Waterspouts

[drsmileybee]

Does anybody have any waterspout stories? Me and deadend were near one on 6-24 in Pan. City. It showed up right after a dive and after it went away we went through a strong storm that was short lived. I went to some weather sites to find out some more information about them and came across some boater safety tips. The weather man said if you were to get caught up in one out to sea the best move would be to go overboard. He also said that they didn't know how deep they went so if you could, go deep as possible. This sounds weird to me. I don't think that we were in much danger but It made me wonder what would happen if we came up from a dive and one had decided to sit down near us. I have photos and I will try to post them if there is any interest on this topic.

Thanks,
paul

[JimB]

A waterspout is effectively a tornado that has touched down over water. Do you want to be in a tornado? Prevention is to be somewhere the waterspout isn't. Travel at a right angle to the course of the waterspout to avoid it.

[drsmileybee]

No Jim I don't want to be in a tornado. Prevention could also be to stay at home and watch Dr. Phil for other life safety tips. My post was to ask about encounters from others that dive/fish and don't live there life in a fall out shelter.

Thanks,
paul

[Rig Magician]

I live in south Louisiana and there has been reports of water spouts picking boats up out of the water. It was drilled into my head as a kid to get the hell out of the area as fast as possible or run your boat on ground if it is to close. I work offshore on drilling rigs and have had them hit the rig. not a big one, but when they get cut in half they do clean the deck of good with all the water falling down. this has happen once and that was enough for me.

[PatMyGreen]

I don't remember who, but someone on the board drove their boat thru one. I believe that someone else on the board was an onlooker and verified the story.

[gulfdiver]

gulfdiver1

Why did you choose your screan name so close to one that alreday exist?

[drsmileybee]

It felt like to me that all of the wind was pulling in the waterspouts direction. It would be hard to judge how far away we were but we were not far enough. Patrick, did yall go out on Friday? We decided to leave early that AM. This trip had good diving but no fish. They all were undersize and was not a normal event for us. Most of the time we bring back a few AJ's, Snappers, and maybe some Groupers. Not this time! Mike from the Airforce Base was going out with us on Wed. night but we decided not to because we took a beating all day long and it seemed that the winds were picking up. Have you been to span 17? We went to it and found only bridge rubble. Do you know if that is all that there is? Jeremy came with us one day and showed us some free shafting skills. He showed up with 5 shafts and came back with 3. I am not man enough or wealthy enough for free shafting just yet. I like my string. On the other hand we showed him how great of spearfishing men we are by not finding any fish worth shooting. I just don't know what the deal was!

see ya,
paul

[Old Bateman]

I posted a reply to Shooter Dan's waterspout story.
http://www.spearboard.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8051&highlight=waterspout
We drove our boat through one several times.

[drsmileybee]

Some folks just are not right. Thanks for the link Old Bateman.

[Rig Magician]

gulfdiver
Sorry to have invaded the holy screenname ground. the problem is being rectum fyed as soon as Scott return.

[Old Bateman]

Here's one that was trying to form as we were leaving John's pass . Didn't quite reach the water, or I would have given Diver Dave and Frizeeshizaft a nice ride!

[fishspearit]

Not trying to make light of waterspouts, but I've always read that even though they're the same low pressure, cyclonic, freak of nature that a tornado is, they don't usually cause anywhere near the same damage or carry the same winds as the land version. That being said, I was riding out a near miss of a hurricane in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas once, sustained winds about 50 mph, and a steady stream of waterspouts rolling into the harbor. In between blackouts of rain, I looked over at an anchored trawler nearby that was trailing a 16' Boston Whaler w/large engine behind their boat. Whaler got flipped upside down. Still floating of course, but seeing that happen gave me a pretty healthy respect for the spouts.

[Jdub]

Got caught in a really nasty storm last year scalloping in Homosassa. Had three water spouts pop up, I managed to get a decent pic of one of them before making the run to down the river. We waiting a little to long and got nailed with heavy rain and lightning like you wouldn't believe.

http://home.earthlink.net/~jdub28/fishing/Scalloping/web/images/MVC-015F_JPG.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~jdub28/fishing/Scalloping/web/images/MVC-016F_JPG.jpg

[f94gator]

Old Bateman,

You're one crazy dude.

[Wet Spot]

We seem to get chased by them all of the time in the Gulf. Have really good video if I could figure out how to put in on computer... Saw one dip down right behind us and turn into a double earlier this year.

[PatMyGreen]

Old Bateman's link up above is the one I mentioned earlier and I believe the same one you are talknig about as well. Cool avatar BTW.

[fishkilla]

me intowin and oldbateman (the owners of the Holy Spear-It) went through a waterspout in the bay about 6 years ago. we drove through it five times before it dissapeared. it's no lie