[Fr. Frank]

The only fuel you did have was the Parish Vino...running the inlet with a 25' Robalo breaking 20' ....who you bullchiting Father

Nope, no kidding Chuck, it was breaking 20 or more. It seemed like it was even bigger at the time. I was about 15 or 16 years old, and not at the helm, just a passenger, along with a couple of other friends, on one their dad's boat. It seemed like Capt. George rode the back of the same wave from more than 1/4 mile out.

I clearly remember being down in the trough looking up at waves that towered way high over the T-top. That kind of Nor'easter is why Jupiter Inlet is the 9th most dangerous inlet in the USA. Every year they'll get one or two storms where the break on the bar straight out from the inlet is straight out of a nightmare.

Back in the early '84, I remember a seventy-something foot Broward broaching and nearly capsizing in Jupiter Inlet in just such a storm. They hit their running gear on the second bar in the trough between swells and lost steering.

Chuck, you live near there, would you try to shoot Jupiter in a 30 knot N'East squall line? I won't. My friend Kevin's dad George said we didn't have the fuel to go to Lake Worth or St. Lucie. I believed him. We made it in. Exciting memories of a very scary experience.