Avoided Catastrophe

[wiredantz]

Avoided Catastrophe



On Friday Jan 4, 2012, I received a text from team sewer that we were meeting at busy bee to eat lunch and will be on the water at 2pm Saturday for a late night fishing session. So I said to myself, I don’t want to fish, I want to catch some lobsters.

This would be my first real attempt at a beach launch with all 5 hoop nets behind my X-factor, at Cabrillo Beach. I arrived at the parking at 1pm, and the wind was BRUTAL. I decided to wait until the wind calmed down a bit before venturing out in the 1-2ft surf. I checked the radio, and Matt and Tony where having lunch delivered on the water by Jorge. An hour later I was ready to launch, and had a few spectators trying to see what this idiot was doing.
Hatches closed, fishing rods secured, hoop nets on board, ready to launch…3…2…1..
Who cares about counting waves…. I just look at the waves, and when I don’t see any swells behind them I JUST GO!


So I wait and GO!

“DAMN, why am I paddling so slow…? Feels like I am trying to paddle a big rig,” I said to myself. I see a swell coming…. Took one to the face and did not stop paddling….. I didn’t move an inch…. I keep paddling another one is coming…. I start paddling like a mad man and I am crawling like a baby…. Took another one to the face and I am out of the Danger zone…

Well I said, that was a little tough. I might have to paddle all around the break wall (4 miles) instead of coming back, and trying to do a beach landing, I say to myself.

Well I start paddling to the Pt. Fermin, and I start seeing all the commercial lobster traps. Every time I saw a commercial trap, I metered structure on my fish finder. I tried to check in with the guys, but after I turned the point all contact was lost. I found a few places where there was structure, so I decided to put my hoop nets down. (This was a real pain) –Every time I got my nets ready the wind would push me south a few yards and I had to paddle up just to get to the same spot again…

I took out my rods and starting throwing plastics, a few nibbles here and there, but nothing to really stick. The sunset was a beautiful one, clouds of red and purple. I said “I can’t wait to see what I pull up.” I wait half an hour after sunset, and I paddle back to the first one net I dropped.

1^st Hoopnet:
DAMN THIS FEELS SUPER HEAVY… its must be crabs because I didn’t feel the tail swooshing on the rope.
I get it about ¼ up and I feel something in the net trying to swim back down. So I pull on the rope harder…. And whatever is in the hoop net is POWERFUL.. So powerful in fact that it was about to tip me over… So I had to let go of the rope or I was going over. …

I am like what the heck is in here….
I tried it again and my Hoop net takes off and I am being hauled away, and I start pulling the rope up then it goes straight down….. And I am about to tip over, so I let go of the rope… Finally manage to pull up my bait cage… … Nothing!!!

So I kept wondering what it was….



2^nd hoopnet:


I pull up my second hoopnet this one feels heavy, but not as heavy as the first one…. I pull it up half way… and my hoopnet starts pulling me AGAIN!!!! This time I said HELL NO.. I Start pulling with all my might trying to keep the x-factor stable …. And I Pulled it, it was pulling and I pull I was pulling, TUG OF WAR. And I pull ….. and I Win….. Pulled it up….HUGE SHARK…My 3 inch PVC that was clipped on by a screw with an eye on it gone…. Ripped off and I see the shark swim away…
OMG…. What a rip…. So I pulled it up and put it away behind my kayak





3^rd hoopnet:


I pull nothing… but small crabs and star fish….

4^th hoopnet and 5^th hoopnet were a bit further out on some structure:

Nothing


So I set up in different locations:


I go back to my first hoop net 30 mins later…

This time, I am ready…. If this thing is going to pull as soon as I start pulling…. I need to be ready.
So I grab the rope… PULL really fast (feels light but something is in here…….. ) I get it up to the SURFACE…


SCORE!!!!! MEGA 7 lbs lobster.. FINALLY !!!!!


I put my hoopnet on my lap and shine my headlamp on the cage… WTH

This ain’t no lobster… it’s a leopard shark with its mouth completely around my PVC….and it won’t let go….So I turn the cage upside down and jig it a few time and it finally lets go….

That how my day went…. No lobsters…no love

By this time the wind had settled down but it started picking up again around 7:30- so I said screw this I am going home… So I picked all my stuff and go back to Cabrillo Beach… Can’t see the waves.. Can’t see the surf…. It looks mellow… like no surf,…. I mean I can’t hear the surf…. That good right…

So feeling lazy and not wanting to around the break wall(4miles to around)… I prepare for a yard sale…. Put everything away except for my rods and hoop nets…. ( I hear a helicopter, ambulance , and fire trucks coming and I see them go to Pt. Fermin) – I hope the guys didn’t call coast guard on me I said…


Detach my paddle… and I am ready to land this beast (my kayak)….

Get as close to the beach as possible, slugging along….. I see spectators again… “damn I bet is Tony with his camera”, I said.
Looked behind me… nothing… (I can’t see crap in pitch darkness)
So I decided, I am going for it… Look behind me one more time…. And I see this 3-4ft wave crashing right behind me… and the last thing I say to myself…..”GAME OVER”….

The wave crashes behind my hoop nets. My kayak bow lifts up over the water… and I start going forward SUPER FAST!!!
I say my good byes…

My stern is submerged under the wave….. I try to keep my balance countering the way my kayak wants to go….the kayak is moving like a submerged torpedo… My kayak turns perpendicular to the wave right at the beach…..I MADE IT!!!!!! ALIVE…. Did not capsize

WAAAAWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO………

EPIC SURFING!!!! Never doing that again though. LOL scary!!!!

I start dragging my kayak up the beach… this guy offers to help push... I said thank you… and I start throwing everything in my car… Check my messages the guys left already, and are at Jack in the box…
The guys asked me, if I was calling from the coast guard station because of all the commotion (ambulance, fire, helicopter).. . they thought something happened….

Well that was that…. I get home and I smell something burning…. I thought it was my batteries… but the smell went away and I left everything in my car and went to bed….

On Sunday, after running some errands I figure it’s time to start taking the junk off my car. I unlock the car, and starting taking my blue plastic box… and I starting smelling something burning… I start seeing smoke… I start panicking… My wife was fixing the emergency earthquake kit in the garage … and I start yelling FIRE!! FIRE!!!….. and she runs to the front of the house to see where the fire is at (she smells it too)…. I start checking my blue box… where’s the fire where’s the fire….

I take out my $700 GPS…… and about to start taking off my kayak… and I see the smoke and flames coming from my passenger seat….

WHAT THE HELL…..
CARS ON FIRE…… I start ripping the plastic away from the passenger seat…..
“Who cares about safety,” I said. Need to save my kayak and my car….Fire FIRE FIRE…..

I start blowing out the fire, the flames were starting to get bigger, So I start blowing like someone trying to inflate his inflatable pfd in the middle of the ocean and the fire settles. And I start disconnecting the electrical…..

My wife said here is some money go buy a pickup truck at the auction….

Good thing, I was there when it happened…. All I needed was to show up to the beach with my car toast…












and also i have more light in my garage... went to hOMIES DEpOT to buy the light fixture and the bulb= $18.00






I