Another great day.

[David Hall]

Took a couple friends out of Moss Landing Sunday in great weather soft seas and light winds for a day of rockfish inn.  We ran down south of Carmel Bay and the point Lobos MPAs to clear water and fished depths from 150 down to 80 feet.  Everyone using my 1lb copper pipe jigs with Glow squid bodies.  We landed limits of nice Limgs and rock fish with a few hookups with really big fish at ended in sawed off lines.  One I lost because I had set my drag heavy to try and pop off a snag then dropped right back down without backing it off and got hammered, the fish took off on a run and peeled off 10-15 yards of line then snapped.  All in all it was a great day, we headed home a comfy 25 mile run at near WOT, when I got a crazy idea that I could push a couple hundred more RPM and get home a few minutes sooner. It sounds stupider now than it did at the time!
In retrospect with the full clarity of hindsight it was a remarkably stupid idea! After the Big Bang and sitting adrift for 1-1/2 hours waiting for Vessel assist to arrive, I spent th time periodically talking with the coast guard.
It's really a matter of perspective, it could have been a catastrophe, a short time earlier we would have been in shallow water on rocky cliffs and nobody within hours of reach, could have been windy with bigger seas.
I consider myself very lucky it broke when and where it did, insurance paid for the tow, I get to buy a new stern drive.

[Rancanfish]

Wow what a day. Sorry but glad you get a new drive.

[David Hall]

Hauled her out and dragged her into the yard for thorough cleaning and fresh bottom paint, since it's down anyway might as well take care of everything at once.  Mechanic won't be able to look into the drive until next week.
I miss fishing already, I may have to go out on a charter!

[Dominick]

David don't beat yourself up about the extra nudge to the throttle.  The drive would have gone out anyway. You didn't do anything wrong.  Good luck with the repair job.  Dominick

[johndtuttle]

Wow, glad you had such classic Big Sur fishing as those are rarely fished waters. There are big 30-40lb lings down there.

Why are these waters rarely fished, might others reading this post ask? 

For exactly the same reasons as David found. It is a rough coast line with the prevailing blow every afternoon to 15kts more or less straight on shore and mechanical failure can end in true life or death disaster hours from help from the harbor....and the ride home is pretty much straight up hill too even on a regular day. Few boats go down there so not at all easy to get assistance from a good Samaritan.

You don't hug this coastline coming or going EVER. Getting well offshore before heading down or home is first priority to increase your odds of *survival* should there be mechanical failure.

REALLY happy to hear you had your troubles on such a fine day and had moved far enough offshore to stay safe. 

[David Hall]

Thanks all for the encouraging words.  I agree the drive was going out no matter what and the timing really could not have been better when it did.  I also can't say enough for the support I had throughout from local coast guard station monterey.  They stayed with me checking in every few minutes to update my position.  During the hour + we waited for vessel assist to arrive we drifted over a mile.  My raymarine E120 has a feature that allows me to observe my precise distance from any object or location.  I could have deployed my anchor anytime but decided to wait until I drifted below 150'.  We spotted vessel assist when I was just seeing 145' so I held off on the anchor still safely 1.8 miles off the beaches.  Things I learned,
1.  Keep a cell phone charger on board!  Mine went dead during the incident but both passengers had good charge left in theirs so we switched over.  Radio also gave me problems and cell phone became primary communication.
2.  Stop forgetting to bring my hand held radio!
3.  Life jackets if not worn at all times need to be on deck along with rescue pod.
4. Get a good set of Oars onboard in case I need to maneuver away from hazards or get to deeper waters.
I'm sure there more, I'm not done reflecting on this its chilling to think about the could have options of how this might have played out differently.  All critiques, criticisms and perspectives are welcomed.