abmotorman

We were on Lake Winnebago just leaving Appleton, when we notice a huge shelf cloud / storm coming from behind. Halfway to Oshkosh we confronted large rain shafts. Before you know it, still 3 miles out of Oshkosh, we were experiencing 50 mph straight line winds and observing the lake grow from nothing to 4-6' (the entire lake is 17' deep, took no time at all to change). At that time, in a single screw 22.5' Mirage, and a 6 year on board fighting wind, down pouring rain, and one pissed off wife made for a interesting day. Latter that day, we found out on the other side of the lake, it created tornadoes. Moral of the story, don't be afraid of waiting a storm out, because the odds of out running them are slim.

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Comanche3Six

Taking my Cigarette Firefox to the Offshore races in AC NJ, maybe in the late 80's running the NJ coastline down. Around Beach Haven the temperature dropped severely, looking southward we could see a fierce thunderstorm over AC. I spun around and headed back directly into another massive thunderstorm coming from the North heading southward.. Sandwiched between the two storms I anchored in maybe 35' of water, good anchor (it's still at the bottom of the Ocean) and 250' of line out. Hail ( marble size hitting your eyelids ....PHUCK!) hard rain, lightning striking the ocean, huge seas in a split second, loud thunder directly overhead, dark water, dark skies, incredible winds. Myself and two buddies sat out the storm under the bow, anchored (no cabin). When it was over the ocean was littered with debris miles out from the beach. Panicked people on the radio crying for help. There was loss of life, and quite a few boats sank in that squall. Right after the squall dissipated, it was beautiful (weather wise)

phragle

iTrader: (3)

west side of south bass island, early june about 10pm. it had been blowing 20~25 all day and grey. Pitch black out when I felt 2 drops of rain on my head then all hell broke loose for 45 minutes. 2 seperate weather stations on the islande less than a mile to our east saw winds over 85mph. It got a little tense for a couple minutes

CDShack

Fishing for kings in the Gulf of Mexico out of Port Aransas Texas in a 21' Cuddy. Fished for awhile, and saw a lone thunderhead out at sea. The charter boats (much bigger) pulled lines and headed for it. Radio was a chatter about how good the fishing is on the perimeter of the rain. We decided to follow. As with everything in the ocean, it was A LOT farther than it looked. About the time we were within a couple of miles, this thing blew up! As the seas went from 2-3 feet rollers to huge swells, our bag of frozen ribbon fish that was laying on the motor cover became a bag of water that began leaking out, through the motor cover and all over the distributor. About the time we figured we had bitten off more than we could chew, the motor started missing and running on maybe 4 or 5 cylinders, cutting our speed in half. This thing overtook us. The swells were so large, we would drop in, and at the bottom, you looked up and saw nothing but water completely surrounding you 15'+ above your head. The angle of the wall of water was so powerful and steep as it would transition, water would just "touch" the rubrail and mist the entire boat. The boat would crest, blow the prop out, and we barely had enough power to keep the boat straight as we fell to the bottom. Couldn't stop to dry out the distributor or we'd capsize. We sputtered along and rode the storm nearly all the way into port, almost 2 hours never knowing if the next wave was the one! Actually kissed the ground when we got back. Nastiest squall I've ever been in or want to be in. Gained a whole new respect for the sea that day!

Back4More

About 25 miles out, black as night at 3 in the afternoon, lightning bolts coming down all around us, wide open throttle and winds weather vaneing the boat, then hail and on plane all the way through the harbor to my slip.
Broke a rocker stud off the next ride on the lake...cheated death with that one. We still laugh about it to this day.

