Re: Boating the Upper Chesapeake
Sorry to hear we weren't the only ones who had a rough day. The little guy is okay...bruised and scraped, but no real harm done. Judging by his reaction when his chin came down, my first thought was he'd broken his jaw. It was just a horrible, overwhelming sense of dread as I raced forward about what I was going to find, and how I was going to manage the situation....anybody with kids knows exactly what I'm talking about.
So a few crazy-important lessons learned. I'm not exactly new to boating, but I am new to the Chesapeake. I thought I had prepared. I had been checking the weather, watching radar tracks of the previous day's storm, had reviewed my charts and had them with me, boat and safety equipment all checked out and ready for use, etc., etc. I had a PLAN for the day. My first mistake was not realizing sooner that my "plan" was in the crapper. I keep reading about what wonderful times people are having and I wanted Saturday to be a certain experience, but it wasn't happening. First lesson....forcing it only gets you in trouble.
Second lesson....ALWAYS respect the water. My first few trips to the Chesapeake had lulled me into a false sense of security. I had even commented about it feeling like a big lake. This is NOT a big lake, and it IS big water. It wasn't so much the size of the waves we were encountering, although 2.5 footers (per buoy data) are bigger than you think. The bigger problem was the frequency and the randomness of direction. There was no way to pick a course and cut through them like I might do for, say, crossing a big wake. This is a much different experience than Raystown lake where I grew up. I will never again think of the Chesapeake as anything like a lake.
Third lesson....in bad conditions, minimize the work-load. It's not a big mystery - when the water is rough, the bow is not a good place to be. Navigating the conditions and watching for flotsam was requiring my full attention. What I needed to do was to move everyone to the most stable part of the boat until we were in calmer waters. Just less to worry about that way.
Lesson four....reliable equipment is essential. My boat performed flawlessly, and for that I am grateful. Bad conditions and not being under power = major problem. I will try to never again grumble about the cost of preventive maintenance. That's just the price of admission to this game. I've spent a little bit of money on safety equipment, but I could have more. Boating is not an inexpensive pastime. If that's a problem, don't go.
So am I over-dramatizing? Who knows, maybe a little - but I'd rather that than ignoring the experience. It doesn't really matter how big the vessel is, if I'm the captain then the passengers are my responsibility. I take that seriously. Besides, the only way I know of to turn a bad day good is by figuring out how to not have it happen again.
Safe boating everybody.
(Cross-posted on CrownieHQ - my apologies in advance if this is frowned upon)
I left out of Sandy Point and it was rough on Saturday. We were just going to go along the bridge and back. BUT.. as we turned around, the engine quit. It would restart, but stall in gear. We do have BoatUS and I was just about to call when a really nice guy in a sailboat pulled up and asked if we needed help. He pulled us all the way back to Sandy Point and wouldn't take a dime. 
