Off-season cruising doesn't get better than this

Vacant anchorages, open docks, and amazing winter scenery and wildlife. Gotta love it.
Sure you might have to wait for weather windows, but well worth it. Cheers to all you die hards who actually use your boats this time of year! Looking forward to winter blackmouth fishing!

Here's a pic I snapped today as we were heading out onto the Chesapeake Bay with the boat covered in snow from the storm we had Friday evening & yesterday.
I just installed a 16000 BTU engine driven heater last weekend so we could comfortably stretch our boating season as long as possible. I won't winterize the engine until a serious freeze is forecast. Most of the other systems will get pickled this week if I get time.
Just as you remarked,there wasn't another boat to be seen!
I only wish a damn Iphone wouldn't flip the pictures like they do.

boomerang said:

Here's a pic I snapped today as we were heading out onto the Chesapeake Bay with the boat covered in snow from the storm we had Friday evening & yesterday.
I just installed a 16000 BTU engine driven heater last weekend so we could comfortably stretch our boating season as long as possible. I won't winterize the engine until a serious freeze is forecast. Most of the other systems will get pickled this week if I get time.
Just as you remarked,there wasn't another boat to be seen!
I only wish a damn Iphone wouldn't flip the pictures like they do.

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Snow on the deck, nice!

boomerang said:

Here's a pic I snapped today as we were heading out onto the Chesapeake Bay with the boat covered in snow from the storm we had Friday evening & yesterday.
I just installed a 16000 BTU engine driven heater last weekend so we could comfortably stretch our boating season as long as possible. I won't winterize the engine until a serious freeze is forecast. Most of the other systems will get pickled this week if I get time.
Just as you remarked,there wasn't another boat to be seen!
I only wish a damn Iphone wouldn't flip the pictures like they do.

Click to expand...

I can remember a cold Dec. 10th while running down the Chesapeake from Baltimore to Norfolk. We were buttoned up running the heat in our then Mainship 34 Pilot hard top. A thermos of hot coffee was a good accompaniment. We saw only ships and commercial vessels.

I did learn something on that trip. If you do any night running, watch out to distinguish navigation lights from Christmas lights.

Thanks for the thread. Off season cruising can be some of the best.

jhance said:

Vacant anchorages, open docks, and amazing winter scenery and wildlife. Gotta love it.
Sure you might have to wait for weather windows, but well worth it. Cheers to all you die hards who actually use your boats this time of year! Looking forward to winter blackmouth fishing!

Click to expand...

Hi

100% same thik, I like to best time cruising out of season spring and autumn (Actual four seasons). It is peaceful and everywhere there is plenty of space. The last 10-day cruise in October we only saw one boat on the move, I think it's cool to be sure to be scary ... unfortunately this winter started and the next year when ice get melt of the sea.







NBs

"Off season?"

That's because all the boats were fishing in the Mid-Atlantic Rockfish Shootout!

menzies said:

"Off season?"

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Yup...there's no such thing as boating season as long as there's ice free water

Wifey B: No off season. Now, I live in FLL, but even when we lived in NC we'd put all the canvas up and go out on the lake. Nothing more beautiful than to be on the lake when it was snowing. You'd see beautiful paintings by mother nature. On land you never have much chance to see undisturbed snow. Cars drive through. People walk through. But on the lake side you would, only occasional footprints and most of those were animals.

Now, we had bad months that over the four weekends, we might only have three days really comfy for boating, but taking advantage of those three days, they meant so much. Made them three great days.

Winter in NC is one of my fave times on the water. No one out but oystermen and hard core fishermen. The colors are very different. The water is usually super clear. No boat wakes (or very few).

And the bus heater makes it toasty!!

Many times been out with snow on the foredeck.

North Baltic - is that your private dock? Beautiful area.

Ski in NC said:

Winter in NC is one of my fave times on the water. No one out but oystermen and hard core fishermen. The colors are very different. The water is usually super clear. No boat wakes (or very few).

And the bus heater makes it toasty!!

Many times been out with snow on the foredeck.

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Wifey B: Wilmington a bit warmer than Lake Norman, however. We were working five days a week, but still in looking back at Sea Time records, we never spent fewer than 3 days boating in any month. We averaged (and these are days where we boated more than 4 hours so don't count the hour or two hour days) 7 days in Oct, 4 days in Nov, 3 in Dec, 3 in Jan, 4 in Feb, and 5 in March. That's 26 days and we knew lots of people who didn't boat 26 days in a year.

Nothing more wonderful when you're working hard and it's cold and dreary over the winter and you're feeling cooped up that finding that day you can get out on the boat and just be in heaven on the water. All to yourself except for a few brave bass fishermen. You laugh as you see them wrapped up in layers and layers of clothes and still shivering as they zoom by and you're warm and toasty and just enjoying time on the water.

January and February were tough months for us. Cold. For me as a teacher, starting back after the holidays when kids somehow could forget more in two weeks than imaginable and were suffering from not being able to be outside more and no holidays. For hubby, it was year end and annual reports and SEC plus taxes and IRS and all the things a public company deals with. Amazing how much of all that a day here and there on the water could relieve.

Fletcher500 said:

North Baltic - is that your private dock? Beautiful area.

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Not my private doging, a commercial that is closed because it is no longer a season. Here's my home doging always stern above the berth.


The highest season for only 2-3 months and boats can take about 6 months if cold is not a criterion. if you want even longer period of time you will need to ice beraker Hull.

NBs



Baltic sea is not tide

No off-season here (SF Bay/Delta/Esturary) except for the rare storm.

Moonstruck said:

I can remember a cold Dec. 10th while running down the Chesapeake from Baltimore to Norfolk. We were buttoned up running the heat in our then Mainship 34 Pilot hard top. A thermos of hot coffee was a good accompaniment....

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Don,knowing your interest in music I immediately thought of these lines from "I`ve got my love to keep me Warm":
"I can't remember a worst December
Just you watch those icicles fall
What do I care if those icicles fall
I've got my love to keep me warm"
Ella Fitzgerald recorded it, very well, but I`m not finding who wrote it.So far. I`ll bet you know.
Edit: Found it, Irving Berlin.

Winter cruising is quiet in so many ways. The speed boats are gone, anchorages I normally avoid are empty, and the only fishermen are commercial and usually professional mariners. Besides they see a yacht and avoid me like the plague.

MurrayM said:

Yup...there's no such thing as boating season as long as there's ice free water

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Exactly! It's worth it to me using an an extra case or 2 of antifreeze each year to winterize & unwinterize the engine so as to be able to grab a few extra hours of boating throughout the winter months!

Ski in NC said:

And the bus heater makes it toasty!!

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You know it! One of the most useful options ever.