Scared Spit-less In SF bay Gale Force winds.
10-31-2019, 12:12 PM
#1
Scared Spit-less In SF bay Gale Force winds.
Scared Spit-less In SF bay Gale Force winds.
First I realize in hindsight that mistakes were made and I a looking for other experience and advice. Anyone locally knows what the winds were like on Sunday here. We went up to San Francisco Bay on Friday with our Scarab 33 AVS boat. Pulled the kids from school early and beat the afternoon traffic. We launch in Alameda across from the Coast Guard Island. I recently upgraded the engines with Holley EFI and AFRs and love it. We blasted around the bay with friends, slept the nights in the marina near "Marina Greens". Saturday was glorious we ran to Sam's in Tiberon for lunch, picked up others in Richmond and brought them back. the bay was amazing hundreds of boats out there. In the evening we heard there was going to wind tomorrow. I was not too concerned as the wind would be at our backs, going to Alameda. We went to bed on the boat in the marina. In the night I was awoke by water slapping the hull lightly, then later harder, soon the eerie sound of the all the sailboat mast cables slapping the masts making a cyclic "ching ching ching". When morning broke the bay was all white caps even spraying into marine greens paking lot 14 ft up. We check the weather and found a "Gale" winds 25 knots with gusts up to 45 knots 8-9 ftr waves. ( I do not know the period). The wind dropped a few knots at 8 am so we decided to just go out and start to "see" if we felt like we should go back home. It is 12 miles back. The real problem was the wind shifted 90 degrees last night and now the wind was quartering. It was rough going as the period of the waves was so close the bow would go sky high, then drop, and repeat. NOBODY was on the by except the massive fairy boat and one industrial boat. We were going 8-10 mph off plane. This is the point were we should have got smart and turned around. We kept going along the water front of SF. The water started looking like a snowstorm in the distance due to white caps. We were getting soaked with wave splash in the cockpit. The boat seemed to stand on its tail on some of the waves. I have never seen the boat stand on its tail like this. A little late I was looking to turn back but the did not want to get flipped while making a U-turn. I was scared spit-less (for real). I was even thingk how hard would it be to swim to shore from here. But we just kept motoring forward towards treasure island slowly. The boat did amazing but it was just so rough vision was getting to be an issue with the spray. When the bow dropped it pearled waves occasionally and water would roll up on top of the deck towards the windshield, THIS is a creepy site if you have ever seen it. After about 5-10 more minutes the waves got slightly smaller as Treasure Island stared blocking the incoming waves. We were hopeful. Slowly the waves got smaller as we went. At this point we were soaked, but I felt so relieved I opened my visor to yell for joy and a wave spray smacked me in the face (literally). FInally we were close enough to the Island were we could get on plane and go south. We rounded the corner of Yorba Biena and found ourselves back in some big wave as our wind block was gone. Fortunatly the port of Oakland sticks out so we were safe in the estuary in a minutes. We were so wet we have to completely change clothes down to our underwear with dry ones. I felt so relieved. Never again do I want to be in that rough of seas. We loaded the boat up, washed it off EVERYWHERE, and head back.
How rough of seas have you been it?
While our boat did fine when do you feel it become unsafe?
Is weather monitoring part of your usually routine (like it is for us now)?
Would you have made the U- turn or head forward?
