So here goes a wild Metallica story that I thought I would share with the Metallica family here, and the band quite possibly fueled the adrenaline needed to help save my own life, and my three friends that were with me.

We had been on a friend's boat offshore fishing for red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico about 30 miles out, we started at 55 and came back into 30 to try a new spot, so fuel was getting toward a concerning level for our boat.

We were trying to get our last two fish, and out of nowhere this absolutely insane black mess of clouds began forming in the west and seemed to be coming toward our vessel. Weather forecast did not predict this, and it was basically a flash squall, near hurricane conditions. We quickly hauled anchor and began preparations to be underway, hoping we could outrun this storm on our way into shore. No cellphone reception past 4 miles, so it was impossible to see this nasty squall forming.

We began to haul ass over what started as 1-2 foot seas, then the storm began to came. Yours truly had the brilliant idea to turn on Master of Puppets once the air began to rapidly cool, pressure dropping, and winds beginning to increase.

This was indeed, the "ohhhhhhh SH\*" moment...*

This adrenaline shot was quite needed as the squall quickly turned into 10-12 foot seas, and 15-20 foot waves. Keep in mind, in a 22 foot boat, this is absolutely terrifying, difficult to maneuver around the boat. It's like trying to tie your shoe on a roller coaster. There is a strong possibility of the boat cap-sizing at this point, not to mention taking water over the bow which can sink the boat as well. Winds gusted up to 60 mph, and the rain and salt spray were so intense you couldn't open your eyes longer than a split second. We had to wear sunglasses just to see our heading and hopefully navigate each wave without sinking the vessel.

My task as the first mate of the trip was to quickly run to the front of the boat and grab lifejackets for the crew, the two in the back were inexperienced and could not get to the lifejackets at all. I listened to the thunderous pounding of Cliff's bass, James' screaming and assaulting the E string, and I went into an adrenaline-fueled effort to help save my friends. I rushed to the safety box with all of my might and slammed my kneecaps a few times, but got to where I needed to be!

Normally, I would have panicked like hell I'd think, and damn near have crapped myself during this Hollywood-like near-death scenario, but some good old Metallica thrash adrenaline allowed me to say "f*** fear, f*** dying, and don't be a pansy and help save yourself and your friends."

We powered through these awful conditions for almost 3 hours before reaching land (in that rough of seas, could only go 10 mph tops), which I kissed the ground upon disembarking, and was shedding a couple of happy tears that I would be alive to hug my son once again.

We were hailing the US Coast Guard during the worst of it, unfortunately we also had low fuel, we were all saying our prayers, and of course scared for our lives but we persevered. I feel like the Metallica adrenaline is the only thing that had my head on a swivel and able to overcome that initial shock of fear and despair. The Thing That Should Not Be played right afterwards, ironic...."lurkiinnnnggggg beneath the sea!!!"

The phone, even though in a waterproof case, had the battery died so no more bluetooth audio for the nautical hell.

I'm not exaggerating this at all, my first near-death experience, and Papa Het and friends helped fuel the fire needed to get lifesaving equipment for my friends, hail the Coast Guard on the radio (luckily they were not needed), get out the EPIRB (radio beacon used for emergency distress signal), and help spot "rollers" (dangerous port/starboard waves that can flip the boat over) so that the captain would navigate them.

This squall was so sudden and quick, vessels capsized, people were missing for long periods of time, and one person is still unaccounted for three days later which is very sad indeed.

Hope you guys enjoyed the story, here is a link from another boat that video recorded the squall 15 miles out, keep in mind that we were 30 miles out and the waves were twice as high as the video.

Video of the squall taken by different boat

Picture of weather radar