Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum Perdido pass jetty crash

I learned a valuable lesson today.
I live about an hour from the coast and my wife and 18 month love going to the beach. I do not. I love being on the water in our boat but hate the beach. she finally convinced me to go today. 1st time in a few years. We were sitting about half way between the bridge and the jetty and though I missed the crash, I witnessed the aftermath and tried to help the fellow. 23’ish older Grady with a merc 200 something on it tried to shoot the gap between the jetty and beach. The motor was knocked completely off the boat and ripped big beautiful holes where the motor mount bolts were. For those that don’t know the area the east jetty has a good portion of it underwater on high tide and on an west bound approach I can see where it would look like it was a channel though the makers clearly show the channel. Old buddy was coming from Pensacola and I believe he said had never been through perdido pass before. The captain was not intoxicated that I or the marine police could tell. They did haul one of them to jail for something. Don’t know what as I had gone back to where me and my wife were. 3 men and a 4-5 month pregnant lady on board. It had the potential to be really really tragic. I don’t have any pics because I wasn’t about to pull my phone out to take pictures with what was going on. The boat was washed up against the shore pretty quickly even with the motor still hanging on by the cables and wires. Two of them and myself tried to get the motor up on the beach but when a wave hit the boat and it hit the motor and nearly got mine and his feet under it and cut the piss out of two of my fingers I backed out of it. I’ve made bad choices and decisions on the water as have most here, but until today I have never been one on one with the aftermath of taking a risk or making a bad decision on the water. It was rough as hell today and watching that big of a boat Nearly on its side with men scrambling to get essentials off of it really gave me a new respect for the power of the water we all enjoy. Y’all just be careful. It’s fun and I love it but as we all know demands the upmost respect.

What a moron. I wish I still had pics of the 65 footer Tar Baby that missed the pass to the east years ago. He put her right thru the east pass too. Sunk her down. Was a nice pretty boat.

Good post.

Adding water to a situation can multiply the consequences of a mistake. Be careful guys.

None of that area is for inexperienced boaters or experienced boaters not familiar with the waters.

Hell Atleast that captain was drunk and I believe on autopilot with that. This fellow just gave it a full send. When I asked him how fast he was going he replied “wide @$$ open”

Hahaha. I bet it knocked the piss out of em.

Was the pregnant lady ok?

I didn’t talk to her but her husband I assume was checking on her really well. She seemed fine. Sad thing is is he was who went to jail after they searched a bag. Everyone was ok best I could tell. They were really lucky is what they were.

Best I could tell that transom was not very old. I pulled bolts washers and all though except for one. It was definitely a good lick.

This is the path he was attempting to take.

I wouldn’t have known part of the jetty was under water. Dang.

I said beach but there are rocks there are just not very many. What you said here is the point of my post. You don’t know what you don’t know. So if you don’t know or aren’t sure stop and make sure. Head out a quarter mile or so and look at the big picture. Be aware of your surroundings. Don’t assume anything. F-ups are easy. Mistakes don’t mean people are stupid and thankfully this one didn’t cost anyone their life.

I partially sunk a jet ski out there about 20 years ago and i found some of those rocks (i went right over them) i was holding onto the ski trying to wade back to shore, while it was bobbing like a damn cork 😳

Glad no one was killed

What an idiot we usually stay a week at the Perdido Beach resort on the west side of the pass its pretty freaking obvious looking out over the water

From a condo or from a boat running in rough water?

How many times a year do you make that pass in a boat you’re in control of? My guess is none.

from the other side at water level hell you can see the bottom it dont take a GPS chartplotter to see where the deepest part is and pay attention the buoys you keep red on the right on return he passed with red to the left there is a green buoy on the west jetty and a red one on the east it aint rocket science.

Is this how you get to Zeke's from the ocean?

Yup