On Friday May 30th, 2014 we departed Stuart, Florida at 0700 for a long awaited month long fishing trip to Cape Eleuthera on our 55′ Hatteras, Hope, with overnight stops in Bimini and Nassau.  Following my retirement last year and after Margaret’s successful battle over breast cancer we both felt it was time for an extended fishing trip.  We have been planning this trip for months and had 6 weeks of stores and supplies on board.  Below is the Incident Report I filed with our insurance company and also below some lessons learned that I thought you all might benefit from.  Because as you will read, this could happen to any of us.

Incident Report

1.    Date and time of incident-May 30, 2014 at 0810

2. Location-3 miles offshore and just North of the Jupiter Inlet

3. Destination-Bimini, four souls (Myself, Margaret, her Sister Lou Smith and my mate Mike Powell) on board [Read more…]