My worst day wasn't as bad as the others but it was full of adventure none the less...We (me and Wheedog) started our morning with a warning from another guy at the ramp that with the full moon we were going to see a lot of water moving that day. After about 45 min of trying to get the motor to his 19 footer started, we were off. We were launching at deception pass, and for a first timer there that was scary enough with all the boiling water under the bridge. By the time we got to the straight between Lopez and San Juan we found ourselves in waves of moving water about 4-6 feet high. The boat would get on the backside of one of these waves and would almost kill the engine. Once we got over it we would zip down the front side like a water slide. There was no path out of it. We saw a sailboat up against the coast of San Juan with it's front end dashing below the water in these waves.
After getting though this we found our trolling water. We got nothing but a couple dog fish until I was nearly knocked on my a$$ when I was reeling in a dog fish and a 100 lb + halibut decided to come up and take a look at what we had. The sight of a sandy colored fish that was at least 4 feet wide was more than I was expecting. It came up three times and we got a great look at it.
On our way back to the ramp we noticed alot of boats in a long line. We were wondering what they were doing until about 50 yds in front of us 4 orcas surfaced in front of us. We stopped the engines and steered away from a pond of maybe 10 whales. The whale watchers were not too happy with us I'm sure.
We soon realized why they call it "Deception' pass. We were on "E" and a prayer. We knew we had only minutes left of fuel. After trying a few inlets, we finally found the right one.
Like I said, nothing tragic, but we spent mos the day either on edge or recovering from our recent adventure.