"Deadliest Catch Part 3" - crabbing at Linda Mar 4/7

Jason, his buddy Glen, and I survived the nastiest wind any of us ever encountered on the ocean.

At one point, my kayak almost became airborne with me on it!  That's how bad things got in the middle of Linda Mar Cove.  The offshore gusts were so strong at times, I was still being pushed out to sea as I was trying hard to paddle back in.

It was a big contrast to our launch.  There was no surf or swell at all, just a light offshore breeze.  Just look at the photo of the cove behind Glen and Jason on the beach.  But as soon as the storm blew in and caught us in the middle of the cove, we were toast.  Glen and Jason started heading in immediately, abandoning their traps (to be picked up later).  I stayed out just long enough to pull my traps and get the hell out.  I didn't want to make the long drive back this weekend just to retrieve my traps.

I came back in with only 4 legal dungies, just enough for dinner Friday night.

Check out the photo below of Glen's Prowler.  A strong wind gust picked it up from the parking lot and blew it into the ditch.
 

To add on to chucks story of the Deadliest catch it was the single most tretcherous day on the water I have encountered.  At times the paddle almost got blown out of my hands when trying to grind forward.  My buddy glen pulled my trap at the hieght of the wind, hail and rain.  I told him to leave it and I would pick it up Saturday.  He was determined.  It was also his first Ocean voyage . He stuggle to get it up to yak with hellasious chop and gusts of wind and rain but was unable to turn the Kayak straight.  Like a true friend I said "see ya back at shore"  ran like a bat out of hell to sand.  I gave him the thumbs up to drop the trap so I was hoping he would follow me back in.  After a few strokes I realized we were in some serious trouble if conditions got any worse.  Glen was behind me for a about 1 minute and then next time I turned around he was gone.  I paddled about 1/2 hour to shore, dropped my rod off and then went back out, met glen(wth out my trap) and paddled back in.  Chuck was taking a pretty long time so I paddle back out to see if he needed help and we got in!

I headed back out today in much better conditions to find my trap about 300 yards West of where it I dropped it.  That is how far glen drifted in 3 minutes with crab pot before he bailed on it.

I must say Glen did a great job yesterday considering it was his first time out.  Prop brother!


Score 0 for a whole hell of lot of work and danger!!!

Jason

Thanks Jason and Chuck for a great first time on the ocean .  Hell of a way to get initiated into the club. I am glad to hear that those were some not so familiar conditions.  There were a couple of minutes out there when I told myself, "what the hell did I get myself into!"... Hell of a lot of fun!  I learned some valuable lessons first time out! One, the weather can change on you in a second and the other is stay calm! I can't believe I have lived two blocks from Linda Mar for three years and had never gone out. What a great sport! You guys made a believer out of me...

Glad you are all okay.

Wind is the biggest party pooper when it comes to the conditions.
Glad to hear your ok.  At least the wind didn't take you out to sea like the Santa Ana's do.

Welcome aboard Glen! Hope we can hookup some salmon at LM this summer!

If you handled those conditions and didn't lose your head and stayed upright the whole time then you are a natural!
Welcome to the madness Glen!

Wow.

This reminds me of my 1st kayaking experience in Ocean. Tim and I went out in Davenport Landing last year for rockfish. That day was really foggy in the early morning. By accident we disconnected and I lost in the fog. I had no radio, no compass, and saw nothing.  The shoreline was completely covered by the thick fog. I basically was drifting for hours - pretty panic.  Tim and I had searched each other, but could not locate each other. Luckily, the current pushed me closer to shore. The moment I saw the shore, I felt under control - my panic was gone. Later, we found each other and started fishing. We caught a lot of fish that day.

Now I got myself better equipped with radio, compass, gps and etc. Sense of safety is better developed. The weird thing is from that day I started loving kayak fishing - something positive.

Eric

Glen... I agree with Tote.  You're a natural in the ocean!

By the way, when my kayak blew off my rack and landed on the front of my truck it left a nasty little dent.  I guess I'll just have to look at it as reminder of our adventure.

I was looking for a dent on your truck but I guess I was too frozen to see straight.  I actually had to take a cold shower to warm up.  After a couple minutes I slowly increased the level of warm water.  I dreamt of crab last night.  I need to get some.

Jason

Chuck that is a bummer your truck got a dent.  I had a good size dent in the bottom of my yak from it rolling down that hill. First of many...  I have a lot to learn, and I will be bouncing a lot of questions off of you more experienced members in the org. I can not wait to get back on the water. Good times! Thank you again...

Chuck that is a bummer your truck got a dent.

No worries... I popped out almost all of the dent with one of those "pop-a-dent" kits.  It really works.