First I realize in hindsight that mistakes were made and I a looking for other experience and advice. Anyone locally knows what the winds were like on Sunday here. We went up to San Francisco Bay on Friday with our Scarab 33 AVS boat. Pulled the kids from school early and beat the afternoon traffic. We launch in Alameda across from the Coast Guard Island. I recently upgraded the engines with Holley EFI and AFRs and love it. We blasted around the bay with friends, slept the nights in the marina near "Marina Greens". Saturday was glorious we ran to Sam's in Tiberon for lunch, picked up others in Richmond and brought them back. the bay was amazing hundreds of boats out there. In the evening we heard there was going to wind tomorrow. I was not too concerned as the wind would be at our backs, going to Alameda. We went to bed on the boat in the marina. In the night I was awoke by water slapping the hull lightly, then later harder, soon the eerie sound of the all the sailboat mast cables slapping the masts making a cyclic "ching ching ching". When morning broke the bay was all white caps even spraying into marine greens paking lot 14 ft up. We check the weather and found a "Gale" winds 25 knots with gusts up to 45 knots 8-9 ftr waves. ( I do not know the period). The wind dropped a few knots at 8 am so we decided to just go out and start to "see" if we felt like we should go back home. It is 12 miles back. The real problem was the wind shifted 90 degrees last night and now the wind was quartering. It was rough going as the period of the waves was so close the bow would go sky high, then drop, and repeat. NOBODY was on the by except the massive fairy boat and one industrial boat. We were going 8-10 mph off plane. This is the point were we should have got smart and turned around. We kept going along the water front of SF. The water started looking like a snowstorm in the distance due to white caps. We were getting soaked with wave splash in the cockpit. The boat seemed to stand on its tail on some of the waves. I have never seen the boat stand on its tail like this. A little late I was looking to turn back but the did not want to get flipped while making a U-turn. I was scared spit-less (for real). I was even thingk how hard would it be to swim to shore from here. But we just kept motoring forward towards treasure island slowly. The boat did amazing but it was just so rough vision was getting to be an issue with the spray. When the bow dropped it pearled waves occasionally and water would roll up on top of the deck towards the windshield, THIS is a creepy site if you have ever seen it. After about 5-10 more minutes the waves got slightly smaller as Treasure Island stared blocking the incoming waves. We were hopeful. Slowly the waves got smaller as we went. At this point we were soaked, but I felt so relieved I opened my visor to yell for joy and a wave spray smacked me in the face (literally). FInally we were close enough to the Island were we could get on plane and go south. We rounded the corner of Yorba Biena and found ourselves back in some big wave as our wind block was gone. Fortunatly the port of Oakland sticks out so we were safe in the estuary in a minutes. We were so wet we have to completely change clothes down to our underwear with dry ones. I felt so relieved. Never again do I want to be in that rough of seas. We loaded the boat up, washed it off EVERYWHERE, and head back.
How rough of seas have you been it?
While our boat did fine when do you feel it become unsafe?
Is weather monitoring part of your usually routine (like it is for us now)?
Would you have made the U- turn or head forward?
10-31-2019, 12:38 PM
#2
*
Platinum Member
Actually , that reminds me of an old SFO based joke now that I think about it .
On a serious note though , those wind driven Cali wildfires are an absolute disaster . Hope everyone on here and their family are ok .
10-31-2019, 01:08 PM
#4
Registered
I have been in some scary situations before but I'm pretty sure my fears kick in far before my boat's limits. Staying calm is the biggest thing.
Nothing like what you experienced, but last Wednesday my wife and I were going to Put in Bay on Lake Erie on our 34' cabin cruiser. The forecast was for 4-7's with some 9's. The video doesn't do it justice, but it was rough. I'm not a good judge of wave size, but Id guess they were legit 5-6' waves with 35mph winds. Boat handled it perfectly fine and with the full enclosure up, we stayed dry. I was also in shorts/ T shirt thanks to the cockpit heat.
We normally trailer up from Indianapolis at night and launch around midnight or so. Being that Tuesday night had the same forecast, I didn't want to deal with these conditions at night but during the day it was fine. It's only a 12 mile boat ride and we have a fully stocked ditch bag, EPIRB, 2 PLB's, and a life raft.
Nothing like what you experienced, but last Wednesday my wife and I were going to Put in Bay on Lake Erie on our 34' cabin cruiser. The forecast was for 4-7's with some 9's. The video doesn't do it justice, but it was rough. I'm not a good judge of wave size, but Id guess they were legit 5-6' waves with 35mph winds. Boat handled it perfectly fine and with the full enclosure up, we stayed dry. I was also in shorts/ T shirt thanks to the cockpit heat.
We normally trailer up from Indianapolis at night and launch around midnight or so. Being that Tuesday night had the same forecast, I didn't want to deal with these conditions at night but during the day it was fine. It's only a 12 mile boat ride and we have a fully stocked ditch bag, EPIRB, 2 PLB's, and a life raft.
10-31-2019, 02:18 PM
#6
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Join Date: Aug 2001
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The phone apps "Windy" and surfforecast.com are your friends!
Windy give real time wind and you can slide bar per hour through out the week to see what the wind forecast will be. you can also zoom in and out and pinpoint wind speeds. Very interactive.
surf forecast.com gives ALL info, temp, swell, timing of swell, direction of swell, high/low tide, wind flow etc. Both have been dead on in their forecasting.
Glad you got back safe. Being stuck in crappy water SUCKS! I'm a fare weather boater myself.
Windy APP:
surf forecast .com:
Windy give real time wind and you can slide bar per hour through out the week to see what the wind forecast will be. you can also zoom in and out and pinpoint wind speeds. Very interactive.
surf forecast.com gives ALL info, temp, swell, timing of swell, direction of swell, high/low tide, wind flow etc. Both have been dead on in their forecasting.
Glad you got back safe. Being stuck in crappy water SUCKS! I'm a fare weather boater myself.
Windy APP:
surf forecast .com:
10-31-2019, 07:30 PM
#9
Registered
