Bobthebuilder
Charter Member
Since writing my first offshore adventure story earlier this week and it being well received, I thought I would write another one. This story is also true and has not been embellished, even though it is sometimes tempting. One of the reasons I am doing this is while all of this stuff is in my head which I think (hope) is still mostly together, there will come a day when I may not remember many of the details so it becomes a sort of diary for me. I used to actually keep a diary of some of my boating adventures and attach pictures but in time became lazy about it.
The following may be a long read but if any of you are wanting to truly go offshore in your boats there are lessons in this story that will keep you alive. Again, enjoy if you have the time to read it. And good luck sleeping tonight! LOL
Having just bought my condo on Marco Island, FL in the spring of 1990, I decided that I just had to have an offshore boat and get out and explore all that water. I am just not the kind of guy that can sit around a condo and already had a love affair for boats and the water. Back in Ontario I had a 22ft Sea Ray Pachanga at my summer home in the Muskoka Lakes district. My boating up until that time was all fresh water “lake boating” and the closest experience to “offshore” was a bit of time on Georgian Bay.
My search for that first offshore boat took less than a day and I came home with a 33ft Fountain Lightning that I named “ No Fear”. That seemed appropriate as I do not seem to have a fear of the water but with experiences like I am about to tell you about, I have certainly have come to respect it. “No Fear”, seemed a whole lot bigger than my Pachanga and I felt it would be more than adequate. It would not be long before I would learn otherwise. After getting some experience around the Marco Island / Naples area I felt I was ready to “take a trip”. In October of 1990, I planned a weekend boating trip from Marco Island down the west coast of Florida, into the Keys and up the east coast to Ft Lauderdale. I would bring 3 friends down from Ontario, Steve, Adrian and another Bob. Steve had lots of experience and I felt he was a good choice to have along.
A few days before we left Ontario on our trip, I was reading our local newspaper, The Kitchener Waterloo Record. An article on Florida caught my eye especially as it is rare for Florida news to make our local newspaper. The article read that someone had caught a huge shark off the east coast of Florida, brought it in and when the sharks belly was cut open, a pair of running shoes were found. Apparently 3 days prior, a sportsfisherman boat had gone down off Jupiter, FL and the crew of 3 went missing. I remember thinking at the time how horrific that was and that “nothing like that could ever happen to me!” Days later that memory would come back to mind as you will see later in this story.
I do not remember a lot about the trip to Ft Lauderdale other than the fact that a couple of the guys were constantly watching the paper charts as we went along and between the four of us, we managed to avoid getting into any trouble. As we cleared the Keys and were on our way north to Ft Lauderdale, I commented on how incredibly flat the Atlantic Ocean was. I said to the guy's “if it is this nice in the morning why don't we go out to Bimini for lunch? I hear it is only 50 or 60 miles at the most.” They thought that was a great idea and we bought a chart that afternoon. The next morning we checked out of Pier 66 and headed out for Bimini.
The crossing started out great but as we got close to Bimini we noticed that the wind had started to pick up and the seas were getting choppy. Just over an hour after leaving Ft Lauderdale, we could see Bimini come into view. We were rather proud of ourselves finding this little spec of an Island in the ocean using only a compass. We enter the harbor, are introduced to Bahamian beauracracy while clearing customs and eventually have our lunch at the Big Game Club. We notice that it is getting more windy as the afternoon wears on and the skies became very overcast. We made a decision to delay our departure as late as possible in the day hoping that the wind and seas would lay down. By late afternoon we decided we had to get on the water or we could get caught in the dark. Our destination from Bimini was Miami, as the next day we had plans to head back to Marco Island.
For the first half hour after leaving Bimini, it was manageable but soon we found out just how ugly the gulf stream can get. With winds out of the north colliding with the northward flow of the gulf stream, 6 ft seas soon became 8 footers and then 10. I wanted to turn back, but Bimini was no where to be seen. My concern was that with the compass rocking all over the place that we would miss it with catastrophic results. I made the decision to slowly and carefully continue in a westerly direction and eventually we would end up somewhere along the Florida coast. The waves eventually became so big that we would need to throttle up the front side of a wave then pull back before cresting and slide down the backside of the wave and so on. At the worst period I estimate without exaggeration that we were in 15 ft seas. It was during this time that my mind went back to the newspaper account of the boat that went down off Jupiter and my thought from the comfort of home, “ that could never happen to me “. At one point Adrian went down below and brought out four lifejackets. I refused to put mine on. If we went down, I had no intentions of drifting in the Atlantic Ocean, waiting for that sharks cousin to come and devour me. I wanted to die quickly and before that would happen.
Steve, with his experience along with myself and my limited experience handled the responsibility at the helm. For 3 ½ hours wave after wave would come over the bow and sides continually soaking us and every square inch of the boat. The VHF would no longer work and there would be no calling the Coast Guard or anyone else for help. No cell phones either in those days. The sky was dark and threatening. We saw no boats, no planes, nothing for what seemed like forever. Eventually the welcome sight of the Miami skyline started to come into view. Talk about lifting our spirits! We just might get out of this alive! Eventually we ride the surf into Government Cut and pull into the Marina where the cut meets the ICW next to the Chalk Airlines seaplane base. There is a Coast Guard boat there and we tell them of our ordeal. They tell us they are going out to look for a sailboat that reportedly went down. It was hard to believe that this is the same day where 10 hours earlier we departed in smooth seas and under sunny skies for a little lunch trip to Bimini.
