you-tube of depoe bay

lloyds

New member
For those of you unfamiliar with the central oregon coast go to you-tube and search "depoe bay kadaho". This will show you the ocean which is pretty common this time of year. The video is two parts, so don't miss the second part. It will show you what it is like to enter depoe bay in less than optimum weather.
 
I'm going to admit my ignorance. What was going on?

Part 1 starts with the boat coming in, staying with the waves, looking good. And then the skipper stops, turns around and just rides the waves, keeping station. And once in a while, you can see he's not far from the rocks, but in somewhat calmer water. So he goes back and forth for awhile, and we see another boat doing the same, a helicopter goes by and then Kadaho comes in the channel in Part 2. Part 1 takes 20 min, and Part 2, the entrance, 2 min.

So why were the boats holding station off the entrance? Tide, looking, another boat in the channel?

Please elucidate as I'm lost. When I get to those entrances, I get my buns right in. Though I've not been in that heavy a sea and not in Depoe Bay. So what was going on? Certainly that skipper knew what he was doing, I don't.

Boris
 
It's kind of cool to go the NOAA page with the bar cams along the Oregon coast and look at the Depoe Bay pic on stormy days.

The page is here. You can mouse over the port names at the left and see pictures and the most recent bar reports for several Oregon ports. Depoe Bay, having the smallest entrance and a great camera angle, is usually the most interesting picture.
 
Boris, the swells were so big he had to turn into them and hold his position, while waiting for a flat spot to appear. To try to outrun them in that boat would not have worked out. There were two different sets of swells, ones from westerly and some from southwesterly. If he had run in and a big one from the southwest would have caught him he would have been washed up on the rocks. I think while he was turned into them he was letting them carry him slightly backwards, lessening the distance to travel when the time came. You can hear the Coast Guard in the background talking to him, telling him what is coming in the way of strings. I do wonder if his charter clients knew what danger they were in. Watching them they seemed oblivious to what was happening.
 
I couldn't hear the radio, though I could hear the dog barking and the kid talking. So, he was waiting for the swells to be right. Glad he made it in and also that I didn't have to. I did notice that the fishermen/passengers had life vests on. I don't blame them for calmly sitting there, the other option would be to panic. There was one guy peeking out, figured he was a crewman.

It would be nice to find out how the other boat made it in. Figured it did, or we'd bee shown the wreck.

Boris
 
The other boat sitting out there was a Coast Guard vessel, I believe. You can see the tell-tale stripe on the bow a couple of times in the video.
 
localboy":3v417ss0 said:

Hi Mark.

If that link is to the one for this thread, it has been removed. Weird. I could not come up with the part 1 and 2 of Kadaho that seems the subject of this thread, but I sure did get to see some crazy entries for Depot Bay including the one that "touched" both end of the boat on both sides of the pass.... ouch is probably not what the skipper was saying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUwXuHPktc4

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
There are some really interesting videos here. (Greg, the load shift issue is addressed too.)

This is a good one to watch, it has the skippers and other commentary:
Crossing the Bar: Getting it Wrong. This is Part 1. Do it first.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqgszN3bFtw

It does mention an advantage to having twin engines. It also shows how important it is to respect the power of the sea.

Part 2 covers the how and why of Getting it Right:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Oh635O ... ion_468523

This is mostly about a boat bigger than a C-Dory, but the principles apply. So here is one for trailer boats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FUu71PlWIw

Note: the first 2 are about 30 min each. The third one is about 9 minutes.

WOW, looks like I (we) kinda got a ways from Depot Bay. Sorry for my part. Sure had some fun video time though. D-)

Enjoy

Harvey
SleepyC:moon

IMG_2044_sized_1.thumb.jpg
 
I may be wrong, but I think a planning boat, like a C-Dory, would be able to get through a small opening like that at Depoe Bay's entrance a bit easier because it's not trapped in displacement mode in the incoming swells and waves.

The wave motion controls a displacement hull much more than than it would a planing boat riding on top of the waves.

The planning boat is not immune to the action of the waves and swells, just less trapped within their movement.

The planning boat is also quicker, and usually smaller, thus more able to take advantage of a relative flat spot in the sea movement.

Once the swells and waves get too large, however, all bets are off, as the planning boat has to return to displacement speeds itself, and the game resumes at square one with the rules the same for everyone.

What do you think?

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
Joe, there is some truth in the smaller is better argument for finessing the opening to Depoe Bay, especially the quicker acceleration of boats like ours. However, frequently just the top of one of those swells will break, enough to push a lightly loaded, smaller vessel off course unless the operator responds quickly. Others have said it, but it bears repeating: timing is everything for this one. My son ran a 40 ft charter boat, a Delta, I believe, through there a few times when he was decking, and he felt like a hog on ice about half of those transits. It is a tricky place.
 
Regarding the discussion between planing and displacement boats coming in through/with/around those seas.

My heartfelt goal is to avoid those situations. If it means not going out, so I don't have to come back in, I'm not going. And I've proven that a couple of times.

Boris
 
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