Out In The Ocean, Alone.

[tartansailor]

Planning a tuna trip 27 miles off the Delaware Coast this July and August. Been there many times in power boats and off shore sailboat races, but never alone, especially in a small boat like a CD25.
Just had Doyle re-do sails with added grommets for foresail down haul lines from the cockpit, and am installing pad eyes for safety harness and straps, and am signing up for Tow Boat US. One problem is storing enough ice for a 3-4 day trip.
Am curious,
"How far off shore have you gone alone, and
How big is your boat, and
What advise would you recommend?
Do you think that I ought to strap the rudder to its shaft as added insurance to keep it from falling off?
Dick

[Photo Chief]

Hi Dick,

When I lived in Key West I often went alone 15-20 miles south of the reef toward Cuba and trolled the sargasso weed on the Gulf Stream. Truly amazing what you will see out there. I was piloting a 21 ft fishing boat then not a sailboat. This summer I plan to do offshore work in my new Bristol 27. I have been giving thought to your question for months because I am new to sailing. Sailboats are obviously much more difficult to handle... and then with a big fish on. Lifting a large fighting fish aboard alone after it has caught you is not easy. You did say "tuna"? The times I hooked large fish I simple took a picture and released. Large ones are impossible to keep cold anyways on small boat and you don't want to waste them.

I would go to neutral when fish was on and when alongside I make a judgement on its size. If medium size I often threw over a floating line to stream behind in case I went over as I brought the fish aboard. I always wore a jacket also. The stream is always relatively warm water so hyperthermia was not a huge factor, you can also wear a shorty dive jacket like the surfers wear in case you go over. I was much younger then and in good shape so climbing back aboard over the stern drive was not a problem. When diving I never was alone but we would always stream this very long line to catch and pull yourself back to boat when and if needed.

If you have an autopilot I suppose your procedures would be simplified. Otherwise you need to douse sails fast before the fish strips all your line. The stern tends to point toward the fish during the fight in a small boat because of the pressure on the tackle. Again talking tuna type gamefish. This may not be the case in a CD25 or similar sailboat due the the keel and weight. Additionally, I would think that keeping sails up and coming about with a fish on by yourself would be a constant source of funny stories.

I hope you receive some more input on this topic.

I am still considering the ramifications of the idea.

Rich

[Steve Laume]

When we troll from our CD-30 which is most of the time when my son is aboard we heave to as so as we get a fish on. We are always hoping for a tuna but it has mostly been blue fish so far. We have a wheel with a lock but all you need with a tiller is a piece of shock cord. As soon as the fish is hooked tack the boat but do not release the jib sheet then lash the tiller and start the fight. I don't think I would wear a wet suit as you will probably die of heat stroke while fighting the fish before you would ever fall overboard. Anything trailing off the stern will give you problems trying to deal with the fish. I would skip all the other stuff and make sure I was tethered to the boat and could get back in if I did fall overboard. Gaffing single handed is the biggest challenge. Good luck, Steve.

[Jim Lewis]

Sometimes if you can get a wet towel over a fishes head it will calm it so you can deal with it......after having my steering box
busted to pieces a number of times, I now don t bring anything
over 20 lbs on board, unless it is near dead.....I haven t caught
a large tuna in a number of years, but I have a hard smooth
dingy that I can roll a large fish into if seas permit....then I can
deal with it.....for tackle I run two hand lines always if wind allows speed for trolling....and sometimes I have two poles in addition
to hand lines.....if the tuna are running around 50# it might be
good to use a bang stick so you can bring aboard and fillet out.
Try not to shoot a hole in side of boat. The CD30K with basic
rig is wonderful for all fishing applications, but when use the 170 in the summer, with light winds is an adventure if the fish is on a
pole......two hand lines are probably your best bet, then add a
pole if you are into that......good luck, you will catch fish if you
can make 5 knots.....

[winthrop fisher]

Hi...
going off shore is fun, but you have to think safety all the time, unless it is a nice day and all was think safety...
i cross large bodys of water in boats 18 too 41 by my self and all was stay tethered to the boat.
try going 650 miles in a typhoon around trip or 1000 miles in a cd22 or 1800 miles in a 27 or going from new york to london around trip in a 41 or try galveston to hilo in a 27 and 41.
you have to be careful all the time no matter the size of the boat.
glad to be back....
winthrop

[Russell]

Hi Dick,

I am offshore all the time alone, currently I am in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, came all the way down here alone from the Chesapeake Bay, of course my boat is larger, but all the concepts are the same.

The downhauls back to the cockpit are a good ideal, but always be prepared to go forward even when weather is bad, no matter how many lines you lead back, something will always foul or go wrong making you have to go forward.

As for ice, all I can say is good luck, it will last a couple days. I have refidgeration, but hardly ever use it because it is a power hog, so I mostly store things warm. You have to get away from the american mentality that if you dont refidgerate it, it will go bad and kill you if you eat it. You will be suprised at how long most foods last without refridgeration. I have cheese onboard right now that has been a month without a refidgeration and its still very good. Meat of course you would not want to keep warm, but its easy to live without meat. Just provision accordingly to keep in mind lack of cool places to store food.

