I'm a Little Nervous

Portage_Bay said:

Depoe Bay has a well deserved reputation for being a difficult entrance. And once in you won't find a lot of dock space available.

Charlie's Charts US Pacific Coast is a very good resource for cruising the west coast and has this to say about Depoe Bay

"Unless you are very familiar with this entrance do not enter in rough weather or at night even though flood lights illuminate the passage to the inner basin. There is a dangerous surge in the narrow, curved 15m (50 ft) wide entrance. The vessel must wait for a period of smoother waves when entering to avoid being pushed onto the rocks on the south side. Then in order to pass under the bridge into the harbor apply power to avoid the surge effects"

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Wifey B: We don't do inlets at night if not very easy ones we're very familiar with. Not even with night vision. We'll do Port Everglades but not many more.

On the Oregon Coast, the Coast Guard is always there to advise you on conditions.

Gbinterim said:

That’s better than 4 cups of coffee in the morning. If that doesn’t get the blood flowing nothing will.

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It would get most fluids flowing, solids too .
CG seemed to wait for a lull to go for it. I was watching for another method, getting on the back of a wave and staying there. My only experience of this kind of bar was a long while ago in smaller boats,we used the "get on and stay on" the back of a wave method.

Any idea how the tide was running at the time of that video? I certainly hope that wasn't slack tide!

Logically if people are shooting video they climbed up there for a show when it was extremely windy. I highly doubt on a regular tuesday it would be all that difficult..

I certainly lack the skills to navigate under those conditions..

Also saw a recent thread about removing a high hp engine to replace it thinking they just need 60 hp to move the boat at hull speed. Bet they'd want more in this situation.

Wxx3 said:

Lastly, I still don't understand what the captain of that boat was thinking. He didn't use his power or rudder when he should have.

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That was my thought as well as I watched it, but then I've never gone through there on a boat and don't know that boat so I figure I just must be missing something. Watching it, I kept thinking he needed to apply more power and rudder to keep the wave from pushing his stern to starboard.

Mrwesson said:

Also saw a recent thread about removing a high hp engine to replace it thinking they just need 60 hp to move the boat at hull speed. Bet they'd want more in this situation.

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It was not me that made that post.

And the skipper that did make that post would likely not have Depot Bay on their list of places to visit by sea. There isn't a lot of space in the bay for visitors either.

Just like navigating in general, being aware of the environment one is traveling into and taking prudent action based on that awareness will keep one out of problems on a extremely high percentage of the time. Operating a vessel in an unaware condition always leads to excitement with high percentage of a negative outcome. And a sure way to attract attention. Call it the "car wreck" syndrome.

Unlike those in the vid at least wear a life jacket.

There's art and a science to running inlets, and this is neither.

No need to be nervous

Make her come out to see you

Not gonna be one of our spots to cross on our trip south. We crossed that one off the list after seeing just how narrow the opening is. Newport is 90 minutes south and much larger opening.

Hope you have clean underwear, as adrenaline is brown.........

But seriously.....why even contemplating to risk it? Good seamanship is also waging all pro's and cons....and are you alone or endangering the lives of those on board? No thank you!

First the OP said "had a girlriend" so assuming no existing ties to the location I would skip it. If I had friend or family there I would gladly pay any reasonable or perhaps unreasonable cost (Uber, rental, taxi) to avoid that entrance. If a local captain and the CG are challenged that tells me all I need to know.

Crusty Chief said:

Not gonna be one of our spots to cross on our trip south. We crossed that one off the list after seeing just how narrow the opening is. Newport is 90 minutes south and much larger opening.

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You're actually at their upper size limit too as boats over 50' can't enter without a special waiver from the harbormaster and then only at high tide.

During good conditions and in the right boat, the Inlet can be benign. However, not to put down Depoe Bay as I'm sure it's a fine place, but I just don't see the attraction justifying wondering if you will be able to enter. The one thing there is the whale watching center but then you're in a boat so already have better access.

When we traveled down the Oregon coast, we selected what we felt were the best inlets in advance and so didn't push to any we weren't comfortable with.

I've pretty much talked myself out of it.
Which is pretty amazing as I do like to push myself.
In this case, I just see downsides, with little up, since I'm sure Dauntless and I can do it, so there is no sense of accomplishment in it.

We ran out of there for almost 30 years, the last obat was 30'. Never had an issue. Both boats in those clips did the same thing wrong, got on the front of the wave. The Captain of the charter boat was fired when he tied up. That was in violation of running Depot Bay 101 instructions. Can't wait to run our new 40' in there

I should add that I ran with an experienced skipper the first first few times to learn the technique. I would not want to encourage anyone to blindly go in there without instruction.

Double trouble said:

I should add that I ran with an experienced skipper the first first few times to learn the technique. I would not want to encourage anyone to blindly go in there without instruction.

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Thanks DT for the update.
Yes. I hardly post videos here, yet was struck by how incompetent that skipper seemed.
Also, besides the obvious of surfing in on the front of a wave, I've learned to be patient and willingly make a 360° to better align the boat, if while waiting, we get pushed off line.

The Kadey Krogen, with her big rudder, can do a 180° in less than 2 boat lenghts, < 90'.

Backing and filling, I can turn around in about one boat length without my bow thruster that I broke in 2015.