scariest 20ft sets at pipeline :supp:
Lake Mead, on Virgin Basin three summers ago. I was heading from Glory Hole to Calville Bay Marina, going into strong headwinds an 5-6 footers. I took several waves over the front before I got to the narrows. To make it worse, the day before this I had broken two ribs being a fool on a SeaDoo. Each time I came crashing down from a huge swell every part of my body screamed in pain.
Scariest event: running home back thru Franks Tract with an honest 4-6'
swells coming in hard......... lotsa wind.... the section is only about a mile
long to run thru, but in a 19 mastercraft, it's enough.... serious bow-up
driving and slide-slipping kept us from taking on any huge breakers over the
bow........oh, did I mention it was dark too-?
Rain: Lake Travis....... I took out 5 people from work..... it raining soooo
hard, + the head wind, the bilge pump ran continuously for aver an hour trying
to keep up...... drove about 10 miles back to the damn (launch ramp) and
couldn't hardly see a darn thing the whole time........
--Sherpa
Over 80 foot swells in the Triangle while on the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier. They were coming over the top of the flight deck. FUN TIMES!!
Now thats some hairy sheet!
Went on the new jet ski`s Saturday during the woosy hurricane. Topped out at 7' .Occasional with the right breaking swell 10'.
1996, approximately 200 miles of Cabo. Hurricane Cat 1 downgraded to a Tropical Storm. 70 mph winds. The Qualifier Excel was the boat. 124ft.
You put pillows on each side of you to sleep so you don't roll out of your bunk. I have some good pics but can't upload!!
Oh yeah, 30ft seas.
Over 175 trips to Catalina in a 17' Boston Whaler many of which were in small craft warnings.
Over 100 trips to San Clemente Island. This in a 22 Whaler. Many times with 2Oft seas.
Life is good.
Wicky
August Monsoon in Havi 'bout four years ago. Came rushing down from the north really quick...blew out windows at the Nautical. We were on the north ramp at Windsor in a high-sided Glastron trying to get back on the trailer. Waves were coming over the stern....Went to the jet ramp to help to peeps get off the water. There were 4 or 5 lice just gettin' thrashed on the concrete ramp....The wind sprung the door on the '87 S-10....
I was on the water that day... Drove down the river after spending the night in Laughlin. We had about a 30mph tail wind. Hit the top of the lake and the swells had to have been 2-4'. Couldnt put the boat onto plane. Drove 3mph all the way back to the marina fulled trimmed up to keep from stabbin the sponsons. The bilges were pumping water overtime. Scary shit.
Qualifier 105 returning from 8 day Alijos Rocks trip, offshore Santa Ana's all the way back to San Diego, probably heading almost directly into 12 foot swells with a few giants mixed in that dwarfed the height of the boat. Waves were crashin over the wheelhouse needless to say no one out on deck. Skipper would throttle to zero on the big ones as they crashed over the top, throttling through them put the boat in mid air which kind tore shit up a little. 105 footer. That trip had me a little on edge for about 24 hours. We were several hours late back to the dock too. I remember tryin to sleep in the bunk and coming off the bunk and bouncing off the one above a few times.
The movie The Perfect Storm while much much worse conditions brought back memories of that trip.
Been in a couple pretty rough Catalina races too in small boats. Little sore after those. Catalina in a 38 gets you spoiled a bit.
How was the fishing?
mavericks, huh!?!...... one of the big wave surfers from the islands got killed a few years back. I think they underestimated the size of the waves. poor guy!
Being a Nor-Cal surfer, I knew big water when I saw it, and nobody had ever seen Coronado this big before.
no kidding...ditto :jawdrop:
Scariest event: running home back thru Franks Tract with an honest 4-6'
swells coming in hard......... lotsa wind.... the section is only about a mile
long to run thru, but in a 19 mastercraft, it's enough.... serious bow-up
driving and slide-slipping kept us from taking on any huge breakers over the
bow........oh, did I mention it was dark too-?
--Sherpa
Been in lots of bad situations but here at Lake Mead seems to be wierd. The wind keeps the swells close, not roller coaster like the ocean. No length of boat seems to work, you just have to beat it back home or head for a cove. Usually those afternoon monsoons are short lived. Don't even want to tell you about Tacoma to Inchon, Korea in the winter of the 50's
A few years back on lake mead down at sandy point I looked up and saw big black sky and told all my buddies that we have 10 minutes to get the f**k outta dodge, and I got the "oh dont worrie about it" speech from people who never have experienced a life threatening situation. Once i put my life jacket on while loading the boat my group sorta realized I wasnt joking. The ride back was over and hour, with 5 to 6 foot swells and hard rain. Burried the bow more times that I would liked to remember. At one point I had 3 smaller boats following me back.
Same place for me but about 20 years ago. We had houseboat and just had to get it and our boats over to the other side of the point but was scary. Saw the ski boat go under and pop back up.
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