I'm up
. When we arrived @ the vessel it was obvious that it was on fire. Huddled group of elderly folk standing as far out on the dive platform as they could get. They seemed inexperienced, and impervious to the magnitude of danger they were in. Don't know why???? Guess I was thinking about my grandparents that are no longer w/ me; I grabbed Dans fire extenguisher and swam over to the stranded vessel. Have done many maritime fire drills, but this was my first real fire at sea experience. Ran up and into the cockpit and started down into the engine compartment when I got completly obliterated by choking thick can't see ch!t smoke. Nothing I could do w/ a small fire ext, except risk my life. Retreated choking. Told the " capt " what the situation was, and advised they get off the boat immediately in favor of the non burning situation on Punkanoodle. Seems like an obvious choice no
? The one older gentelman starts arguing that he wants to stay on the vessel
. I lost my mind
. Started screaming @ the occupants to get in the life raft, looked back @ the fire and jumped back in the nice safe ocean. Catching throws me a line and hauls my ass on board. The lady and one gentelman immediately get into the raft and we pull them aboard. After further discussion the other gentelmen decide they'd like to come aboard also. ( Catching was instrumental in thier final decision. He yells " Look I got 4 !@#$%^& kids and don't want to die here! Either come on board or were backing away to a safe distance in case this mother blows. ) It worked and the coasties arrived about 15 mins later. They asked about the fire, and decided they were not going to board the vessel. They took our passengers and we rode home, all the while I was catching flack for not salvaging the 80W they had on thier gunnel. Its one for the books now and I'm still pooped. Taggin that little pup last night was killer. It was the 201 tag stick in action!WTG Quack. ( the thread was gonna be Two 0 One Tagstickin before the drama scene. Side note:
The bite last night was DEEP, real deep the pup came on a 380' tip, and the 200+lber we saw @ the dock Ate a 500' bait. Full moon responsible? I don't have the experience to say, but thats the theory I'm workin off.
DF2---OUT