# Bud lite fiasco



## DreamWeaver21 (Oct 3, 2007)

Fished the tournament saturday. Not a good day for us. Friday we went bait fishing and got some hard tails. On the way in my livewell pump fails. I notice it in time to take the washdown pump and jam it in the livewll saving the bait. We pen up the bait and go home and fix the livewell pump (grass wrapped in the impeller). Next morning, my phone rings at4:15 from oneof my team members telling me his is sick and can't fish. I immediately question his sexuality. He ends up going to the doctor instead of fishing (he has pneumonia, I guess that is a decent reason not to fish.)

We were supposed to meet at 0430. At 0435 I call one ofmy other team members and wake him up. He meets us at the ramp. We head out the bayou and pick up the 30 or so hard tails we had penned up the day before (all died). From the smell of them theydied not long after we put them in there.

So we head to the checkout. Nothing bad happened at the start so that is good. Hit the pass and as expected there were more 3sthan 1sin the 1-3 forecast. Weather be darned, we point SW and run, and run, and run.We are in a 21 footer and itwas just rough enough that we had to slow down (a lot). We end up making our way out 50 miles to the SW. Check out was at 0600 and we didin'tarrive until 0945. Almost 4 hours of slogging it out at 14-18mph. Get to the first spot and see that there is a pile of fish on the bottom machine.The day starts looking better. There were also a lot more boats out there than I am used to seeing.

Fishing with frozen bait wecatch 2 teenager kings, 2 small AJs, and1 almaco in about 45 minutes. Then the fun starts. My power alarm goes off on my GPS and the screen on the bottom machine starts getting dimmer and smaller.At this point I am not surewhat is going on.The boat rangreat the day before andthe engine is still running, so I can't see how we have a power issue. The motor starts running worse and worse and finally dies. Turning the key barely engages the starter. At this point the GPS is showing like 8 volts. Apparentlycharging system failed without me knowing it and we had just enough battery power to get us 50 miles out. We pop the cowl and look for anything obvious. No such luck. There was31 cape horn fishing near us (Cat Man) so we wave them over and explain the situation.We ask that they not leave the area without at least checking with us and they agree. 

At this point we are trying to save our tournament chances so we start pulling stuff apart on the boat to see if a charging lead broke off or something. It is hard toget good access to the batteries and wiringwith the boat rolling so we pull thebattery doors off and takethe livewell apart to gain better access. We stillcan't figure out whatexactly is wrong so we give up on the tourament andfocus on just gettinghome. We hail sea tow but can't get through to well enough to get a message accross. Other boats around us can hear us though. Cat Man tries hailing sea towfor us and they can sometimes get them but they aren'thearingSea Tow's replies (we can hear Sea Tow on my boat though and we are like 20 yards apart.) Forum member Recess hears us loud and clear as well and spends significant time trying to hail Sea Tow for us aswell. We update Recess onour situationjust in casewe lose comunications. We finally start tyring tohail the USCG on 16to try and relay a message and we never get any responce from coast gaurd. Cat Man and I think Recess try them as well and don't get a reply either.

The radio chatter goes on or an hour or so and I am not sure if we actually have help on the way. Ready to get help on the way, I end up seading out a hail to "any boat within 30 miles of Pensacola" to try and find someone willing to pass along a message. I get a reply from someone (Lady Ann I think). Lady Ann can hear us and hear sea tow, so we relay our position and what we need (2 charged batteries and a cresent wrench.) Sea Tow,throughLady Ann, confirms that helpis on the way.We are drifting slowly NE (back home) anddon't have much to do while we wait on help so we drop a few lines. Over the course of two hours we catch 7 kings (all small) while just drifting over nothing in particular. Withinabout 2 hours of getting the call through to Sea Tow,the yellow boat shows up on the horizon. I'm pretty impressed they got to us thatfar outthat quick.

Sea Tow didn't have a battery to just give us though. Neither us or them wanted any part of a 50 mile tow at single digit speeds so we decidethat the best thing to dois to swap batteries. They gave me one of their good ones and Igave them a dead one. Once I have a hot battery the engine fires right up but we are on borrowed time. GPS is showing 11.9 voltsso it is obvious that the charing system isn't working. Sea tow uses their jumper cables from their 1 good battery into my dead one to getenough power to get both their engines cranked. Once everything is running again I call out to Recess and Cat Man to let them know we are good to go and thank them for the help.

We get up and run and Sea Tow escorts us all the way back to Navy Point. We get the boat back on the trailer and swap batteries back. Sea Tow fills out the paperwork (no charge becuase I am a member) and we head home. 

I have to send a big thank you to:

Cat Man for checking on us while this was going on.

Recess for helping on the radio with relaying messages and letting us know that we were being looked after.