Crowney

In our last boat (Crownline 266 LTD). Lake Erie by Mickey Rats for the locals. Not a ripple in the lake when we launched at Stergeon Point. About 2 hours later 6" waves then in a short period 1' to 2'. I told my wife Erie can kick up fast. The 2's were not getting any smaller as the clouds to the north were dark purple. We started closing up everything and when we pulled anchor the storm crashed. Trying to run back with the wife and kids below in easy 4' (from some videos people state these might have been 10', lol) that were breaking hard and so close together. I couldn't even keep my eyes open the water was crashing over the bow and hitting my eyes so hard. Took forever to get back. That boat was not made for waters like that. When I ran about 40 or a little more we made better ground but never in those waves that close to each other I was nervous with the young kids and wife below. Complete washing board out there. Im glad we have a larger more agile boat now. Few things broke in the cuddy but fixed them up so all in all a good learning experience.

Interceptor

Lake Huron in my old C.C., knocked unconscious when the fast moving cold front caught up with us and all hell broke loose. Reached into the cabin to get a rainsuit , the boat fell off a wave and I hit my head on the edge of the cabin opening and fell into the cabin.

altamate

Saturday afternoon a few years ago at a local lake with a great beach. Tons of people and boats in the water. We're there in our ski boat pulling kids on tubes and wakeboards.
We see very dark clouds at the other end of the lake, soon everyone starts heading for the marina and launch. Got to the launch in 1 inch hail and a tornado behind it. Guys were fist fighting at the marina and docks over spots and who's next on the ramp. We were using extra lifejackets over our heads to provide some relief from the hail.

HabanaJoe

I was13 or 14 at the time (mid 1970's) we left Belmar NJ on a Friday night in the middle of winter to go set tilefish longline gear with my father for 2 days. We had a 42' wooden Olsen made in Keyport NJ and a big storm had just passed leaving huge ground swells. I remember going out the inlet and the boat just dropped off some of the waves with a huge crashing sound and we idled out and eventually picked up speed and through the night every once in a while we'd drop off these huge swells as the water gets deeper the swells get larger. Morning comes and we're on the rock piles on the North side of the Hudson Canyon, you literaly can stand on top the wheel house and in the tough you see nothing but water. They were 15'-20' but very large and far apart. Weather forecasting back then was not as good as today and no one really cared about the forecasts for 70-100miles out like they do today. When that sun came up the wind starting screaming against the swell so the water was boiling now and a snow squall comes on us, cold snowing and getting rougher!

I remember we had the first line about 1/2 out and one of the guys says hey insn't that the bilge pump going on? Nah it's just the generator water while we're rolling so bad the gunnels keep dipping under water, both sides. At about 3/4 of the way out my father says "the generator is off", we open up the hatch and the water sea water line if off the generator and water is pouring in the seacock! He shuts it off cruses up a storm put the hose back on and starts the generator.

As we make our way back up to set the second trawl the gnerator goes off again, hose off again! My father is so pissed now and he's concerned whats going on? Put the hose back on, weather getting worse he says "screw it something not right pull in the first gear and let's go back home." We pull up the gear and start for home going toward black, I mean black skys, another squall straight in the face and the generator turns off again. This time we shut the seacock and leave it off. As were down in the bilge rolling around water keeps coming in from somewhere, everytime we roll, bam water running down the side of the hull and just slopping around, again just weird.

We hit the squall and hear a noise down below, we open the hatch as we're running and the inner deck where the generator is was bouncing up and down with every wave and it's rough as ****, we're scared now because we can see the bulkhead the deck is on separating from the hull sides when the boat flexes. With every flex water comes gushing in! No SAT phones then!!! get on the Single Sideband and reach shore to make a phone call to tell someone where we are and what's going on and go to Pt Pleasant to find a travel lift or rail way to put the boat on when we get in.

Between the bigle pumps and using the generator to pump water out as well, we get in to Pt Pleasant and put the boat right on a travel lift. When they haul it we find two planks, one on each side busted out from the generator platform bulkhead corners beating on then for the last 24 hours! There is a section about 8" by 2"-3" inches gone from each plank down to only maybe 1/4" of wood left and that was enough the slow the water coming so we didn't have two open holes!!!

So that was the biggest, roughest and scariest day I ever had on the water! The boat was fixed in two weeks and we went right back out again!