Rouge Wave Takes Down a 48' Sportfish

[Tower Todd]

Huge waves smash boat; 3 survive

Fishing vessel sinks on trip from Port Canaveral to Bahamas

BY JEFF SCHWEERS

A 10-foot rogue wave this weekend knocked out any chance three Central Florida men had of winning a billfishing tournament in the Bahamas when the wave destroyed their charter fishing boat.

And good old-fashioned chart work led Coast Guard rescuers to the three who had spent a scary 30 hours in a life raft 60 miles off the coast of Port Canaveral, where they’d started their trip early Saturday.

Palm Bay resident John Fisher, 30, Merritt Island resident Doug Plowden, 42, and 60-year-old skipper Everett Setser of Lake Helen left for the Bahamas on the 48-foot fishing vessel Aqua Mist around 4 a.m.

But five hours later, a set of waves hit their vessel, breaking it into pieces. The boat's value was estimated at $300,000.

“It was a freak,” Plowden said. “Once one little tear occurred, the water force tore the boat apart.”

The waves were so strong they stopped the boat dead still.

“I never experienced anything like it,” said Plowden, who’s been going over to the Bahamas for the last 12 years.

The boat’s owner, Ernie Stallings, reported them missing when they didn’t call as scheduled, a Coast Guard news release said.

The Coast Guard launched an HU-25 Falcon jet from Air Station Miami and a C-130 Hercules from Air Station Clearwater. The C-130 saw the men shooting flares and using a strobe light to signal the aircraft.

Their emergency position-indicating radio beacon was found 5 miles from where they were picked up in the life raft, Petty Officer Bobby Nash said.

“It wasn’t on them,” he said.

The C-130 asked a nearby boater to assist. Frank and Lilly Jasper, sailing the 42-foot Jabulani, picked up the three men and an HH-60 helicopter from Air Station Clearwater retrieved the men and brought them back to Port Canaveral before midnight Sunday where they were treated by emergency rescue workers.

[Zodiac-Fisherman]

Last week A 80' Sportfisher went down just South of the Maria islands, which is north of El Banco(Puerto Vallarta) Sea's were 8-10ft. The owner of the boat is good freinds with my buddy who founded Cabo yachts. As far as i understand, this was a freak catastrophic event, the bow mounted crane broke at the last minute and the crew was unable to deploy the zodiac, so the crew jumped overboard and were picked up by their wingmen. This boat was traveling due north with 2 other mega sportfishers in a pack formation.

[Fast Water]

Originally Posted by Tower Todd

Huge waves smash boat; 3 survive

Fishing vessel sinks on trip from Port Canaveral to Bahamas


A 10-foot rogue wave

on the 48-foot fishing vessel Aqua Mist around 4 a.m.

Was that supose to be 10 meters? To the lay-person, it seems as though a 48 foot boat could easily handle a set of 10 foot waves.

[Maverick Maxcat]

Maybe they were traveling at 50 knots......

[little doc]

Honest 10 footers look lots bigger than they are. I have been out in 4-5 footers that my compatriots would swear were 20 feet at least. There is also more to a wave than just gross height (i.e. frequency and steepness). In any event it is a reminder that we play in a dangerous playground, and it is worthwile being prepared. I am sure glad no one was seriously hurt.

Scott.

[Tower Todd]

A little update: The boat was a mid 70's had had some bad stringers. The boat was sold a few years ago and "rebuilt". The wave or set of waves that did her in were larger in size than the average size they had been running in. The boat began to have a problem and the taller waves just pounded it and broke it apart.

This is all I heard, don't really know how much of it is accurate. I think they crew is lucky to have had a liferaft on board as they were lost for 30 Hours. I find it interesting that the EPIRB was 5 miles away.

[little doc]

David Pascoe has some interesting articles on older boats. Some of them have limited life spans, and some of them last almost indefinitely. His book on mid sized powerboats is a very interesting read on the subject.

Scott.

[PaulS]

Even if the EPIRB was 5 miles away I would have expected an air search to find them fairly easily. 5 miles really isn't that far when patrolling from air. And they were in a raft - not just individuals floating in open sea.

Did the EPIRB actually activate? Did the Coast Guard start searching immediately or not until the owner called some 12-24 hours later? I was just about to purchase a PLB. This report doesn't instill much confidence in a quick rescue - something that's much more important in our cold waters

[Smoked Salmon]

5 miles is pretty far if you set up a search grid. The guys and gals doing the searching have a huge gallery of tools though. If a plane is travelling at 80 mph, at 1 mile spacings, I would imagine that a 10x10 search would take just over an hour. So, it should be flight time from base, then location of the beacon, then starting a search grid which centers on that beacon. That 5 mile drift would mean a 100 square miles of ocean to search. Now that is a large area. Additional reason to make sure that the PLB is attached to your body, and not in a ditch bag which could get lost.

[PaulS]

Originally Posted by Smoked Salmon

If a plane is travelling at 80 mph, at 1 mile spacings, I would imagine that a 10x10 search would take just over an hour.

Both the C130 and HU25 cruise at 350+ mph so that search grid can be done almost no time. Of course there's time to get off the ground, on scene, etc. but 30 hours after a EPIRB goes off!?!? Maybe the weather was still bad and visibility was poor for the aircraft??


Totally agree that the PLB should be attached to your life vest - not in a ditch bag or a cabin. I've been on more than one trip when the weather suddenly get's bad (in tropical waters) and it's very easy to concentrate so much on piloting the boat that you forget to don your safety gear, get your backup handheld radio and gps out, etc.

[Nalu]

EPIRBS and PLB's are different critters. On a typical larger boat such as this the EPIRB is typically mounted in a self deployable location, not attached to the life raft. Depending on when the boat actually went under, the EPIRB could have been displaced and activated long after the raft was launched. Best protocol would be to activate the EPIRB by hand if you have time, and then carry it with you. In the event of a mad rush to get off a sinking boat, that might not have been done.

Not enough info has been given to determine if the boat portion that might have had the EPIRB possible floated for awhile, or what. Guess the real determination was how long the USCG actually took to find them once the EPIRB was activated.

[Spoonplugger]

My Brother and I went out of Depoe Bay one day on an older wooden boat and we could tell that it was starting to break up. The next day it did break up! We were glad that we were not on it that day.

Older wooden and steel boats can eventually just break at the seams. I don't know, maybe all boats can eventually just break at the weakest points. Be ready at all times to abandon ship, sounds to be in order.

[Spindrifter]

Jerry,
Maybe that's the reason you own the battle tank that you do ....got a few years of life left in her, me thinks :grin:

[Spoonplugger]

Spindrifter,

I think back at all the crazy things my Brother and I did and it's like the TV show "I Shouldn't Be Alive".

We went out of Salmon River one time into the big blue and after catching our limits of bottom fish, which was 15 each at the time, we came back in, calculating the tides all wrong, came in on the low tide. 10 foot breakers right along Cascade Head with a 16 foot dory and 20 HP Merc. We made it by surfing the waves. Crazy, crazy.

Your right, I like my "battle tank" but, a person has got to stay in it to be safe. My scary thought is falling out of it. There are just too many crazy things that can happen.

Multiple people, multiple boats, duplicate equipment is probably the name of the game. At least it's safer that way. That is why the "Salty Dog" concept is so appealing to me. Look out for each other, "Leave No Dog Behind"...Awesome! I'm glad I found this sight!