What astonishes me is all the comments applauding how great the skipper was. It looked to me more like reckless idiocy, not good seamanship. Risking the lives of his crew like that was the height oh irresponsibility.

Regardless of how uncomfortable it was or how badly they had to be at work the next day, he should have waited it out in deep water. As my father taught me loooong ago, good seamanship consists largely in avoiding situations that will require good seamanship to get out of.