I've had some pretty harrowing experiences while out saltwater fishing with friends. This experience I’m about to relay taught us a valuable lesson. The first lesson is to always have two motors onboard. The second is to make sure they are both in tiptop condition. My experience happened in the late 80s so I can't remember all of the details like the brand of the motor or the type of boat. It's been too long ago. The boat pictured below is a Grady White Fishing boat, which is by most accounts one of the safest fishing platforms you could ever fish from.
The fishing trip for me started on a Friday night. I live in Pennsylvania and had to catch the High Speed Line train to New Jersey to meet my friend Steve and his brother-in-law Country. I call him Country because that’s where he’s from. The country. Anyway, I caught the High Speed Line train that Friday night so the 3 of us could get an early start Saturday morning. We were headed to Cape May NJ to do some shark fishing on Steve’s 27’ boat. There was a fourth person on this trip that met us in Cape May but I can’t remember his name.
We arrived in Cape May about 5:00 AM and readied the fishing boat for launch from the marina. We were out on the water and fishing by about 6:30 AM. If I remember correctly we were off the coast of Cape May about 20 to 25 miles. The gentleman whose name I can’t remember was a real South Jersey jerk. He was one of the worst kinds. One thing you don’t ever want is to have to spend 8 to 12 hours on the water with a jerk. It can make for a very unpleasant day. He had brought the mackerel chum we were to use for putting down a chum slick to lure in the sharks but the idiot didn’t take the time to grind it finely enough to make a slick. When he opened the chum container I remarked right away that we would not catch shark that day because the chunky slick would not have an extended enough drift to attract sharks. So every time we tried to get a chum slick going all of the chunks ended up sinking. However we did end up luring in a multitude of Bluefish that day. Steve and I could not help but laugh as every chopper we brought into the boat was regurgitating chunks of mackerel as it flopped around on the boat deck. These were really nice sized Blues too. They averaged around 10 to 12 pounds all day long. I remember this guy actually having the nerve to tell me to stop fishing for Blues because it was keeping the sharks away. What a loser!
We fished all day and caught not one shark. It was overcast most of the day and by about 4:00 PM in the afternoon a fog bank began rolling in on us. We decided it was time to head back in. Steve went to start the engine and it would not even turn over. We each looked at each other with expressions I will never forget. I had a video camcorder running off and on all day and recorded some of what happened as the afternoon turned into the evening. The fog bank that rolled in on us got thicker and thicker as it got darker. We called back to shore for assistance but could get no one to come out to get us which I thought was incredible. We had drifted into the shipping lanes where the water was too deep for us to anchor. I kept imagining a huge ship or tanker appearing through the fog and smashing through the hull of our boat with us being dragged to our deaths. I had to keep putting that thought out of mind. We were able to get through to the Coast Guard Station in South Jersey. They refused to come and get us because after we told them where we were they informed us that we had drifted out of their jurisdiction and were now in Delaware State waters. But what they did for us was get us connected to the Coast Guard station in Delaware. The Delaware Coast Guard was dispatched to come after us. We had drifted 38 miles out into the mouth of the Delaware Bay. I was pretty calm overall because I prayed to God for all of our safety. But Country and the Chum guy were beginning to panic. Steve and I told them to keep calm and that we would make it back safely. After about an hour we got a radio call from the Delaware Coast Guard and they told us they were in our vicinity but were unable to pick us up on radar. Apparently our boat was too small for them to get a fix on our signature. I give great praise to the Coast Guard for what happened next. They told each of us to put our life jackets on. They asked if we had any aluminum foil on board which we did. I videotaped Steve as he climbed up to the highest point on the boat while Country held him steady, aluminum foil in hand. It came back across the radio that the Coast Guard had finally gotten enough of a radar signal to locate us. The CG boat finally pulled up along side of us. We were towed back to Indian River Inlet in Delaware where we spent the rest of the night. Indian River Marina allowed us to tie up to one of their docks for the night. I’m thankful for Indian River Marina for letting us stay there for the night. I went and got ice for the Bluefish and went to sleep. We stayed there all day Sunday and Steve and Country’s wives came to pick us up Sunday afternoon. I didn’t get back to Pennsylvania until Monday morning with all of the Bluefish. Nobody else wanted them. I thank God we made it home safely.
What did we learn from this experience? An outboard should always have two motors that are in excellent running condition. If one motor conks out the extra motor will get you back to shore.
A few weeks later, after the motor was repaired, Steve, Country and myself sans the jerk went fishing and caught 8 or nine nice sized sharks. I made sure we had the right kind of chum this time. The sharks literally lined up around the boat.
Here is a link to the Coast Guard Search and Rescue page on their web site. This great information to have and to know.
David I. Jackson
BoatingWorld
