Got invited today by my friend junior and some new guy to go hit some spots around Fajardo today. We hit a spot were junior had seen some lobsters and a few samas last week, so I wanted to try the riffe m\t2s that i bought a while back and left my ''custom'' 120 in the boat. There was nothing really big in that spot plus the current was really strong so we decided to try another spot close to ''Cayo Largo'' known to hold some nice hogs. On the way back to the boat I spot a large shape at the end of vis which was like 25f in 40fsw. It turned out to be a big ass cuda like in the 80# range probably the biggest one i seen. Inmediately I wished I had the bigger gun but anyway I dove and leveled and tried to get as close as possible and fired the shot. Hit that monster right in the middle of the gill plate but the shaft did not even go past the flopper :0. So ''se fue con la chola ardiendo''. Anyhow we got back to the boat and moved to the next spot. Since the first one was cleaned up we decided that j.r check it first and then we jump in or move. Since j.r kept going and didn't say anything I decided to jump in and check it out myself. The place was full of big parrots but no hogs, samas and only small lobster. I went back to the boat only to find the new guy seasick sitting in the transom so I jumped in the boat and waited for j.r to decide our next move while sitting in the stern taking my gear off we didn't noticed that the rubber boot that seals the splash well hole where the steering cable comes out of the hull was torn and water was getting in the bilge real fast combined with our weight in the back and the building seas the boat started to take even more water. We went to the front of the boat and noticed the water in the bilge so I told the new guy to start the bilge pump and I called j.r who was coming back and started to bail water. When j.r came close I told him to check the bottom of the hull for a crack or something since we'd checked the drain plug and was still in place but he found nothing. He got in the boat and tried starting the boat to no avail so he started bailing but the situation stated to get worse so I told him to better start calling someone real fast, meanwhile I started to put my gear back on in case we had to swim back to shore. There were no boats around us to signal for help. I tied a big round buoy to 50' of line so we could locate the boat in case it sank .Stuff started floating around when I noticed between the gas tank and bottom of rear deck the water coming thru so I told the new guy to stuff a rag in the hole left by the torn rubber boot. Meanwhile j.r got in touch with the maritime police and they were on their way along with Sea Tow. We started gaining ground since we had discovered where the water was coming thru as the maritime police got there. They collected all our valuables in case we got swamped but we kept bailing cause we were trying to save the boat. I looked funny bailing water with an ice chest in full gear minus wetsuit and gun, hell I even had my fins on... <img src= " class="smiley" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x" height="23" width="23" loading="eager" data-tooltip="biggrin" aria-label="biggrin"> Sea tow got there but we were winning the battle with the water and just waited until we got the water out and only jump started us. So we picked up anchor and chased the maritime police to get our gear back at the dock. So thanks God we were able to save the boat 
and proceeded to take it out only to snap a leafspring on the trailer on the way out:angry5: but thats another story.............
Sorry no pics camera got wet:(
May you dive for many more years.
