It was good but..it wasn't worth it!

[ful-rac]

This weeks I almost died story....Is brought to you by Team Sewer.
"Its not a sewer unless it's a team sewer!"

(Ok this is a long read....I hate those too!)

Begins the opening week of lobster season...
Very excited for the lobster opener, prepping all week checking all my gear, replacing what needs to be replaced, making sure I have enough bait, remember to buy lobster card etc... So here we are on the first night of lobster season (Saturday Night). I checked the conditions beforehand...and it doesn't look to good. 3-5 foot swell @ 11 seconds + 15 knots of wind...not good, but not anything we haven't hooped in before hundreds of times.

So Jorge and I...arrive at an undisclosed secret location, in the late afternoon. For once the weatherman was correct. Solid whitecaps and swell to boot.... But not deterred from the conditions, we continue on with the plan. We launch, and we are greeted by amazingly bad conditions....still not deterred, we say to ourselves....we've been in worse than this..! We push on thru the nasty conditions toward our lobster spot, in hopes of being quickly in and out.

As we pull up to our spot, It's no wonder that nobody is near us...you'd have to be crazy or stupid to be in this spot...you can make the judgement. Like I said, we've been out here in conditions similar to these, probably even worse...and never ever had a problem, was it ever scary...yes, problem no.

So about 6:30 it's go time! This is what we've been waiting for! We carefully deploy our hoops while watching our backs the whole time, hoping something doesn't take us out by surprise. Soak time! We kill some time talking about how bitch'n it's going to be pulling the hoops up with that telltale thump, thump, thump....

We are so excited to get that first lobster of the season, we decide to pull a bit early...and oh boy we are not disappointed. We have our limits in short order, just like we had planned. I even got a little video of some lobster action as well. We roll up our lobster gear and we haul ass toward the barn.

It's dark, Windy with a lot of wind chop, swells are tightly spaced. Some of the waves have steep faces that look like they're going to break at anytime. The waves are coming at us directly out of the west, so the swell is at our backs. Nervous, we carefully make our way back to our launch spot...riding the un- usually steep waves back in. A couple of waves pick us up, and threaten a roll over but with some quick kayak maneuvering it's not a problem, we can keep level and strait.

Then a fairly steep wave, picks me up from behind. My PA starts to slide down the face quickly. As I am sliding down, I feel the massive PA start to tip to the left. Usually when this happens, I will counter steer, this usually results in the opposite side of the kayak coming down and leveling off, but not this time.

Anybody that has fished with me or seen my videos knows I am guilty of not wearing my PFD most of the time, but tonight with the foul weather I chose to wear it, along with my waders, just as a precaution. It was a good move.

Nightmare.
I feel that the aircraft carrier of kayaks has tipped beyond the point of no return. I say outloud..."OH SHIT!" a split second before I go down.....As I hit the water, oddly it's very calm and quiet....Eyes closed....I float to the surface as I'm greeted by a living nightmare. I'm in absolute disbelief!!! I'm in open water, its night, dark, windy, with a big swell and my beast of a kayak is upside down....can it get any worse?

A few seconds after I come to the surface, my self inflating PFD fires off with a bang! and inflates like an airbag in a car accident...now floating next to my capsized PA , I notice the glow of my Lowrance HDS7 now underwater...and think to myself...that's not good....So now the PA is now upside down and I have to somehow right it fast. Fortunately I have a plan in place just for this eventuality. Without any hesitation I went strait for the bow line that is looped around the front handle. I unloop it and swim over to the side of the kayak, I feel for the side handle and loop it around it. I then throw the rope across to the other side, I then come around to the opposite side...I think to myself will this work? I practiced this in the harbor a few years ago and it worked then under controlled conditions...will it now work for real? I put both feet on the opposite side handle, I grab the rope and give it a good pull. The PA almost too easily comes right over and splashes down with a big "PLOP!" right-side up! Ok 1 problem solved a few more to go.

Jorge is now on the scene and trying to help out with what ever he can. Ok now is the next order of business is to get back on the PA while in a shit storm. I have what I call a PA ladder installed on the back handle of my kayak, it's for emergencies, and this was an emergency. After I deployed the PA ladder I immediately recognize that it is going to be impossible to get back on with the pfd...so I try to remove it as quickly as I can. Undo one snap and boom it's off. I then realize that my waders are going to be a problem...so I remove them...and believe it or not they come off pretty easily while in the water and under pressure.

The moment of truth.
I'm going to attempt to reboard the PA now. I grab the back handle with both hands, I pull the PA down, I miss the ladder with my foot and I slip down. When I came back down...I now have cramps in both legs...Im thinking to myself this situation is getting worse...now becoming possibly life threatening. I take a moment and try to shake it off catch my breath...I try again, with both hands I pull down, I get one foot on the ladder and I'm able to climb on with much less effort than I would otherwise have put in. Back on I take a moment to catch my breath, I notice that the weather hasn't improved any...wind waves swell still pounding...It's gonna take a little bit of luck getting back into the seating position with this swell...I take my time with help from Jorge to get back in the seat, and I'm back in on the first try.

Riding low.
Now riding a bit low from taking on god knows how much water...I try to assess the damage and try to figure out what's missing...We collect as much gear as we can find, and head toward safety. The swells were still pretty big at this point, and I'm a bit concerned about the water in my hull. If the swell tips me at all to the left or right I will probably roll again...In the end we made it back in safe...missing a few things and frying a fishfinder...But the Brightside is, I came in with limits of lobster. And just like the title says...no it wasn't worth it.


Hopefully if you have read this far, you will have learned something. No matter how good you are or how good you think you are. Unexpected things can happen out there, kayak fishing is a risky business. Will you go down like me? Maybe not, but you might. Have a plan in place, most of all don't panic! Practice self rescue. You never know when you'll save your own life....