Small Boat - Hudson Canyon

[Capt. Debbie]

I read the book(NOT WITHOUT HOPE) by the survivor ( I USE IT IN MY BOATING CLASSES. IT'S A GOLD MINE OF LESSONS). It was a single O/B 20 footer 70 miles off Clearwater Florida in February 2009.

Contrary to popular opinion no one was drunk. There was no EPIRB. There was no time for a MAYDAY. And there was no float plan. Just knew where they fished the week before.

His anchor fouled in 6-7 footers. Capt. was pissed he lost an anchor the prior week. He snugs up the anchor line until it's nearly straight up and down. Ties it to the transom RINGS( the ones on the outside of the boat) and guns the engine hard to rip the anchor free. The anchor stays snagged and going forward hard under heavy power pulls the notched transom under water.

Capt. panics backs off throttle very quickly. The strain still in the fouled anchor line slides the boat's notched transom straight back into a 6 foot roller. Scooping up tons of water in a second or two.

The crew tried to counter balance the swamped boat in 6-7' rollers. Needless to say it flipped in less than 10 seconds. Their boat rode capsized, O/B up for 43 hours before the sole survivor was found. 2 of the 4 on board died in less than 24 hours from hypothermia and salt water ingestion(dementia). The 3rd of the 4 lasted another day. He took off his life jacket and just dove to the bottom killing himself.


A great book to learn A LOT FROM.

Originally Posted by MasterBaiter

Cap,

The only thing I have additional is an Epirb...and I'm in the Chicken with my 24' single engine pretty frequently... but that’s only 52 miles...and your adding 30 plus miles to that..The weather window is probably the most important thing as with such a small boat you'd take a beating. As for the comment about the guys in Florida...if they had an Epirb they'd all probably still be alive as it gives out your exact location for the coast guard rescue..In fact from my memory the only thing they had were survival suits and nothing else, not even portable VHF. When are you heading out…I’m leaving Belmar tomorrow for the Chicken…At least you’d have company for most of the ride.

Andrew