Meet Brian Williamson
Meet Brian Williamson of Morro Bay. Brian started sport fishing as a child and loved it some much he decided to make fishing his job. New regulations have made once highly valued permits worthless, to compensate for this loss Brian invested in another boat with a crab permit, hoping it will pay off in the long run.
Back in 2002 Brian had one of those trips where everything is going well, the weather and the catch. Well that all changed once he made it north of Pt. Purisma. Below Purisma the weather was absolutely gorgeous, as soon as he made it around the point, someone flipped the weather switch, and good went to horrible. He decided to anchor up for the night and hope that the weather would lie down in the morning. He hoped this would make it easier on his fish. Brian was fishing for “live fish” on this trip. Rock fish are landed alive and placed in a “live tank” of salt water to be kept alive. The weather the next morning did not lie down, but Brian needed to unload his fish.
He slowly headed north and very shortly his rudder bearing went out. Now fishermen are known for their “duct tape it together ‘till we hit port” style of repairs. True to form, Brian packed the bearing with poly rope and continued on. Shortly thereafter his engine began to overheat. Brian shut down the engine and drifted while he made his repairs. The wind continued to blow and the swells came up. Brian fired the boat back up and continued on. Now the rope packing came out of the rudder bearing. Taking into account the conditions, Brian decided that it was time to call the Coast Guard; it was just too dangerous to limp on. The Coast Guard pulled him into Avila (Port San Luis).
Once he made it back to port, Brian had discovered he had missed his buyer. The buyer had promised to return at midnight, in the mean time cold, wet and exhausted Brian crawled into his bunk for some sleep. While he was sleeping his wife had brought him some food and dry clothes. When she went to the ladder to board the boat she discovered that a raccoon was fishing in the live tank. Sheri could not wake Brian by yelling at him, so she began pelting the raccoon with the fried chicken that was Brian’s dinner. The raccoon took offense and charged up the ladder at her. Sheri backed up and hit her head on the unloading davit. A young man who had been fishing off the pier stepped into help her out by running off the raccoon.
When Brian awoke from his nap he realized two things; one the Coast Guard can be a real help and two, Sheri really doesn’t like raccoons.