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Chromer
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Portland, OR, USA
Posts: 901
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HALI TALES - ADVENTURE ON THE HIGH SEAS
Friday - Day One
Bill and I made ready for a 5:30 Geribaldi bar crossing the eve before, in search of big flatfish. My boat is meticulously
rebuilt from the hull up to be better and stronger, and more reliable than new, but is only 17.5 feet long, and so this trip
was asking a lot. I checked and rechecked every system, nut, bolt, and backup. Final adjustments and lubrications were
completed…we are ready. It was near low tide when we crossed the bar, and mighty bumpy. We were loaded heavy, with
a 600lb overweight (due to my rebuild) hull, a ~250lb partner, and 50 gals of fuel (40 in the tank and 10 on the deck).
Once clearing the bar, we found roughly 6 foot swells with 2-3ft wind waves; just what NOAA had predicted, although I
had expected this to occur not until the afternoon. Knowing that the conditions would likely degrade throughout the day, I
was concerned. I decided to get out to the 7 mile mark (of 24) as quickly as possible, and then decide whether or not to
abort. So we ran fast and hard, which challenged both man and machine. In spite of my vessel size handicap, we passed
every boat on the way out we encountered. I felt getting there and getting back before the sea turned deadly was worth
the rough ride. At the 7 mile mark, we stopped, took a good look around, broke out the canine PFD for my dog Titan, and
decided to go for it.
After 90 minutes, we arrived at the hill… there were about 100 boats there. Fish were being taken all around us, although
I saw no big ones. First drop, I got bit, but lost the fish in under a minute. Second drop, 21lb ling…nice, but disappointing.
About 45 minutes later, (after the long long wind up with 48oz of lead) I got bit again…HARD. At first I thought I had
snagged up, then it became all to obvious I had huge fish. I took a 65 lb. hali from this spot three years ago, which being
800 ft beneath me, felt pretty much like dead weight most of the way up. Friday's fish must have been much bigger and
racing across the bottom because my peeler pole was getting slammed like I've never seen before, even with an oversize
sturgeon. More than once I thought it might break. After a few minutes, the fish was still very near to the bottom. Other
boats had moved in closer to watch. A envious smart guy on a charter that was no more than 75 feet away said "Hey!..U
need a smaller boat". Another shouted "You guys have balls;.I gotta hand it to you!". Without a doubt, we had the
smallest boat out there. After getting maybe 50 feet of line back, I was leaning back hard to fight the monster as everyone
watched. Suddenly, Mr. Hali decided he wanted to go home, and sounded with a vengeance. My newly spooled 60 lb
tough line snapped, and I almost went over backwards. At that moment, I heard a chorus of on lookers yell "OH!!!",
exactly when I did. My line was snapped in the middle, ending the day for me. My partner had still not been bit, and with
wind waves washing over my transom, and the primary bilge pump working overtime, we headed for home….maybe
tomorrow. The ride home was comparable to the ride out, slightly rougher, but with following seas. Lots of water was
entering the boat, spray into the stern, and through the cracks between the top of my windshield and the top…pouring
down onto my lap and the dash board, which also concerned me.
93 minutes later Bill and I crossed the bar, and gave each other a high five …"we made it!". I patted Adrianna's dash
…."goooood boat!". We docked and Bill went for the rig. I got back in the boat and noticed my primary bilge pump working
light was still on…so took I took a look. There was just a little water in the bilge, but the pump was not turning. I later
removed it and found it fried… melted even, which must have just occurred given the low water level in the bilge. When I
fired up to trailer the boat, something was wrong…broken throttle cable! Wow….I have another bilge pump, but had that
cable broken minutes earlier, we would have had a BIG problem. I was very pleased to find that after refueling, Adrianna
burned only 23 gals of gas. Her range is now verified to be at least 100 miles, even in the very poorest of doable
conditions. I replaced the cable and bilge pump in record time, having found a replacement cable right there in Geribaldi.
After the hose down, I was standing beside my boat feeling a great sense of accomplishment at having completely rebuilt
(with Pilar's guidance and asistance) this vessel with my own two hands. The 17k I put into her (the cost of new boat that
size) has paid off. I put my hand on her hull and again said "gooooood boat"…and at that moment, with the drive up and
out of the water, she cranked and started, all by herself. You can't run a mercruiser with the drive up or out of the water
for more than a few seconds without doing significant damage, so I leaped into the boat, turned the key on, and the boat
shut off…. Because of the salt water everywhere, my ignition switch was flooded. The angler I was chatting with, said "U
either have a short or a ghost". So I removed, drained, flushed , and lubed the switch which solved that problem too. Just
to play it safe, I switched off both batteries lest I wake to find a melted motor and outdrive water pump.
Saturday - Day Two.
I had not planned on going out this day, but on Friday, the NOAA prediction was upgraded twice. So, with Nancy, we again
headed for the hill. The NOAA prediction was WRONG. It was rough as h e double toothpicks, but with two bilge pumps
and all systems 4.0, we got out there anyway. I dropped once got bit and robbed, brought it up, and looked around. I saw
the frantic actions of one much larger boat, and at that point I got a 'sinking feeling' and decided to cut the day short and
run for port. As it turned out, that boat sank shortly after we departed.
The ride home was like something out of a movie. The swells were at least 8 feet and the wind waves were 3-4 feet. All of
my experience on the ocean, from my surfing days to recent boating experience, was pressed into service. The swell was
behind us, but traveling at an angle about 20 degrees to starboard of our bearing. This made traveling in a straight line
impossible because when we got to the top of a swell, we'd surf down it to starboard, lest the wave would break
sideways into the boat. After a few of them, I'd traverse back to port, climb and over top a few, and then back to
starboard again. My GPS track showed that I actually did a long curve back to Gerribaldi, which with all the traversing, was
probably more like a 30 mile ride. The key was to keep moving. Had we lost power, we would have sank in seconds.
Piloting was a very proactive endeavor requiring total concentration; I had to make constant speed and course changes.
We would plane for a few seconds, then have to power way down...over and over and over. And every time I took my
eyes off the water or my hand off the throttle, we got hammered. I was too busy to be scared. The ride home took almost
two hours, and we were badly beaten up when we arrived. Adrianna performed superbly; no damage, no failures, no
surprises…except the conditions. My recently installed high volume bilge pump, amazingly, was not needed, but my primary
was working nearly all the time. It's good to know what my boat and I can handle, but I'll not look to repeat the
experience.
Sunday - Day Three.
Hali was closed, but we went out for bottom fish off of three arch rocks. The ocean today was the calmest I've ever seen
north of So Cal; what a total differnce! It was glassy until 1:00 PM with absolutely no wind. The small swell even
diminished throughout the day, to the point where I actually had a crew member bottom fishing from my tiny bow. Even
Titan wanted to out on the bow. With my two friends Rab and Jason from Corvallis, we nailed lings, cabizon, canaries,
wrasses, black sea bass, and one fish I could not identify. Why couldn't these seas have graced us one day earlier?!!!
Next week, the chicken ranch, conditions permitting…Big blue owes some flatfish!
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