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Fishermen Survive At-Sea Encounter With Hurricane

News Channel 8 photo by WALLY PANTANOW

The crew of Pete's Dream had to go without eating for two days after the galley was destroyed by the storm.

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By KRISTA KLAUS

News Channel 8

Published: September 12, 2008

Updated: 09/12/2008 05:58 pm

Five Tarpon Springs fishermen are relieved to be on dry land after taking a beating from Hurricane Ike. They arrived on shore about 11 a.m. today.

The monster storm caught up with Kris Geidel and his crew Wednesday as they made their way back to the Bay Area from a three-week commercial fishing trip in the Caribbean. Pete's Dream, a 63-foot fishing boat, was about 100 miles north of the west end of Cuba when it was surrounded by high waves and wind.

"The rain was just coming from every direction, and the waves were breaking," Geidel said. "The wind must have been 100 miles an hour."

Ike is expected to make landfall in Texas by early Saturday.

Geidel, a 25-year commercial fishing veteran, said he was trying to get ahead of Ike when he found himself caught up in the path of the Gulf Stream. The rough conditions slowed the boat down to 2 knots, rather than the usual 6 or 7.

"We just didn't get far enough ahead, and it just kept getting rougher and rougher," Geidel said.

Before they knew it, Geidel and his crew were fighting for survival.

Crew member Mike Westfall said two huge waves hit the boat. The first wave took out windows in the wheelhouse, while a second that Westfall as about 40 feet high destroyed the boat's starboard side. The waves also broke the vessel's pump.

The men bailed water in 5-gallon buckets to stay afloat before the U.S. Coast Guard arrived with a temporary pump.

"This is the scariest thing I've ever been through in my life," Westfall said. "We were all praying, scared for our lives. We didn't think we were gonna make it."

No one was injured. The boat is still seaworthy, but it suffered a lot of internal damage, the crew said.

There is one upside to the frightening experience. The crew netted about 20,000 pounds of Caribbean snapper, Geidel's largest haul ever. But even with a record load of fish onboard, the crew went more than two days without eating because the storm destroyed the boat's galley and stove.

Geidel says Hurricane Ike taught him the toughest lesson he's learned in 25 years at sea.

"I'm gonna stay a little further away from hurricanes, I know that," he said. "I will not chance it again."

Tribune reporter Josh Poltilove contributed to this report.

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