...having a drunk dumbass at the wheel can spell potential disaster.
Two friends and I went fishing on a clear, calm day out by the oil rigs off Dauphin Island about two years ago in a 19' Wellcraft Step V. We were about 8-10 miles out. We had a great day fishing, caught about 30 mahi mahi in the grass line, 3 lemon fish under the grass line, and a couple of Kings. The owner of the boat and I were sitting in the back drinking some Corona's while our drunk dumbass friend was piloting the boat back to Ocean Springs. After what seemed to be a VERY LONG time, longer than necessary, I looked at the position of the late evening sun, and quickly determined we were not heading northwest toward Ocean Springs, but were heading southwest toward the mouth of the Mississippi River. Further, the gas guage was reading close less than 1/4 of a tank. It took 45 minutes and siting the Chandelieur Islands to the northwest to convince our drunk dumbass pilot he was wrong. He finally turned the boat back toward the Ship Island/Horn Island Pass. It took another hour to get to Ocean Springs, and I swear we were on fumes when we got there. It doesn't take much bad judgment to get people in trouble on the open sea.