Lady Ann for being the cuttoff man in the radio relay.

Sea Tow for running a good 100 miles round trip to bring me a battery and escort me in and doing it quick. Great service.

One of my worst trips ever but we made it back and lived to tell about it so I guess it wasn't that bad. Congrats too all who caught fish (and made it to scales.)


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## brnbser (Oct 1, 2007)

sorry to hear is Steve, tourney problems are always frustrating but home safe and sound is a better thing. saw you go by us about 10 SW yesterday morning.


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## Telum Pisces (Sep 27, 2007)

We were out there all day yesterday. And durring our surface intervals the number of people with engine trouble, sea tow calls, Coast Guard Calls and other problems that were coming across theVHF was just crazy. Ch 16 was just lit up with people's problems yesterday. I could see dozens of boats in every direction that I looked no matter where I was in the gulf. That's the most boats I have seen out there in a while. 

Glad you made back in safe.


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## whome (Oct 2, 2007)

Sorry about your misfortune, I could not imagine how frustrating your day was. That is good to hear about Sea Tow with their quick response.


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## wirebiter (Jun 4, 2008)

Man I feel your pain! I had some issues myself. About 10 or 15 miles out all my electrical goes out. My GPS, bottom machine, and even my VHF. but the motor kept running.:banghead I checked the batteries and even with my battery switch to both I had only 10 volts on one, and 14 volts on the other? That was weird I thought. I guess my switch went bad. Well got that rigged to get me thru, but it shot my day. Trolled a little while with very little luck. Nothing for me to weigh in either. :reallycrying Sorry for your bad luck buddy and glad you made it in OK. Better luck to us both next time!


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## P-cola_Native (Feb 5, 2008)

Sorry to hear about that. If I would have been out there yesterday I would have helped you out, we always keep two fully charged spares on board. We didn't want any part of that crowd though, I knew it was going to be a parking lot.


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## tailfisher (Oct 7, 2007)

Man that really sucks, I remember breaking down at the edge in my 18 cat boat and glad there was someone out there to help me out. It was a good thing it happenend because I am prepared for it the next time which I hope there never is. Glad you all are home and safe. Thanks to the people that were out there for assisting you, it will be repaid 10x over. Not that recess needs much help catching fish.


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## BowedOver (May 27, 2008)

I am sorry to hear about your problems-THAT SUCKS. Glad you made it back.

I feel your pain-We ran 80 miles sw and took 3:30 hours of pounding to get there. We almost lost our t-top, broke a cross bar and cracked two of the four support beams. Broke our radio, livewell, and put our last5 spare gallons of gas in the tankright after entering the pass.

Oh yeah and didn't place

But still had a blast(after the ride out)

Glad ya'll and your boat are still okay.

Nick


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## LATERALINE (Oct 2, 2007)

Dreamweaver,

Glad you madeit in! Probably jarred something loose!

Bowed Over, sounds like you brokeallkindsof stuff! Bythe way,metyour brother at weigh in! Sorry for the broken stuff!


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## Captain Jake Adams (Oct 3, 2007)

Sorry to hear about your bad luck Steve, it was nice meeting you at the captains' meeting though.


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## cliff k (Oct 1, 2007)

we heard you out there dreamweaver, but we were also in trouble. we busted a hydraulic hose and lost all steering about 30 miles out. called Seatow and told them our problem, and the guy said we were in luck and had a replacement hose on his boat to fit our mercs. couple hours later and a new hydraulic hose and we were heading back to ob. it seemed that after we called all hell broke loose for seatow and the coast guard. our boat, then dreamweaver, then a boat called water bug, then we heard a boat was taking on water. I cant stress how great it is to have a seatow membership. what would have cost us over 1k was absolutely free.


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## DreamWeaver21 (Oct 3, 2007)

> *Captain Jake Adams (6/29/2009)*Sorry to hear about your bad luck Steve, it was nice meeting you at the captains' meeting though.


Good meeting you too. Congrats on the AJ as well. Wetalked about you on the topaz on the way out. If you were making 20knts saturday you would have flown by us as we were only making 15-18mph bucking into it most of the time.

Any yes Sea Tow in our area is awesome.


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## Nat (Oct 10, 2007)

I could hear Seatow trying to contact DreamWeaver and asking any other vessel that could hear DreamWeaver on the radio trying to get a GPS location, Also heard Seatow ask the Coast Guard to try to get a GPS location on DreamWeaver from other vessels that could hear DW.

