Pathfinder offshore

[Magnum]

I was just reading a post on thehulltruth about the squall line that caught a bunch of people offshore.  I had some friends out there in a 42 SeaVee, but were close to shore when it hit.

I've been offshore a few time in my 2200 and 2300, but these days, I'm pretty reluctant to go.  

Brings up my question, what's the worst you've seen in a Pathfinder?  

[CG RYAN]

I'll make this post in two parts. I was caught in that storm along with many others. First is a copy of my reply on that other forum:

I was fishing just under 20mi out on Saturday out of Freeport TX and unfortunately met that storm at around 15mi. This was the most intense storm I have ever experienced and I hope to never get stuck in something like that again. As said by a few others on THT and other forums, the waves in the video's posted truly don't do any justice. It took everything I had to maintain my course into the waves. The radio was going off with calls from MOB, taking on water, and multiple EPIRBs. I am no weather expert but like many others I do habitually check forecasts and radar when in cell range. I rolled the dice and thought staying inside of 20mi would be okay and unfortunately I paid for it this time. This was a very humbling experience to say the least and a perfect reminder to always ensure that you AND all passengers know the location and function of all safety/survival equipment. Luckily my wife is a trooper and my young children are well versed on what to do in the event of boating emergencies. Being prepared and proficient can be the difference between making it through the hour long ride in a storm like this or becoming the next rescue or worse. The time to learn how to use equipment is not when you are getting handled by a storm, please let this be a reminder. Stay safe everyone.

To answer the question about offshore fishing, I routinely take my boat up to 35mi out on good days. Usually if the wind is calling for over 10kts I'll stay in the bay (most days it seems like it's 15-20kts here in TX). Bay boats are good out there when the seas are calm and you have all of the required safety equipment. As most of us know Mother Nature can be mean and things can change real quick so please be prepared for the worst. My wife was really freaked out from that storm and still hasn't been back on the boat. We are usually out a few times a week. My son however is like me and understands that when you fall off the horse you have to get back on. I'll end with some pictures from a trip this Saturday where I took my son and his friend 35mi out to pull on some snapper. Tight lines everyone!  

[Magnum]

CG Ryan, thanks for your reply.  How bad was it? You take water over the bow? How big were the waves?  What did you do, slow to a crawl, keep the bow up, quarter into the waves?

Knowing these boats, I'm just wondering how they fair in that kind of weather, even though I plan to avoid it like the plague.  

[CG RYAN]

It was not pretty. I probably took over a dozen waves over the bow. The winds went from 8MPH to 50-60 in a matter of minutes. The seas were the biggest I've ever been in and I literally couldn't do anything except keep my bow directly into the waves and keep on the throttle to keep the bow as high as possible. The storm lasted over an hour with massive waves, high winds lighting everywhere. I am not one to hype up this kind of stuff, it was a real as it gets. My hull was staying dry for the most part, I could see out of my peripheral vision (couldn't look down) the bilge kick on and off so I knew it was doing its job. My deck drains however could not keep up with the amount of water that was coming over the bow and my wife had to bucket the water out as fast as possible. I ended up having her open the rear cast net locker a couple times to get water into the bilge and pumped out of the boat since I knew the bilge was working. My fear was that if the cockpit filled up with water and I ended up "beam to" the waves it would have honestly only taken a couple to put some or all of my crew into the water, it was that bad. Again, I got caught in a bad spot and really hope someone can learn from my experience. This storm was absolutely not predicted and formed within minutes into a fierce monster that came directly off of the land. I know someone said they were in an invincible and got beat up pretty good if that gives any comparison. 

[fin-addict]

Cg, what would you say the ht of the waves were and what speed did you try to maintain. Heavy chop or rollers. Additional info would be helpful as well as how the boat handle in these conditions. Thanks, fin.

[Magnum]

CG thanks for the info, the more we can learn from your experience, the better prepared we can be.

[Vapor Trail]

Scary.  I don't even have a radio but never venture out of sight of land either.

[FROZEN]

Guys,

Very interesting discussion. I don’t know if this is a dumb question or not, if so, gently tell me it doesn’t matter, and I’ll move on!

I’ve always wondered what are the design limits/characteristics of a PF? I know that all designs have safety considerations built in to some degree. Can you fill the cockpit with water, assuming the floor drains are clogged or slow, and maintain headway/control. Or even float?  I know that depends on SOB, fuel load, etc., but generally speaking,  at what point do you get to a life threatening point. I also realize that bad weather boaters usually get into trouble. 

Any pointers for what to do first, like dump more water into the open cast net locker, so the bilge pump can help? (Aside from the call to the CG, etc.)

Maybe a question for Skip or one of his experts.

[fin-addict]

Frozen, put on your life jacket and you should already have a plan in place for the unexpected. One never knows. 

[FROZEN]

20 minutes ago, fin-addict said:

Frozen, put on your life jacket and you should already have a plan in place for the unexpected. One never knows. 

