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There are two types of men in this world....
Those who go to sea.
And pansies
That's for sure. I've fished in 20'ers while long lining Black Cod and Halibut on a 70' schooner, it takes it out of ya.
There are two types of men in this world....
Those who go to sea.
And pansies
I too have offered up the technicolor shoutout to Sponge Bob.
I was on a crew launch headed to shore after leaving the Gilliland. Old slow diesel boat that started rolling instead of pitching.. only 3 passengers, all crew in the house or on deck. They wouldn't let us out of the lounge..... Got a bit dizzy and more than a slight bit green , but didn't hurl .Oh, you need to go spend some time on a old n slow diesel with some really tight swells and wind chop. Then go crawl up into the bow or the head, that should do the trick.
For those who don't know, I have puked from being seasick more than any man alive. Being that I'm about to turn 53, it's just an annoyance to deal with to fish the salt. It is just the open blue these days as I got my PS sea legs at about 12yrs old.
But,
for those that have never suffered being seasick, it is worse than the worst food poisoning,
but only worse!
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One welcomes death over the gut wrenching, twisting never ending convulsing pain. The cold sweats that hit, and you know in a moment your about you chum yet again, for the 15th time in the last hr.
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Except your not puking anymore, now you have the dry heaves, even worse! Your mom tries to console you and give you a nice cold Fresca, only 30 seconds later its churned right back up bu this time it goes out your nose. YEAH
Praying to God that dad will turn around but knowing there is another 8 hrs of hell. Hoping he will limit out quickly, or that he will get tired and head to the leeward side of Hope island and let you fish for some true cod
Hah,
ya right.
One would pray to fall a sleep wishing someone or God would end your existance,
and the suffering.
Every ounce of your being is screaming inside you, there is nothing that can end this pain and suffering!
Dad starts screaming as there's a fish on, he's yelling at you get out of the way as he's rushing to get the rod out of the holder. still groggy from near death, wondering if you were actually asleep, you wish you were.
Again once the boat is out of gear you feel the cold sweats, yet again, knowing what is next.
Chaos ensures as you are in a daze of puke, puke soaked life preserver, mixed with herring oil and the blue smoke of an old 2 stroke motor!
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I’ve been going to sea, in the official capacity as a deckhand, for the past 36 years. Smallest ship was 175 ft and the largest was something like 975 ft.
Where you anchored up at the time?
No, was under way from the ship to the dock.
I commercial fished for 15 seasons and have sport fished the salt including out of Westport and the Strait at Sekiu and Neah bay and never had a whiff of seasickness. Then came 2021 and the narrative changed.
Last year at Sekiu was my year Nick.
www.surfersjournal.com
When was that? I was in Santa Cruz on the Beach watching some of the biggest waves I have seen. It was the same day Mark Foo died up your way.Here's a link to an article I wrote, published years back, of a massive swell I encountered while running charter boats out of Pillar Point Harborr in Half Moon Bay.
The swell was relatively moderate in the morning when we headed offshore 12 miles to pound the Ling reefs, the buoy report from Pt Arena was 8' at 16 seconds. Within an hour after we got to the reef the swell had doubled, when I turned the buoy report back on, the PA buoy was a startling 24' at 24 seconds. I immediately told my passengers to pick up, alerted the other 4 boats in the fleet of the masive swell coming our way, and it was time to book. On the way in one of the other skippers called the Harbormasters Office on channel 16, declared an emergency, explained the situation, and asked them to notify the coast guard.
The swells kept builing on the way in, and by the time we got to the Pillar Point Channel, we could see the channel was closed out by the massive swells lurching up and exploding into giant walls of whitewater, a first time in anyones memories, and we had skippers out that day that had been running charters for decades. The swells would be later estimated that day from 40' to 50'.
As a surfer I was timing the swells, trying to figure out the gap between the last wave in a set, and the approach of the first wave in the next set. The longer the swell duration, the bigger it is, and the more distance between sets. At that time I had been surfing the north shore of Hawaii a month each winter and was experienced in both riding big waves and timing sets.
It was 12 minutes. We had 12 precious minutes. I communciated to the skippers what I knew, told them I was going to make the first run, went into the engine room and fully backed off the 6-71's governors so I could get max speed, had my passengers huddle with life jackets on in the back cabin and told them to hang on for dear life, timed it and pegged the throttles, following the last swell in a set immediately as it passed.
Within five mins I had pased the channel's starboard buoy, the port buoy was gone, by then it had been pushed to the beach. Seeing so much water over the reef we always avoided, I cut an angle to the breakwater entrance as soon as I passed the port buoy to save critical time.
My deckhand was watching out the back, telling me when he saw the first wave of the next set approaching. By the time we were halfway to the harbor entrance, a wall of whitewater 20' slammed into the back of us, the boat skewed, straightened and we kept hauling.
As we turned to port to enter the harbor, another wall of whitewater slammed into us, enveloping the entire cabin and deck. The boat staggered, rolled, recovered and we slid through the harbor entrance sideways. My beat to crap passengers gave out the biggest cheer when we made it into port, several sobbing in relief.
By then a USCG chopper was overhead with a rescue team, we had ambulances on the pier, and the rest of the fleet made the run in, some choosing to run in pairs, others one at a time. Everyone made it in safely, the last boat in the fleet, the 65', 60 ton Pillar Point, a boat I would later skipper, took a hellacious knockdown as it made the turn, took the hit and plowed though into the harbor, several of it's passengers injured badly enough to need medical care.
That day remains one of the most scary and exhilarating experiences of my life.
A Hell of a Big Swell
Lance Conragen, one time captain of a sportsfishing charter boat and keen surfer recounts the biggest day he's experienced at Half Moon Bay.
