Caught Out In a Storm

[Gerry Zagorski]

Was fishing with an old friend yesterday talking about the freak storm we got caught in several years ago on a Canyon Runner Tuna Charter.

We were 80 miles or so out in the Canyon trolling when the Captain gets a weather Twix that a freak storm had developed in costal Delaware and was charging up the coast. Captain said pull the lines and lets head for home.

I'm up in the bridge area on the run in thinking to myself, this ain't so bad. Then I saw it... A big wall on the radar screen so I ask the captain, what is that? He says the storm and it looks nasty. You should go down off the bridge, go in the cabin to let the others know, secure all your stuff so it does not bounce around and hold on.

About 25 miles off the beach all hell breaks loose and we are in the teeth of the storm..20 foot seas with frothy tops on them running every which way. It felt like we were a cork in a washing machine. Could not sit anywhere because you'd get tossed on to the floor so we sat on the floor and were still getting tossed all over the place and would come up off the floor as we ran off the top of the waves.

It was like nothing I had ever seen and certainly ever been in... Took us a few hours, which seemed like days to make the last 20 or so miles or so. Our Captain had called the Coast Guard and we had to check in every 5 minutes or so to make sure we were safe.

They actually closed the inlet that afternoon and 2 boats actually were not as lucky as us sank. Here are some articles about that day, one I will never forget.
Had we lost an engine or rudder we might have met the same fate.

Really have to hand it to Captain Charlie and Adam Larosa who was the mate at the time for getting us back safe.