Real Offshore Fishing in a SeaCraft

[peterb]

If you read EagleOCNJ's post about transducers it sounds like he fishes near the Flemish Cap.

All kidding aside, I would guess that this is for canyon fishing in his 23' footer. For those of you not familiar with the NJ shore contour the canyons are a 70 to 100+ mile ride (depending upon where you leaving from and where you are going)?

I have taken my 23 footer out as far as the Chicken Canyon (about 50 miles offshore and not really a canyon like the real canyons). This led me to thinking up the following questions?

1. How far do you take out your SeaCraft?
2. For any real offshore ventures what precautions are you taking? Example, include float plans, watching the weather reports, time of year, redundancy of critical components on your boat, and special emergency precautions such as life rafts, survival suits, EPIRB's and etc.
3. If you do take your SeaCraft to a place like the canyons is it for a day trip only or will you do an over nighter?
4. I have a 150 tank (actually 1 100 gallon and 1 50 gallon tank) capacity. This gives me a 225 to 275 mile range. In my mind this is not enough for a canyon trip. Hence I would need to carry extra gas (I would like 50 gallons to be on the safe side). What would be the best wway to accomplish this?

Peter