I saw the forecast was looking good for the weekend and we took advantage of it. Filled the tanks and bladder to capacity and made the 125 mile run from Freeport to Hoover.
We left Surfside at 5:30 AM and dodged trees & debris on the way out. We made a drop for a sword and ended up having a bite but couldn't get the hookup.
We continued further out and around Boomvang our bladder ran out. We disconnected and switched to the main tank. We restarted the engines and then they began dying. No gas...? Well that's weird. After about 4-5 hours of troubleshooting trying everything we could think of I made the call to Seatow & USCG just to let them know what was going on. We later found the issue at the quick disconnect on the bladder. I knew I was just pulling air but never closed the valve on the bladder. Santos & Hector at Surfside had this happen once before and so of course the 99th out of the 100th thing we tried worked... So we left the bladder hooked up with the valve on it off and were able to get gas back to the port engine and in the bulbs reconnected fuel line and fired the engine up.
We knew it was something simple and even had messed with the quick disconnect fitting from the bulkhead to bladder trying to see if it had a good seal. Once we got the port engine restarted and we slowly made our way towards Boomvang. The starboard engine was still not getting fuel despite our fix. We called back everyone letting them know we were alright and appreciate the operator at Boomvang offering assistance if it was needed or ability to tie up. While we slowly made our way towards Boomvang I was able to get fuel back to the starboard motor and our problem was fixed. So we contacted everyone again and said thanks but further assistance was not needed.
The rest of the trip went on without a hitch. But we lost the entire afternoon and early evening due to the fuel issue so we trolled for as long as possible then switched to jigging & chunk as we got to Hoover. The plan was to troll all day Saturday which didn't happen for obvious reasons.
So we only managed a few Black Fin and stayed at Hoover until the end of the Spurs game and made our way to Ensco drilling rig and got into some more Blackfin, nothing again on chunk. We moved to Boomvang with similar results. Finally shut it down for the night just off the shelf near Tequila around 2AM and slept til 5. We switched to Tile and were able to get a few before moving further inshore. We picked up our limits of snapper and were back in around 2:30 at the dock.
It was a fun trip and great weather. The masses were on the water Sunday which made for some humor & chaos back at the ramps.
We left Surfside at 5:30 AM and dodged trees & debris on the way out. We made a drop for a sword and ended up having a bite but couldn't get the hookup.
We continued further out and around Boomvang our bladder ran out. We disconnected and switched to the main tank. We restarted the engines and then they began dying. No gas...? Well that's weird. After about 4-5 hours of troubleshooting trying everything we could think of I made the call to Seatow & USCG just to let them know what was going on. We later found the issue at the quick disconnect on the bladder. I knew I was just pulling air but never closed the valve on the bladder. Santos & Hector at Surfside had this happen once before and so of course the 99th out of the 100th thing we tried worked... So we left the bladder hooked up with the valve on it off and were able to get gas back to the port engine and in the bulbs reconnected fuel line and fired the engine up.
We knew it was something simple and even had messed with the quick disconnect fitting from the bulkhead to bladder trying to see if it had a good seal. Once we got the port engine restarted and we slowly made our way towards Boomvang. The starboard engine was still not getting fuel despite our fix. We called back everyone letting them know we were alright and appreciate the operator at Boomvang offering assistance if it was needed or ability to tie up. While we slowly made our way towards Boomvang I was able to get fuel back to the starboard motor and our problem was fixed. So we contacted everyone again and said thanks but further assistance was not needed.
The rest of the trip went on without a hitch. But we lost the entire afternoon and early evening due to the fuel issue so we trolled for as long as possible then switched to jigging & chunk as we got to Hoover. The plan was to troll all day Saturday which didn't happen for obvious reasons.
So we only managed a few Black Fin and stayed at Hoover until the end of the Spurs game and made our way to Ensco drilling rig and got into some more Blackfin, nothing again on chunk. We moved to Boomvang with similar results. Finally shut it down for the night just off the shelf near Tequila around 2AM and slept til 5. We switched to Tile and were able to get a few before moving further inshore. We picked up our limits of snapper and were back in around 2:30 at the dock.
It was a fun trip and great weather. The masses were on the water Sunday which made for some humor & chaos back at the ramps.
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