A cautionary tale

Any of the capes on the North Gulf Coasts are very scary places to be with a wind from a southeasterly component. You don't even need a tide rip or anything for it to be crazy. Out in front of Pinnacle Rock on the entrance to Johnstone Bay (good halibut fishing though) the wave rollers are 6-8 feet high on a calm day when the tide gets going. Fun on a calm day, hell when they are much bigger and you are trying to make a run for it. The currents, with the irregular bottom, really accentuate the conditions. At Cape Rusurrection, they have a tendency to bounce off the perpendicular cliff faces when the wind is blowing E/SE causing steep pyramiding seas and sometimes very confused seas. I never boat out of the bay in Seward when there is the potential for dirty SE weather. It will be horrendous. For those in doubt in the Puget Sound area, picture rounding the corning out of Neah Bay to go south into the open Pacific with strong winds and a ripping tide.

I don't call BS at all. I know for a fact how crazy that area can be. In fact, even in the bay it can get incredibly wild depending on the conditions. I don't blame you at all for kissing the dock; just watch out for the otter poop.....BTW, I almost never boat in that area when the seas are forecasted above about 5-7 feet. YUCK!!!!

Thanks for sharing your story. I'm glad you posted it and that you made it back in one piece.
 
I have had green water over the bow. Green water makes a boat descend rapidly. The power of big water is big.
I for one appreciate a great story like yours. All great stories start with a bad decision that did not seem to bad at the time. A great story has a happy ending and your had a great ending
A great story reminds us all what not to do as we balance the need for adventure and the individual tolerance for risk. I have made stupid mistakes born of ignorance that I could not fathom making today. The lesson that I hope I take away is the wisdom to be patient. To wait for weather and to know and watch for rogues and other waves that will await those who don't pay attention. Thank you for the story. Glad that I now own a c dory. Someday I will tell you about my first 25$ boat.
Chris
 
Do you think in hindsight that you should have stayed in Humpy hollow? You were in calm water, you had the updated forecast at that time, night was soon to be upon you and the forecast was for high winds? Was retuning to work that critical?
Chris
 
berryst,
Frankly, it was a matter of perspective at that point. The fetch from the N was limited so I didn't think it could get much worse, and compared to what we had been through it didn't look so bad. If it had been worse than I expected, I could also have tucked back into Thumb Cove to the N to sit it out. As it was, it just turned out to be a very long slog almost directly into the wind making maybe 3 knots at an average over the entire distance. What I was later told by my friend who has had his property in Day Harbor since 1973 is that the W side of Resurrection Bay is his preferred route on a gale from the North. He had been caught a couple of times over the years and cut across between Fox and Hive Islands to downwind from Caines Head and avoided a lot of the bad water by running near the beach from there. Not sure if that would be better or not - looks to me like it would be a six of one and half a dozen of the other kind of thing.

Bauer, you have a point - don't think you would want to make a practice of kissing the docks in Seward. BTW it can be pretty good silver fishing at Cape Fairfield too if you catch it right.
 
Naimu - When you boat in Alaskan waters, and heavy weather moves in, are you carring survival gear such as rafts and immersion suits? What is the ambient temperature of the water?

My Alaskan boating has been confined to charters In Southeastern Alaska and the waters were tame.
John
 
Boat owners need to read this. You were lucky and I'm glad for you, but there's a tipping point where no boat can compensate for overestimating one's abilities and underestimating what could go wrong.

Keith
C-Pup16 in Los Angeles

PS: What happened to the goat?
 
Yellowstone":ss1yobm5 said:
Naimu - When you boat in Alaskan waters, and heavy weather moves in, are you carring survival gear such as rafts and immersion suits? What is the ambient temperature of the water?

My Alaskan boating has been confined to charters In Southeastern Alaska and the waters were tame.
John
Click to expand...

John,

I don't know what Naimu does, but I carry a life raft for the just in case in addition to the dingy. I have considered mustang suites, but really don't have the room for them and everything else. The water out in the open Gulf of Alaska is around 50-60 degrees in the summer - the fjords are much colder. I also have never really been caught too badly as I am a very patient person and would rather make a run for the nearest anchorage (often an hour or so away with decent water) when the weather makes the slightest turn for the worse as the open Gulf of Alaska is a scary place. I have waited things out in Bowen Anchorage (didn't want to make the turn around the cape with the tide running and large seas), Fox Farm (for a whole week in SW PWS waiting to get back to Seward), Puffin Cove (PWS forecast out of nowhere for 5-7 feet with 30-40 kt winds during spring bear hunt), and others as I am not willing to try to muscle my way into port.

Tim
 
I fished out of Seward commercially years ago. Did a halibut trip to the area that is the topic of discussion here last spring. The water here is big. Big swells. Big current. Big wind. The wilderness is vast. It is the kind of place you would not want to miss.
When you spend enough time on the water like Nainu as a commercial halibut fisherman then big water is just another day at the office. Complacency then become the issue. This is when you to can add your name to the fisherman's memorial.
From my view... and my view is from the guy who wasn't there so in fact counts for very little... the better part of discretion would have had me waiting out the storm from the nearest sheltered cove after pushing the limits. But waiting does not make as good of a story and I do so like and pleasure in a good and epic adventure story especially when mixed with friends and whiskey
Chris
 
we need our stories to celebrate our lives. Hopefully we are all telling our own stories instead of someone else starting out with "There was this guy I knew who"
 
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