(continued below)
The following may be a long read but if any of you are wanting to truly go offshore in your boats there are lessons in this story that will keep you alive. Again, enjoy if you have the time to read it. And good luck sleeping tonight! LOL
Having just bought my condo on Marco Island, FL in the spring of 1990, I decided that I just had to have an offshore boat and get out and explore all that water. I am just not the kind of guy that can sit around a condo and already had a love affair for boats and the water. Back in Ontario I had a 22ft Sea Ray Pachanga at my summer home in the Muskoka Lakes district. My boating up until that time was all fresh water “lake boating” and the closest experience to “offshore” was a bit of time on Georgian Bay.
My search for that first offshore boat took less than a day and I came home with a 33ft Fountain Lightning that I named “ No Fear”. That seemed appropriate as I do not seem to have a fear of the water but with experiences like I am about to tell you about, I have certainly have come to respect it. “No Fear”, seemed a whole lot bigger than my Pachanga and I felt it would be more than adequate. It would not be long before I would learn otherwise. After getting some experience around the Marco Island / Naples area I felt I was ready to “take a trip”. In October of 1990, I planned a weekend boating trip from Marco Island down the west coast of Florida, into the Keys and up the east coast to Ft Lauderdale. I would bring 3 friends down from Ontario, Steve, Adrian and another Bob. Steve had lots of experience and I felt he was a good choice to have along.
A few days before we left Ontario on our trip, I was reading our local newspaper, The Kitchener Waterloo Record. An article on Florida caught my eye especially as it is rare for Florida news to make our local newspaper. The article read that someone had caught a huge shark off the east coast of Florida, brought it in and when the sharks belly was cut open, a pair of running shoes were found. Apparently 3 days prior, a sportsfisherman boat had gone down off Jupiter, FL and the crew of 3 went missing. I remember thinking at the time how horrific that was and that “nothing like that could ever happen to me!” Days later that memory would come back to mind as you will see later in this story.
I do not remember a lot about the trip to Ft Lauderdale other than the fact that a couple of the guys were constantly watching the paper charts as we went along and between the four of us, we managed to avoid getting into any trouble. As we cleared the Keys and were on our way north to Ft Lauderdale, I commented on how incredibly flat the Atlantic Ocean was. I said to the guy's “if it is this nice in the morning why don't we go out to Bimini for lunch? I hear it is only 50 or 60 miles at the most.” They thought that was a great idea and we bought a chart that afternoon. The next morning we checked out of Pier 66 and headed out for Bimini.
The crossing started out great but as we got close to Bimini we noticed that the wind had started to pick up and the seas were getting choppy. Just over an hour after leaving Ft Lauderdale, we could see Bimini come into view. We were rather proud of ourselves finding this little spec of an Island in the ocean using only a compass. We enter the harbor, are introduced to Bahamian beauracracy while clearing customs and eventually have our lunch at the Big Game Club. We notice that it is getting more windy as the afternoon wears on and the skies became very overcast. We made a decision to delay our departure as late as possible in the day hoping that the wind and seas would lay down. By late afternoon we decided we had to get on the water or we could get caught in the dark. Our destination from Bimini was Miami, as the next day we had plans to head back to Marco Island.
For the first half hour after leaving Bimini, it was manageable but soon we found out just how ugly the gulf stream can get. With winds out of the north colliding with the northward flow of the gulf stream, 6 ft seas soon became 8 footers and then 10. I wanted to turn back, but Bimini was no where to be seen. My concern was that with the compass rocking all over the place that we would miss it with catastrophic results. I made the decision to slowly and carefully continue in a westerly direction and eventually we would end up somewhere along the Florida coast. The waves eventually became so big that we would need to throttle up the front side of a wave then pull back before cresting and slide down the backside of the wave and so on. At the worst period I estimate without exaggeration that we were in 15 ft seas. It was during this time that my mind went back to the newspaper account of the boat that went down off Jupiter and my thought from the comfort of home, “ that could never happen to me “. At one point Adrian went down below and brought out four lifejackets. I refused to put mine on. If we went down, I had no intentions of drifting in the Atlantic Ocean, waiting for that sharks cousin to come and devour me. I wanted to die quickly and before that would happen.
Steve, with his experience along with myself and my limited experience handled the responsibility at the helm. For 3 ½ hours wave after wave would come over the bow and sides continually soaking us and every square inch of the boat. The VHF would no longer work and there would be no calling the Coast Guard or anyone else for help. No cell phones either in those days. The sky was dark and threatening. We saw no boats, no planes, nothing for what seemed like forever. Eventually the welcome sight of the Miami skyline started to come into view. Talk about lifting our spirits! We just might get out of this alive! Eventually we ride the surf into Government Cut and pull into the Marina where the cut meets the ICW next to the Chalk Airlines seaplane base. There is a Coast Guard boat there and we tell them of our ordeal. They tell us they are going out to look for a sailboat that reportedly went down. It was hard to believe that this is the same day where 10 hours earlier we departed in smooth seas and under sunny skies for a little lunch trip to Bimini.
(continued below)
