I was wondering why I hadn't seen some questions from PBers until I remembered this Board.
Story sure is fishy. Think the guy does not want to appear more foolish than he was. Or maybe insurance questions.
Having made those runs both to Cat and to Newport so many times, here's my version: the man leaves MDR and he is heading for his first waypoint off Pt. Vicente on autopilot. Remember he says he is heading to Newport. He feels engines bog down, some drag. May be fuel filter, air filter, or maybe a lobster trap, or more likely a hoop set-up left out there, or maybe nothing. I've been hooked around the outdrive twice by abandoned or runaway hoops.
You would think he would shutdown right away, but he may have kept running so that the trap line, if that what was causing the drag feeling, would be up and out away from the boat and he could see it. He opens transom door and steps out on the swimstep (first photos of boat from air show transom door open). He attached a line to a cleat to hold onto, sort ersatz safety line. Maybe he had a hoopnet or an illegal trap (plenty of those out there). Maybe he tried to cut it. In either case, swell throws him off balance and in he goes. Drag is too great for him to hold onto the line (remember he claims he grabbed hold of a trailing line; some ragboaters have that but a yacht???.) The boat going in circles and then straightening out direct to Cat!!! - sorry, I can't buy that. He was on autopilot. And now he is emotionally wrestling, according to LA Times story, whether to retire or continue his legal career of defending sexually abused children, LMAO. Yeh, he made all that money defending sexually abused children. That the dude has a strong will to live and is a class A survivor - for certain.
Fish the Tides - Freddie