# offshore 5-17 5-18



## Hammertime (Feb 17, 2008)

Left OB at 9 AM and had starboard engine trouble after 10 miles. Headed back in and did some work on the cooling system with the help of my good friend Tim. Got back out around 10 but still had the same problem but the engine ran fine at a lower rpm. So we lugged out there and arrived 6 hrs later. Jigged the Beercan and loaded the cooler with BF. Put out swordies and waited for the sun to come up. No takers on the sword baits but did have a monterous shark on for awhile. Had Islanders and hoo bombs in the water at 5:30 AM. Crossed a nice temp break about half way from Beercan to Ram Powell and the short rigger went off. Got all lines in and had my buddy Chip from ATL on the rod. After about 25 minutes of persuading we tagged and relased a 200-250 lb blue unharmed. Went back and trolled back and forth from Beercan to Marlin for an hour with no luck. Water was a dark cobalt blue color. The imagine that Tom Hilton provided and Igot from Roffers was pretty darn close to be 2 days old. Went back to Petronius and trolled for an hour with no takers. Stowed the lures and jigged up some nice AJs. Startedback in around 11 AM and found a nice weedline forming. Saw lots of chickens but no takers from their parents. Headed back in and got within 20 miles of the beach when the starboard engine started giving up and would only produce 2000 rpm. I knew that all that lugging and now this I wasn't going to make it back so I shut em down andanchored. Called sea tow and ask them to bring fuel. They tried but couldn't get out loaded with fuel with the sea conditions. Coast Guard intervened and 3 hrs later they showeed with a small boat and we did a fuel transfer with a rope a sealed can. It was pretty impressive stuff. Lugged back home with the CoastGuard boat tailing us in case anything else went wrong and even got a free inspection when we docked! Wasn't expecting that but we checked out good so Iguess it was a good thing. I can't say enough about those guys they are truley professionals. Thanks to the sea tow boys too for staying with us on the VHF and letting the wives know we were ok since we didn't make our float plan time back. Anyway all in all I can't complain. I got to fish with goods friends that hardly ever get to go and wetagged a nice fish and brought home some nice meat.


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## zoomin-newman (Nov 8, 2007)

Glad to here you made it back safe and congrats on the Blue!!


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## daddytime (Oct 1, 2007)

Sorry about the trouble and congrats on the bill.:bowdown


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## Midnight Run (Oct 2, 2007)

congrats on the blue.glad you made it home safe been there done that its not fun


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## recess (Oct 8, 2007)

great job on the blue , glad to hear you made it back safe, hope the boat repairs dont put you down to long .


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## skram (Dec 25, 2007)

Congrats:clap


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## Radiater (Mar 1, 2008)

Congratson the Blue! Glad to hear you made it in safe. The "bonus" of getting help from the coast guard is the free inspection when you get to the dock.


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## sail7seas (Oct 2, 2007)

congrats on the blue. saw you at petronius sunday morning. we were in the ice blue cape horn. good to hear you made it back safe.


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## Bill Me (Oct 5, 2007)

So even though you were having engine problems you ran all the way to the rigs?


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## Hammertime (Feb 17, 2008)

Yeah some would say that's not a good move (including myself) but we concluded that the mechanical problem was only effected running over 2600 RPM which netted 11 knots so the only real draw back was the slow speed. The variable that I didn't consider was that the engines burned more fuel than anticipated at the lower RPM. 

The fact that I had 2 guys on board that rarely get a chance to fish since they live in ATL and Conn. had alot to do with it. Yes it was a bonehead decision.


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## Bill Me (Oct 5, 2007)

I hear ya. It's easy to let the drive to fish take over.


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