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Old 08-12-2015, 07:34 AM   #15
caltexflanc
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City: North Carolina for now
Join Date: Aug 2011
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry M View Post
Hobo's FD. This picture was taken from a jet ski as we were crossing a river bar at high slack. We were at WOT as the waves passed underneath us. More speed I think would have added more excitement. You didn't want to get sideways no matter how fast you were going.
That looks like very benign conditions; I'd love to have that with every bar crossing and inlet entrance. It's when the waves start to approach your freeboard (or even half way with a wide flat ass boat like the Hatteras) that the pucker factor should kick in.

An additional issue with inlets of course, is that they are narrow, and narrower yet with boat traffic coming in and out (or as they like to do in the Carolinas, guys fishing in the middle of the channel). So tacking or turning around is almost never an option. Slack before flood being the best time, anything with "ebb" in it to be avoided, the more ebb the worse, all multiplied many times over if the wind is against the tidal current. If the inlet is the "outlet" to a significant river system (Columbia, Golden Gate, Caper Fear for instance) is another amplifying factor. Note that we are referring to the current not the tide height stage.

Another example of "the most dangerous thing you can have on a boat is a schedule". Unless your schedule takes these factors into account.
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