Yeah Fin, hear you loud and clear! I do have a plan and all the gear to go with it. AND, I never push the envelope. I have probably over thought it, and “they” say you”ll know when to act. I just worry about doing the right thing at the right time. The more I’m in the Gulf, the more I appreciate how fickle waves, wind, and weather can be.

Thanks

[jh141]

 Avoid water on the deck always. I would rather have water in the bilge than stacking on my deck. Water ON the deck will roll the boat over. This is something that is not widely realized. Like CG said he had his crew bailing the deck and opened a compartment to move water to the bilge to get it pumped out. It takes a lot less water on the deck to roll a boat over than most of us think. That being said our boats will sink. They are not foam filled Boston Whalers. You must keep the bilge dry. I do venture offshore, but have had a couple of adventures very close to shore also. One thing I did was get Sirus Marine just for the weather radar (NO Music, I like Peace and Quiet)  It is awesome. Gives me a great tool to avoid storms in off grid locations. It is very accurate. I have used it to safely avoid many storms.  Well worth the money.

[Bamaskeet]

I agree, Sirius Weather is a life saver for anyone that runs offshore in the summer.

[finbully]

This discussion and reading the thread on the HT has me seriously considering adding marine weather to my boat. Avoidance in the first place is the best bet to staying safe and I believe the marine weather services can help.

On the fishing front, does anyone know if the water temperature feature of the weather service's products have sufficient granularity to show temperature breaks?

[CG RYAN]

6 hours ago, fin-addict said:

Cg, what would you say the ht of the waves were and what speed did you try to maintain. Heavy chop or rollers. Additional info would be helpful as well as how the boat handle in these conditions. Thanks, fin.

Fin, 

The waves were  7-10 from what most experienced. I was in 70' of water with winds sustained in the 50mph range for just over an hour. As for speed, the driving rain was so bad that my GPS froze up on me because the touch screen was freaked out due to rain drops so I never really watched the speed. My only focus was keeping the bow into the waves and not getting beam to it. I did glance down and see that the motor was around 3k RPM and I think I was moving under 10mph for the majority of it. I will try to attach a video that someone else posted from their offshore boat. Again, the GoPro doesn't ever do justice for the wave size and also keep in mind that this cat boat is MUCH higher than our Pathfinders.  

 

I wanted to clarify that these conditions are absolutely no place for a bay boat of any kind. Please be diligent and always check the weather. The forecast for our area that day was 10 percent chance of rain and winds around 5mph. I checked the radar multiple times through the day and all was clear until I lost cell reception 2 hours before this storm formed. Myself along with many boaters were caught completely off guard and it could have been much worse. I learned a lot about my boat and am extremely grateful that nothing happened to it or most importantly my family.  

[CG RYAN]

I completely agree about the XM weather and several of us had it out there. In most cases you can avoid nasty storms by running around them or waiting them out. By the time this thing showed up on radar it was already too late unfortunately. This storm (unlike most) was heading north to south and directly for us at a high rate of speed. Several people stated they saw an opening between two of its cells and from what I have heard everyone who rolled the dice got stuck like me. Another weird thing about this storm was that it continued to grow and strengthen as it got offshore. 

[fishmanjj]

37 minutes ago, CG RYAN said:

I completely agree about the XM weather and several of us had it out there. In most cases you can avoid nasty storms by running around them or waiting them out. By the time this thing showed up on radar it was already too late unfortunately. This storm (unlike most) was heading north to south and directly for us at a high rate of speed. Several people stated they saw an opening between two of its cells and from what I have heard everyone who rolled the dice got stuck like me. Another weird thing about this storm was that it continued to grow and strengthen as it got offshore. 

CG,  That looks like a 26’ or so World Cat type cat boat and those boats are at least four foot tall on the sides from the water level to the top of gunnel. Very tall sides..... it takes a 10 ft long gaff just to stick a fish. Anyway, That certainly looks like a very nasty storm , huge swells, windy, with less than a second between each swell.....absolutely no place for a bay boat of any brand or size. Those conditions as in video would challenge a 45’ Sportfish boat with an unexperienced Captain.  

You were lucky to get your family back home safe ❤️❤️

[CG RYAN]

4 minutes ago, fishmanjj said:

CG,  That looks like a 26’ or so World Cat type cat boat and those boats are at least four foot tall on the sides from the water level to the top of gunnel. Very tall sides..... it takes a 10 ft long gaff just to stick a fish. Anyway, That certainly looks like a very nasty storm , huge swells, windy, with less than a second between each swell.....absolutely no place for a bay boat of any brand or size. Those conditions as in video would challenge a 45’ Sportfish boat with an unexperienced Captain.  

You were lucky to get your family back home safe ❤️❤️

It was a  31’ cat. Yes I agree with you, a much bigger boat with much higher sides.  It was very humbling and I am very lucky. 

[fin-addict]

You and your crew are very lucky to be alive after seeing that video. If not for being a cat of that size he surely would have not been able to take that beating at that speed. Thanks for the video and all the information given.