I do not see any benifit of strapping the rudder on, just something to get fouled. The CD rudders are substantially made, the likelyhood of one falling off is slim, so long as everything looked good your last haul out, dont worry about it.

Bring plenty of fuel, you may have to motor more then you expect.

Sleep is an issue, especially along the US east coast, lots of shipping traffic. My longest solo trip so far is 3 days, and I get by okay with 20 minute naps. After 3 days I start to get unreasonably tired with the short naps. When you spot a ship that looks like it could get close to you, dont be shy about calling them on VHF, its likely they dont see you.

I am sending you a PM with my boat based email address if you want to email me with any questions.

Russell

[Boyd]

Hi All:

I keep a bottle of very cheap whiskey on board to deal with big fish.

Pull the line vertically till the fish is just head out of the water and pour a small amount of the whiskey into his mouth. Kills them instantly. No wreastling in the cockpit with a live fish after this treatment.

After watching the result I pretty much gave up drinking. I used one of my guests Chivas on a large King mackeral once. Needless to say he was not impressed but helped eat the fish.

Put a loop of small line around the tail while its still in the water, cut the gills, and let it bleed out in the water. You could even use a cunningham on the boom to hoist a big one by the tail. Bleeding it in the water is much less messy when you finally clean the fish. Just dont leave it in the water long or the guys in the grey suits will show up and take your dinner.

Like others have pointed out, harness in for this, especially if you dont have crew.

Boyd
Tern
CD30 MkII
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

[Tim Mertinooke]

Hopefully you don't see many of these while you are out there. Yikes.

[img]http://www.webvideo.nu/arrapic/Abigsea.jpg[/img]

[tartansailor]

Greetings, First let me express my sincere thanks for the concepts listed above, and especially to the surprisingly large number of fine folks who sent me PMs. There were ideas I never thought of.
What I am going to do is try and organize a check list with equipment needed for each emergency, AND a procedure for each task.
Here is my Crises List:
Man Overboard
Lost Steering
Collision
Power Loss
Injury/incapacitation
Capsize
Sinking
Dehydration
Heat/sun stroke

Now with respect to the fishing, not at all interested in the meat, especially blue fin (aka old soaked house insulation) ; if however it is a yft or a cobia, than that is a different story, especially if it is less than 20 lbs.
With respect to gaffing, you just cannot beat a flying gaff imho, that way one guy can both gaff and tail.
Dick

[Steve Laume]

If your intent is to catch fish you should probably do some snooping around the docks. I did some fishing with my dad in that area about 35 years ago. My dad's expression was "when we go fishing we catch fish", and we did catch fish! We had a 23 FT wood boat with a GM V-8 inboard. That was small by the standards of the day and most likely more so today. The charter captains will work together to produce fish. I don't know how much they would share with a guy in a little sail boat who will most likely get in the way. No offence but these guys are trying to produce to keep the charters coming and it is not an easy business. My dad had his own approach to the scouting and information gathering problem. He was also a private pilot. We would fly out the afternoon before a planned fishing trip and see where everybody was fishing. The next morning very early that is where we would be heading. The point is if you are fishing where the fish are likely to be, you will not be alone. There will be lots of big fancy boats out there with their radios on. You may be enough of a novelty not to be considered a nuisance. There have never been many sail boats on the DEL coast. Heading out of the bay and off the the shipping lanes there will also be lots of commercial traffic. Your problem might be to much company rather than being alone. It is still a very big ocean with very few places to run and hid along that coast but I doubt you will ever be out of range of radio contact. That should figure prominently into your emergency plans. there is safety in numbers up to a point, Steve.

[tartansailor]

Hi Steve,
Thanks for the words of caution.

Started fishing the venue in 1974. As you know everyone follows the head boats. Not me, for 2 reasons, I want to sail more than fish, and I can find structure and flotsam that others don't even know about, or discard for the erroneous convention of following the crowds.
I do not know of 1 single boater or sailor who has a Pilot Chart!!?? There you find current diagrams for the month and that is what I use to find eddys and that is where the flotsam is and where the fish are.

Another reason for avoiding the crowds is prop noise that puts the fish down, and also inconsiderate boatman who run over your long lines.
It has been my experience that the majority of today's boaters, and yes many sailors do not even bother to pay the bucks for nautical charts! let alone Pilot Charts.

Dick

[Skip]

You guys are wearing me out even thinking about fighting and handling large fish without "gear" or anywhere to put it when and if it is indeed brought aboard. Give me a ten pound dolphin and a spot of olive oil to grill it in....one will do. Yummmmmm.

But like they say, if ya just gotta do it...then ya just gotta do it.

Lotsa luck, stay safe, and ennnnnjoy!

Skip