I recently had a week long experience that I would like to share with you.

One cold and very windy night about 9:00 the phone rings. It is my neighbor in a panic mode saying her husband is out on the water and his 36 foot shrimp boat is sinking. I told her I would see what I could do and keep her informed. I got dressed and went out to my garage and boat. Reality check! Holy Sh-- it is cold and nasty out here. I called my friend Rob of Sea Tow to find out if they had the location of the vessel. He called me back in about a minute and gave me the lat/lon of the vessel. He plotted it on land. I said we have lost a lot of land so it may be against an island that is left. The Coast Guard was not sending a boat but had a rescue chopper in the air to get to them. There was no way my boat was even getting hooked up tonight in this 30 Kt. wind. While I was on a 3 way with the Coast Guard they found them and were above them to pick them up. I asked them to tell the guys I would go to the Navy base and pick them up.

I called Tammy and let her know what was happening and I would go get the guys at the base. That eased her a bit but she informed me that Dan's deckhand Johnny's trailer was on fire. Before I made the 50 plus miles to the Navy Base I left my house and went the half mile down my street to find the fire department actively involved in the fire. He lost everything. What a messed up night this was. As I was driving up the road fighting the wind gusts I was wondering what I was doing picking up this pair of bad JU-JU. They already had 2 strikes and what would the third strike of the night be? At the base I was given 2 cold wet shivering barefoot bundles of diesel smelling flesh wrapped in Navy issued wool blankets. I went to a convenient store that was open and bought them a cup of coffee and a snack to go as well as a pack of smokes for Johnny. I stopped at my house and seeing Johnny is my size I gave him a pair of sneakers, shrimp boots, a few pairs of socks, shirts, underwear, dungarees, and a heavy lined wool shirt type of jacket. Merry Christmas. It's a start.

The next morning I picked up Dan and brought him to my house. Some of my customers leave things non the boat and that save closet would come in handy today. No boots would fit him and all he had was a pair of slippers. I took him to a nearby store and got him some new shrimp boots. At this time everything he had on was what I gave him. One happy camper!



What had happened was they had problems all day. many things went wrong and a few things broke. the day was long with the seas getting rougher. It was too dangerous to transit the extremely shallow waters to get into the river. Instead of attempting that in the dark rough seas they ducked behind a small group of islands for a bit of protection and anchored for the night. The anchor broke and the boat turned sideways. The 5 to 8 foot waves hit the boat sideways and filled the lower cabin with water. The had all they could do to get out of there. The second wave filled the entire boat and the waves just pounded the boat to pieces. There was no chance to get to their boots or even to the life jackets. They hung on to the rigging waiting to get rescued as the boat got destroyed.



It was 2 days before we could get to the boat. Now the winds had shifted and there was no water at all. We also had a 3 inch tide. All this low water gave us a chance to repair what we needed to fix and pump out the boat. Notice one of the fuel tanks off the boat and under the net in the top right corner. It was bolted down and inside the boat at one time. It is over 6 feet long. The small tank on the deck is not a fuel tank. The motor is shot but he has a spare that needs little work to get it running.



The pump we borrowed had a cracked ring and the oil got water in it at once. The oil was a gummy white mass. Our first day we found out what we needed and were able to get a little bit of work done.

The next day with a new 2 inch trash pump we were able to pump out the boat and get it to float after we blocked all the holes. Fortunately all the damage was well above the water line. Due to the water still being shallow we could not budge the stern stbd. side. The boat is floating here and we have the big fuel tank across the stern between the nets



We were able to get enough water out to get to the 2000 GPM bilge pump. We hooked it up to one battery on my 36 volt trolling motor with jumper cables to assist our bailing time.



A shot of what we had to face. even the shrimp boxes were full of water and also 900 pounds of spoiled shrimp.



On the way back that last day there were n3 shrimp boats stuck in the shallows the water was so low. As I was going around them at 40 mph. my bay boat came to a stop in the silted in waters. I lifted the jack plate and the motor. I was able to ease my way into deeper water of 1.5 feet and run again.

I have an interesting life down here.

Life is Good!

You are a great friend Larry. Just another example of how things can go sideways REAL FAST.

Great job by you and the CG.

Wow!

Sorry to hear about the guys and the rig.

Great job USCG getting them, and you helping them out Hoop!