When it was my turn in the barrel....I did so knowing there was no way I would even consider making the flight until daylight and even then with the possibility of not doing so if the weather was unsatisfactory. Very few of the pilots differed from that view.
Entirely agree - this is why I mentioned GOM press-on-itis.
The same (deceased) Captain also accepted tasking for a 412 to fly from Escravos to Delta South Platform at 0200 on a very stormy night several months earlier to pick up a man with an upset stomach. I was the duty Night Pilot with a loosely nominated co-pilot. We had both been flying all the previous day. He had not attempted to wake the co pilot and said he would come with me as my co pilot instead. He had not bothered to inform the Duty Engineer, Duty Air Traffic or Refueler so we were the only 2 en route to the heliport.
I informed him that he was "out of his tree" since the Delta South deck is an obstructed 25 feet by 25 feet maximum and I was not going there under any circumstances. I suggested moving the sick person by boat to Okan and we could do the pick up from there when ATC and the Engineer had arrived.
He proceeded to untie a Bell 407 and launch off into the storm on his own.
He returned 50 minutes later visibly shaken with an even more shaken passenger who probably decided never to report to the sick bay ever again.
I reported the incident to Senior Airlog Management - (I use that term loosely for the people in those days - things have happily changed) who chose to ignore the report.