I was there for the 4 days just previous to the incident and we were on the road out of fair harbour when this incident took place. We experienced the exact same conditions 13 miles out on the Friday before this happened (6 -8 foot NW swell with 3 foot SE wind waves, 30 - 35 SE winds torrential downpours of horizontal rain and zero visibility). Felt like being in a washing machine and being tossed in every direction. While we never felt unsafe, we also knew that if conditions got any worse we could have been in for a tougher trip coming back in than we had. One of the boats in our crew dodged a bullet being out there. He has a 20 foot ctr console. It rained so hard that the electronics got soaked, his VHF microphone quit working and he could no longer transmit and no one knew exactly where he was. On the trip in from the 13 mile bank, there was not a lot of witty banter between the crew......Not only that, but on a gas trip into fair harbour, his hydraulic steering had a fitting let loose and he lost all steering. Fortunately he was only 50 feet from the dock when it happened.
We are now going to to a much better job of staying with each other when we are out in the less optimal conditions and maintaining radio connection through MMSI, DSC. PFD's will also be worn and everyone on board will know how to operate the VHF and GPS to get coordinates out as quickly as possible. Personally I run overkill on safety equipment (including 6 person liferaft), but I think maybe it may be giving a false sense of security. Having it all on board and using it properly are not necessarily in synch.
This incident gives me something more to learn from.
As a footnote, there were no fish in close to shore and the only place where the fishing was reliable was at the 50 fathom mark (between 12 and 15 miles offshore). This is when the more risky behaviour becomes more commonplace and we take these chances. I want to make sure my epitaph does NOT say "he was looking for bigger fish"...........