re: Where were you when you heard about the Deep Water Horizon explosion

In the shower. Wife came in and told me a drilling rig named Horizon exploded. I landed there on the way in two weeks prior, knew they were drilling for BP. I jumped out of the shower to get to my computer. Sold the shares I had in BP stock....completely naked. Found out when I flew to work that afternoon that they hadn't accounted for everyone. Felt like a real POS. Watched it burn from ten miles away till it sank.

I was 16nm away tuna fishing at a rig we called Horn Mountain. We arrived at the DWH @1020pm and stayed until 3:45am assisting in rescue efforts. I believe we reached Port in Orange Beach around 10:30am today. It was @115nm return trip. My boat held 260 gallons on gas and when I filled it back up I put 247 gallons. On the way in We had another mayday call (vessel on fire) on the way in that were not able to assist due to not having enough fuel to go help. Fortunately there was another boat close enough to come to their aid

It is hard to describe how massive the fire was, the rig is 300' high over the water and the size of a city block. Just massive and being on the water made it even scarier.

They, the crew were fortunate that the seas and currents were very calm that night, 2' or less. IMO There would have been many more fatalities if the seas were rocking.

I have never released video and still pictures from that night that I plan to upload and share soon.