We could not hear DW or Recess either

We were 8 miles south of Perdido key, turned back after my wife started turning green

glad ya'll got back in safe


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## mpmorr (Oct 3, 2007)

Man, sorry to hear about your troubles, and good on everyone for helping out, big hats off to seatow for quality service.:clap


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## Rammer Jammer (Oct 1, 2007)

Weaver, that's sucks! Just another reason to break down and get that 31 or 23T already. oke


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## DreamWeaver21 (Oct 3, 2007)

> *Rammer Jammer (6/29/2009)*Weaver, that's sucks! Just another reason to break down and get that 31 or 23T already. oke


Yeah, I can think of plenty of reasons to get a 31 or 23T. Really I can only think of one reason not to get one. It is a pretty compelling reason though,


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## Steel Hooked (Jun 29, 2009)

Sorry to hear about your day Dreamer Weaver, we almost had one equally diasterous. We were the boat taking on water! We had water in the head up to the door andthe fish box in the floor up front was nearly filled to the brim. We had caught one small King and had only been fishing a short time when we discovered the problem. Thank you to the boat Sandra Lee for their assistance. We had a portable bilge on board that we pumped the head out with and we used buckets to empty the fish box. We ran in about 10-15 miles off-shore, stopped, worked on the boat's bilge, live well and some other areas before we were able to cancel Coast Guard and resolve our situation. Then headed back to fishing spot with no live bait (live well shorted out during the flood!) We were able to place in the tourney though with a First Place Dolphin and 3rd Place Junior Angler. We feel very fortunate!


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## daddytime (Oct 1, 2007)

That story rivals our 2008 hargreaves nightmare except there was no stupidity involved on your part. Hats off to all the guys/boats who helped out. Coast Guard seems hard to get a hold of when you need them, ie 2007 PBGFC Ladies. We are members of Boat US (Tow Boat) and that is money well spent as you found out with Sea Tow. 

Glad you made it back safe to fish again.:usaflag


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## Telum Pisces (Sep 27, 2007)

> *Steel Hooked (6/29/2009)*Sorry to hear about your day Dreamer Weaver, we almost had one equally diasterous. We were the boat taking on water! We had water in the head up to the door andthe fish box in the floor up front was nearly filled to the brim. We had caught one small King and had only been fishing a short time when we discovered the problem. Thank you to the boat Sandra Lee for their assistance. We had a portable bilge on board that we pumped the head out with and we used buckets to empty the fish box. We ran in about 10-15 miles off-shore, stopped, worked on the boat's bilge, live well and some other areas before we were able to cancel Coast Guard and resolve our situation. Then headed back to fishing spot with no live bait (live well shorted out during the flood!) We were able to place in the tourney though with a First Place Dolphin and 3rd Place Junior Angler. We feel very fortunate!


We sat there and heard your whole ordeal on our surface intervals between dives on Sat. We could hear the Coast Guard but not your transmissions. We were far to the SE. Glad you got your troubles fixed and were able to cancel the CG help. And to get a fish to boot is great.


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## DreamWeaver21 (Oct 3, 2007)

> *Steel Hooked (6/29/2009)*Sorry to hear about your day Dreamer Weaver, we almost had one equally diasterous. We were the boat taking on water! We had water in the head up to the door andthe fish box in the floor up front was nearly filled to the brim. We had caught one small King and had only been fishing a short time when we discovered the problem. Thank you to the boat Sandra Lee for their assistance. We had a portable bilge on board that we pumped the head out with and we used buckets to empty the fish box. We ran in about 10-15 miles off-shore, stopped, worked on the boat's bilge, live well and some other areas before we were able to cancel Coast Guard and resolve our situation. Then headed back to fishing spot with no live bait (live well shorted out during the flood!) We were able to place in the tourney though with a First Place Dolphin and 3rd Place Junior Angler. We feel very fortunate!


Wow. We could hear the coast guard and the Sandra Lee but couldn't hear you either. Way to pull out of a tough situation and end up with a winning fish!


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## DreamWeaver21 (Oct 3, 2007)

> *daddytime (6/29/2009)*That story rivals our 2008 hargreaves nightmare except there was no stupidity involved on your part. Hats off to all the guys/boats who helped out. Coast Guard seems hard to get a hold of when you need them, ie 2007 PBGFC Ladies. We are members of Boat US (Tow Boat) and that is money well spent as you found out with Sea Tow.
> 
> Glad you made it back safe to fish again.:usaflag


Yeah I was a bit surprised that we never heard from CG. We heard them earlier in the day with the other situation mentioned above. But we tried a few times and never got a response. Granted we weren't yelling "mayday" on the radio or anything but I would have thought they could hear us or one of the other boats that tried to contact them for us. Maybe not though.


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## Pinksnappertrapper (Dec 7, 2007)

I was with the Recees crew sat. Glad you guys made it in ok. We tried to contact seatow for you and c.g. and got no answers from either. Gene the capt is a good guy and he wasnt going to head in without making sure you guys were alright. Need more capts on the water like him. Glad you are ok.


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