Know your limits

I've always said that go/no go conditions are a personal thing. What is comfortable to one person is not comfortable to another.

With that said today I think I found my personal limit for bad conditions in the sound. I have been taking advantage of the winter crabbing season and because of that been out in some ugly stuff. Today was a little worse than most days and it wasn't fun.

When I got home I checked the West Point weather station. Sustained 30 mph with 3-5 foot wind waves. It wasn't an issue launching and going straight into the wind and swell was slow going but not too uncomfortable. Once I got to my pots it was a bit of a challenge pulling them but since they anchored me into the oncoming swell there wasn't much chance of rolling as long as the pots were up wind and I kept tension on the rope. Took many waves over the gunnel but the scuppers are there for a reason right?
Conditions were too rough to bother with rebaiting or resetting. I just dropped them were I had drifted to.

The trip back to the beach SUCKED, the ebbing current had pulled me due west and the wind and swell were all straight northerly. This meant that I had to traverse the swell to get back to the launch and being in the trough of short 3-5 foot breaking wind waves is not an enjoyable experience.

I made it back to shore safe and with a few keepers but it was probably the worst conditions I have been in on the salt and I'm glad I went out and tested my limit, but I'm in no hurry to repeat it.

Stay dry and in control my friends!

glad you got back safe!
i was thinking about it this AM. went out to my porch, took a look at the sound, and...

  Well done Bill.

 You pushed your limit
 Found a breaking point
 Didn't break...

 and above all else..........you learned.

Nice job Bill!

Glad you made it back safely!  You are a maniac!  Let's go fish this!  I may not have a job tomorrow because from what I understand, I may not have anything to manage tomorrow....

But if that's the case, thank the powers above I fish out of a kayak rather than a 28 ft vessel with dual 150's! Kayaks are much mor economical.  May even be able to do it drawing unemployment.

For those math challenged, 135 knots is 155 miles per hour.....  I manage two fuel stations not here but very close by.....

 Awaiting a status, kardinal.  Sounds vicious and wishing all works out!

Awaiting a status, kardinal.  Sounds vicious and wishing all works out!

Thanks for the concern.  It obliterated parts of the island.  But the over-engineering by the military did help quite a bit.  My terminals are intact, nobody was hurt.  Two 110 ft unpowered tug boats that are tied together broke off their mooring and are now a threat as they could play pinball inside the cove and I have three piers it could hit.  Trying to resolve that issue.

For the sake of my job, probably shouldn't post pics of my buildings as we discuss with bureaucrats and insurance, but here's another building we used to own but for better or worse...ok, LOTS better, we sold it off last year....

Awaiting a status, kardinal.  Sounds vicious and wishing all works out!

Thanks for the concern.  It obliterated parts of the island.  But the over-engineering by the military did help quite a bit.  My terminals are intact, nobody was hurt.  Two 110 ft unpowered tug boats that are tied together broke off their mooring and are now a threat as they could play pinball inside the cove and I have three piers it could hit.  Trying to resolve that issue.

For the sake of my job, probably shouldn't post pics of my buildings as we discuss with bureaucrats and insurance, but here's another building we used to own but for better or worse...ok, LOTS better, we sold it off last year....

Glad all are safe.  Never good to see buildings torn up -- high winds are scary.

Gnar man. I was thinking the same thing that morning. Went down to the water and decided I'd let the crazy buggers go out there. Who knew it would be FG?