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- Whale collision , part 2, Steve Lassley
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Whale collision , part 2, Steve Lassley |
- By Steve Lassley
- Published 03/5/2009
- Fishing Reports
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Rating:
I am sitting in the airport in Cabo getting ready to get on a plane. Exhausted. Maybe one of the most sleepless weeks in my life (Except for the dark years). I have to thank everyone for all the kind words and support, it sure is helpful in a time like this. Thanks so much.
I am sure everyone read the basic story. Not much to add to that except for the mode that Anthony was talking about. It is amazing how thinks go from picture perfect to catastrophic in the blink of an eye , literally. The one thing I can't get out of my head was the crushing impact and the sound. The violence of the hit. It took us all about 5 seconds to switch gears from clean up and heading home to save the boat. No panic, really, very calm. I remember Pete coming up from down below saying we're taking on water. I asked how much? He just said a lot and went back to work. Before I could even go look we had tried to run the boat up to get the bow up. Too much vibration from the glass. Packing glands weren't hopping so we didn't guess shaft or prop damage. At least not bad.
The guys already had the lid off the shower sump to bring that pump on line and had hooked up the A/C condensor pump. We were still losing, not super fast anymore but losing. I had Pete hook up the generator raw water pick up and that finally got us gaining.
I had already called ahead to the yard and had them standing by as well as a couple boats. We started losing again about Cape rocks and didn't waste anytime getting in the slings.
We were standing looking at the port bow as the boat came out and we were all like "Oh, thats not too bad" then one of the workers on the other side started yelling we went over and looked Holy Crap.....or something.
So many things came into play that allowed us to save the boat. We were moving the boat from Puerto Los Cabos to Cabo Marina for a few days as that Marina was closer to the Marlin bite. We had brought extra hoses from the dock that we use for wash downs. Without those hoses forget it. The strike was almost directly on the strongest part of the hull. Right on a bulkhead and the bowthruster tube. Anywhere else it may have blown right through. The weather was slick calm, any chop could have pounded out the barely remaining glass. What if it had jumped 3 seconds sooner and landed on the boat? Anyway, for all the bad, thank goodness for the good.
We have had so many people look at the boat. Now we have had 6 people going over this thing thoroughly for the last several days. 2 surveyors Todd Scwede and his partner Bill. They have had their Thermal imaging going for 2 days and mapped out the entire hull. They both were astonished at the strength of the hull and the way the boat took the punch. We had Lonni, Bill and Russel from Viking. We also had Ari and Mike from Los Cabos boatyard. Thanks everyone for everything. Special thanks to Ari and his crew for getting us up so fast. Nice to know there are competent people waiting for you in a situation like this.
Battery is running out. I'll finish the update tomorrow.
I am sure everyone read the basic story. Not much to add to that except for the mode that Anthony was talking about. It is amazing how thinks go from picture perfect to catastrophic in the blink of an eye , literally. The one thing I can't get out of my head was the crushing impact and the sound. The violence of the hit. It took us all about 5 seconds to switch gears from clean up and heading home to save the boat. No panic, really, very calm. I remember Pete coming up from down below saying we're taking on water. I asked how much? He just said a lot and went back to work. Before I could even go look we had tried to run the boat up to get the bow up. Too much vibration from the glass. Packing glands weren't hopping so we didn't guess shaft or prop damage. At least not bad.
The guys already had the lid off the shower sump to bring that pump on line and had hooked up the A/C condensor pump. We were still losing, not super fast anymore but losing. I had Pete hook up the generator raw water pick up and that finally got us gaining.
I had already called ahead to the yard and had them standing by as well as a couple boats. We started losing again about Cape rocks and didn't waste anytime getting in the slings.
We were standing looking at the port bow as the boat came out and we were all like "Oh, thats not too bad" then one of the workers on the other side started yelling we went over and looked Holy Crap.....or something.
So many things came into play that allowed us to save the boat. We were moving the boat from Puerto Los Cabos to Cabo Marina for a few days as that Marina was closer to the Marlin bite. We had brought extra hoses from the dock that we use for wash downs. Without those hoses forget it. The strike was almost directly on the strongest part of the hull. Right on a bulkhead and the bowthruster tube. Anywhere else it may have blown right through. The weather was slick calm, any chop could have pounded out the barely remaining glass. What if it had jumped 3 seconds sooner and landed on the boat? Anyway, for all the bad, thank goodness for the good.
We have had so many people look at the boat. Now we have had 6 people going over this thing thoroughly for the last several days. 2 surveyors Todd Scwede and his partner Bill. They have had their Thermal imaging going for 2 days and mapped out the entire hull. They both were astonished at the strength of the hull and the way the boat took the punch. We had Lonni, Bill and Russel from Viking. We also had Ari and Mike from Los Cabos boatyard. Thanks everyone for everything. Special thanks to Ari and his crew for getting us up so fast. Nice to know there are competent people waiting for you in a situation like this.
Battery is running out. I'll finish the update tomorrow.
3 Responses to "Whale collision , part 2, Steve Lassley" 
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said this on 05 Mar 2009 7:20:46 PM PDT
Steve, thank goodness you all okay and you have the Best of the best with Todd Schwede there, he did my boat when I had to have it returned back to the factory. Hang in there im sure you will have some toys to play around with sooner than later. Cheers Chris
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Author/Admin)|
said this on 11 Mar 2009 7:16:29 AM PDT
Steve: Glad you and the boat survived the (now) infamous whale encounter of '09. Aside from the close encounter, this seems to be a priceless advertisement for Viking. You probably don’t recall, but we met a couple of times. I’m Bill Miholic's brother-in-law (the 60’ Riviera guy and co-participant in the last Bisbee CUP Invitational) His boat is the Knot-for-Rent. I wanted to remark on your comment about how close you came to losing 30 years’ of irreplaceable notes after the collision - records (I suppose) of hundreds of ventures and thousands of fish. I go back some 40 years with a sadly departed dear friend ours and another famous “Steve”, Steve Reshke (P-Bod). I saw his ream of notes and marked charts on many occasions. He and I spent hours talking about how irreplaceable they were and how we should protect them. I had some ideas, but we never got around to doing anything about it. Drop me an email next time you’re in SoCal. Maybe we can talk about archiving your notes and making sure they’re never lost. This could be my way of following up on a broken promise to P-Bod. Ted Sanborn
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said this on 31 Mar 2009 8:31:52 PM PDT
Steve: You never should of gave up Swordfishing!! The worst you would of ever gotten was a Swordfish Bill through the hull. Man those Humpbacks are dangerous... Where were the Lookouts??? OH no Thar she Blows!!!! Kappow!!!!Glad you and the guys are Okay. Spencer Puskas retired Fish Spotter.
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