As most of you know, I went on a fishing trip last Friday. I had been looking forward to it for some time, and it turns out that it was a lot more interesting than I could have imagined.
After fishing for about 5 hours, we had hooked on to an oil rig about 40 miles out and began fishing for red snapper (YUM!). I was fishing off of the front platform of the boat, as it is the more difficult location in the high seas and we had many newcomers to our fishing party. The captain then noticed that we were taking on water in the rear of the boat. After doing a couple of things, he told us that we had to unhook and get moving to get the water out of the boat. As we unhooked, a large wave hit the boat and dunked the running outboard engines completely under water, causing them to die a quick and irreversible death. We now had no engines and no bilge pump. With every 8 foot wave, another 30 to 50 gallons of water joined us in the boat and things looked bad. The captain sent out a mayday call and the Coast Guard sent a large party fishing boat to assist us.
For the next 20 minutes it became clear that the boat was going to take on a lot of water and would sink into the water, but due to its design it was not going to sink to the bottom. At this point I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures.
We all made it over to the larger boat, which had ironically been chartered by the members of a fire rescue team from one of the local Valero refineries. The Coast guard then arrived and sent a rescue swimmer to assess the situation then the captain left and abandoned the boat as well to join us on the other fishing boat.
Over all there was not much lost (besides the boat). One member of our party lost his wallet and his keys, which was very unfortunate since he had drove to Corpus!
Saturday morning a search team was sent out to recover the boat, but could not find it. Yesterday (Sunday) we were informed that the boat had drifted to shore.
I have to say though that this was AWESOME! It was a pretty surreal situation to be in and unlike a car wreck that is over in a couple of seconds, this took a while and all that I could think is "This is REALLY happening!"
Over all it was an interesting time and the fishing was great. I really hope that Captain Ronnie gets his boat fixed soon, because I plan to go with him again.
Below I have attached the captain's official report that he gave to the Coast Guard and sent to all of his customers.
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Hello my fellow fisherman Due true a sad accident we have to cancel all future trips with our boat the Lady Godiva I include here a report so you know what happened and I also include the information of a fellow Captain that if he is free that day of you booking hr is more than welcome to take you on your fishing trip. His info is. Captain Mike Nugent....his boat is 36 ft ...The Wrecklamation...his 361-779-8389 and the name of is charter is South Bay Charters.. Like I promised here is what happend...... Ingleside TX Friday June 14, 2008 Lady Godiva info TX 6551KF This is a report on the accident what happened with the craft The Lady Godiva a 36 ft Twin Vee Catamaran on Friday June 13 2008. The boat was hired for that day for a party of 6 from a church group of San Antonio. We headed out for a fishing trip that morning and left the dock at 5.30am and past the jetty at 6.00am. The heading was East and the predictions by NOA where 3 to 5 and 4 to 6 ft waves what is a little choppy but not any problem for the 36 ft catamaran. At 10 miles offshore we did find an anchored ship and drifted some bait behind that boat looking for King mackerel. After a few hours the spot came too crowded to fish and we headed farther to fish one of the rigs East. After an hour we arrived on the rig and hooked up and I started working to get the 6 fishermen started with rod and reel to the bottom. I was very busy to keep up with the fish they where bringing in, and when I came to the aft of the boat, I noticed that one customer on the starboard side was standing in water that was coming in the boat thru the self bailing holes and that means that the bilges pumps where failing. I directly started looking to fix the problem and that took me a while to figure out that the panel switch was going bad. I did stay on it and got a direct hot connection to the manual override for the starboard bilge pumps. I don't know how long this all took I assume 20 to 30 minutes and when I checked back if the pump was working the situation was that we stood below the knee's in water in the back. What I didn't know was, when I was working on the switch, all the incoming water created a short on the port site bilge pumps and we were out of bilge pumps completely. Then I decide to try the get the boat off the rig and drive the boat to get the water out with the movement of the boat. We got the boat off the rig and I try to get the boat moving when both engines died on me due to, too much submerged in the water. Now we are drifting and the boat turned in the water with the aft to incoming waves and one after the other wave was rolling in and the whole boat was for 3/4 submerged in a very short time. In the meantime I called in a mayday on the marine VHF and someone responded and contacted the Coastguard. The 6 customers where wearing life jackets type 1 that I provided and where standing on the bowl platform what was still out of the water. In the meantime when we where waiting for the coastguard a other boat responded on the mayday and this was the PESCA from the dolphin docks with Captain Ryan and they did show up first on the scene. They provided a large bilge pump and we got that to work, but the water was rushing in faster than we could pump it out, and the situation was getting dangerous, so I decided to get my customers in safety and get them on the Pesca. They did a wonderful job and did everything to board my people and did it all with the safety rules in mind. In the mean time the helicopter from the coast guard arrived and wanted to provide us with an other pump what I allowed them to do, so a rescue swimmer got in the water and swam to the boat, when he saw the situation he also felt that the situation was very unsafe. The boat was sitting 3 ft underwater in the aft and a pump was not doing any good any more, he ask me the question if I wanted to get on the helicopter or ask the captain of the Pesca to get me together with my customers. So I went on the Pesca and abandoned The Lady Godiva due to the helpless situation and condition of the boat. When we took off the cutter from the coastguard arrived on the scene and had a conversation with me thru the VHF from the Pesca and I told them in short terms what happened. Later when I came to the dock with the Pesca I went into the Coast Guard station and got the info that they also could not do anything to salvage the boat so the let it drift. They gave me the last coordinates from the boat. Soon I was home I contacted my insurance agency but could not get any one on the phone in the main office and left several messages on the answering machine. I got to speak with my local agent Mr. Jim Concidine from Gilchrist TX and explained what had happened. We also contacted US-Tow Boat and gave them permission to look for the boat. To get it out of International waters, if it was still afloat, but it was too late to spot it in the dark. I got a phone call from them that they left at 7:30am on 06-14-08 to begin recovery process. By this I want to thank every one that helped me to rescue my customers so nobody got hurt and everyone got safe to the dock. Special thanks to the Coast Guard and captain Ryan of the Pesca from Dolphin Docks If you need more help to book your next trip let me know and I do every thing to help you out if I can. Not from one trip a credit card deposit has been cashed so we are good on that end. Good luck Captain Ronny Claes 06-14-08
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