Lon Wagner: The six men weren't going far. Just out between the islands of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, where they'd caught three stripers the day before.
They'd towed their boat all the way from Arizona for five years now, old friends who worked together at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A few times, they'd skipped a day for rough seas. Even that morning, they'd waited for the wind to slacken.
But 10 minutes out of the marina, they already were in trouble. The January wind tore in from the northwest, whipping up seas that pounded their 18-foot outboard.
"We're taking on too much water!" someone shouted.
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