to run about 5 miles to a fluke fishing spot. Stayed there for about an hour. No success so we decided to move to a spot 3 miles offshore to a local reef. We find a spot on the reef with some awesome sea bass holding on a wreck and every drift we pull in 2-4 keepers.
Then we notice some dark clouds headed our way , we hang out as they pass. Just some rain so, no biggie. Then we continue fishing. Putting some nice ones in the box and enjoying some real good fishing. Calm seas and calm winds. We were completely oblivious to anything going on around us. Around 11:35 am I look over my shoulder and maybe 4 miles away all I see is dark black clouds covering the entire visible area to our North. No thunder, no lightning. It was headed right toward us. I grab my binocs and take a look. All I see is splashing white on the surface. I tell my crew to reel em in, drop there poles on the deck and get a pfd on. Were outta here. They look at me like I have 4 heads :huh . One of the guys say "Ah, its just some rain" it will go right over us. After some persuasion they do as I tell them but now this was almost on top of us , moving fast. They they realize this aint rain. I can now see circles forming in the clouds. (someone got a picture of a huge waterspout about 2 miles east of me)
By the time we got our safety stuff on we getting hit by 35+ wind gusts and then came the waves :jaw . Some had to be 7ft or higher and they were stacking. Just a sea of whitecaps. My finger ready to hit the radio emergency button the whole time. I am headed in at easy pace just barely on plane. Tabs up. Staying in the trough, trying to keep a 45 deg angle and zig zag to keep the waves from rolling me. Taking waves , some over the stb side rail and bow. Never was I more scared in my life. Combat zones did not even scare me this much. But, by the time we got to about 1/2 mile from our inlet (a trip that took 30 min and seemed like 6 hours) I started to be amazed how this boat was handling this. It really felt like I was driving a tank. The scuppers were doing their job and little to no water was collecting in the cockpit. Now, I am not so worried about the boat sinking but the motor stalling. It was really struggling to push us through the swells. I got into the inlet, the tide was outgoing hard due to the full moon cycle and that made it difficult to determine the correct approach.
So some more zig zag , South Noth, and I am in.
raise
As I watched other small boats trying to get in and the amount of water splashing over the bows,ect. I just could not help to have a kind of feeling of total security in my Grady. I will never doubt its ability again. Even due to its age. I will also never underestimate the power of the seas and weather again. The winds continued to blow 25-30 the rest of the day and we were glad to be out of that situation.
Fishing in my 204c Grady in here in NJ off the coast of LBI on Monday June 4th.
With 2 gentlemen in there late 70’s
Weather report was for partly cloudy skies with wnw winds 5-7mph. with building winds from the N after 11 am to 20 . seas 2-3ft. building to 4-5 through the afternoon Rain 30% chance and possible scattered thunderstorms. No craft warnings. So ,I figure we should be good till at least noon before the winds would chase us home.
We head out at 8:00 am and decide to run about 5 miles to a fluke fishing spot. Stayed there for about an hour. No success so we decided to move to a spot 3 miles offshore to a local reef. We find a spot on the reef with some awesome sea bass holding on a wreck and every drift we pull in 2-4 keepers.
Then we notice some dark clouds headed our way , we hang out as they pass. Just some rain so, no biggie. Then we continue fishing. Putting some nice ones in the box and enjoying some real good fishing. Calm seas and calm winds. We were completely oblivious to anything going on around us. Around 11:35 am I look over my shoulder and maybe 4 miles away all I see is dark black clouds covering the entire visible area to our North. No thunder, no lightning. It was headed right toward us. I grab my binocs and take a look. All I see is splashing white on the surface. I tell my crew to reel em in, drop there poles on the deck and get a pfd on. Were outta here. They look at me like I have 4 heads :huh . One of the guys say "Ah, its just some rain" it will go right over us. After some persuasion they do as I tell them but now this was almost on top of us , moving fast. They they realize this aint rain. I can now see circles forming in the clouds. (someone got a picture of a huge waterspout about 2 miles east of me)
By the time we got our safety stuff on we getting hit by 35+ wind gusts and then came the waves :jaw . Some had to be 7ft or higher and they were stacking. Just a sea of whitecaps. My finger ready to hit the radio emergency button the whole time. I am headed in at easy pace just barely on plane. Tabs up. Staying in the trough, trying to keep a 45 deg angle and zig zag to keep the waves from rolling me. Taking waves , some over the stb side rail and bow. Never was I more scared in my life. Combat zones did not even scare me this much. But, by the time we got to about 1/2 mile from our inlet (a trip that took 30 min and seemed like 6 hours) I started to be amazed how this boat was handling this. It really felt like I was driving a tank. The scuppers were doing their job and little to no water was collecting in the cockpit. Now, I am not so worried about the boat sinking but the motor stalling. It was really struggling to push us through the swells. I got into the inlet, the tide was outgoing hard due to the full moon cycle and that made it difficult to determine the correct approach.
So some more zig zag , South Noth, and I am in.
raise As I watched other small boats trying to get in and the amount of water splashing over the bows,ect. I just could not help to have a kind of feeling of total security in my Grady. I will never doubt its ability again. Even due to its age. I will also never underestimate the power of the seas and weather again. The winds continued to blow 25-30 the rest of the day and we were glad to be out of that situation.
