Ocean 4' waves
 

Question for ocean boaters. Supposed to pick up my 31' Pursuit tomorrow I purchased last Nov. Kept it in Freeport LI for the winter, boat is ready for delivery now. I don't do much ocean boating, 90% of it is Long Island Sound which can chop up really good at times but if it's too bad I can just turn around, not so easy tomorrow since we have to get a car service going out to drop us off, don't want to have to come back in and hire another one, it's going to rack up some $$ if I can even get one.

Boat is going to my home port in CT. We're bringing it about 25+ miles in the ocean to NY Harbor then up to the Sound, not really worried about rounding the corner into the harbor, just the ocean, about 90 miles, 25+ or so in the ocean. Going out of Jones Inlet which I know nothing about either.

So the question is, should I run it? I know LIS waves at 4'+ are short and hard hitting, don't know much about ocean running in that. Today is small craft warnings, 4-6, sitting down to 4's late tonight, 4's tomorrow with a E to NE wind. My experience with marine forecasts is usually they're conservative, 4's means at least 4's with bigger holes.

Any South Shore boaters with experience that can chime in? Ocean boaters? It's pretty much the forecast the entire week too.

We boat in Long Island sound…but south shore is a different animal. Only recommendation would be to do a sunrise or sunset cruise when wind is gone and ocean has flattened out…if that isn’t a thing on the south shore. You may have to trailer it.

I doesn't have a trailer and if it did I sold my truck. We're going to reschedule for Tuesday which is 3's + holes. I have to be careful with the tides with the inlet so early or late doesn't work either :crazy: But thanks. I'm going cautious, never piloted this boat, don't know much about it, going to go conservative.

First question, what's the draft on that boat? I don't think you have to worry about tides.

The ocean can kick up pretty good. From my reading here, not nearly as much as lake mead or the great lakes. :ernaehrung004:

I was always cautious of the weather when I took my 28 Velocity out in the ocean I would think this time of year the waves will be more close together (rough) than the rollers.

From freeport to Jones inlet is a straight/short ride. You can get some good rollers coming into jones inlet. When you get past them, it usually won't be as bad BUT it can be rough.

You could stay inside and leave freeport and head west to the rockaway inlet. I would say that's about 10 miles but it is 5mph for parts of it and will take more time.

Look at hells gate on youtube if you never heard of it. Depending on the tide difference between the ocean and sound, it can get pretty crazy there. My first time going through it, I thought there were rocks in the water by all the turbulence. I was going about 30mph against it and the back of the boat was fish tailing all over as I we staring at the gps depths that were 50+ feet. I was like wth??

Than as you know the sound can get pretty rough. If your lucky you will be going with the waves at this point.

Also when you go under troggs neck Bridge, stay to the left of the light house. There are rocks on the right side.

My home ports are typically oyster bay, wantagh and freeport to launch from.

Which marina is the boat in?

Draft is a tad under 3', it's a Pursuit 295DC, 31'9" LOA, twin Yamaha 300s

Been through Hell Gate many times, East River, Sound et al. Hell Gate is weird, sometimes it's like a bath tub sometimes like HELL. Sort of like Plum Gut. Been on the Sound for 35+ years so I'm ok when I'm "home". I checked LIS forecast and it's ok.

Might think about running inside to Rockaway but have heard it's got a lot of shifting sands, are there channel markers? I pretty much have the day so if I have to 5mph it for a ways I'm ok, would rather not get clobbered with a new boat.

Regarding Oyster Bay, I've been in The Sand Hole about 5 million times but not West Harbor, how's that for day anchoring? Thinking of exploring it sometime.

Home marina is Total Marine which is right next to Rex, west side of Norwalk Harbor.

Thanks

A lot of it depends on the wind. I would look at the marine wind forecast (not the land forecast), and try to go when the wind is down, which is usually early morning. I would also look at the NOAA buoy reports. Sometimes the forecasts are not accurate. If you look at the buoy reports, you can get a good idea of the current conditions.

The other thing to look for is the "swell" and the "wind waves" in the forecasts. Swell spaced far enough apart is not a problem. In fact, swell can be fun. Wind waves (also known as chop) on the other hand can be miserable.

Good luck!

^ Agree. For ocean running, I always worry more about wind speed and direction versus forecast swell size.

I’ve regretted forcing my schedule to make me cruise in a small craft advisory. Not worth it. Cost me a $2200 cracked windshield.

I would travel west down Reynolds’s channel and take Rockaway inlet. Would take off a few miles of ocean running. I’m not super familiar with the south shore ,but I have done that run about a dozen times, Jones inlet is a tough inlet.

What Tom said... take Reynold's channel to ER inlet.
High tide is about 10:20am.
May be a bit snotty coming around Breezy Pt toward the Verranzano.
Jones and ER have been dredged and are well marked now.
But you'll definitely save yourself some ocean time by running east to ER.

Thanks guys, is the Reynolds channel marked?

We're going tomorrow, wind direction sucks but it's the best I can get this week:
ANZ355-230230Sandy Hook NJ to Fire Island Inlet NY out 20 nm1001 AM EDT Mon May 22 2023

TODAYE winds around 10 kt, becoming 10 to 15 kt with gusts up to 20 kt late. Seas 3 to 4 ft.

TONIGHTE winds 10 to 15 kt. Seas 3 to 4 ft.

TUEE winds 10 to 15 kt. Seas 2 to 4 ft.

TUE NIGHTE winds 5 to 10 kt. Seas 2 to 4 ft.

WEDNE winds 5 to 10 kt, becoming SE in the afternoon. Seas 2 to 4 ft.

WED NIGHTSE winds around 10 kt, becoming N 15 to 20 kt with gusts up to 25 kt after midnight. Seas 3 to 5 ft.

Yes it is. There is a point in Lido where the bouys switch from entering from Jones to leaving towards ER.
There are plenty of 5mph zones so adhere there.
Once past Long Beach Bridge and Wreck Lead Train bridge you're good to cruise till the Atlantic Beach bridge.
ER inlet is easy to run. I believe the #2 bouy is way out of line tho. Make the left to head south, aim towards the Inlet bouy, and you can turn and head west before you get to it.
If you need more info I'd be happy to help.

This is good, I'm going to take your advice and go this way tomorrow.

I would go this route (in yellow). If its calm, go straight and take the orange path of ocean.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...5c802dd1f9.jpg

Leaving for Freeport in about an hour, this is what I'm going to do, thx.

Just don't bring that guy record breaker Stu as your navigator, he likes to get too close to the buoys! Have a safe maiden voyage today!

Light winds from the east, calling for 3ft seas... shouldn't be a bad ride at all.
Let us know how it went.

Hopefully he is wearing awesome headphones with an Apache soundtrack playing for the trip!

Too bad when he gets to his destination the salt water will have rotted the lower units right off the motors and they will be coughing rust out the exhausts! The fiberglass will be soft all over and the boat will need a full restoration! :D

Boat trip will be uneventful, should be a nice shakedown run!

We went out the Jones Inlet, figured we had to go outside at some point so might as well do it, the inlet wasn't bad but the ride was not all that great, big enough holes where the boat got sort of sideways a couple times! Got worse as we approached Breezy Point, the windshield wiper was on most of the time! NY Harbor was buzzing with Ferries, working boats, barges, tugs, sight seeing, had to pay attention for sure. The Sound totally sucked, hard hitting, smaller waves but short and steep and after 80 miles of this crap I was glad to pull into the harbor in Norwalk. Boat got hosed by salt water in every nook and cranny took a while to clean up.

A couple of observations...Pursuit makes a quality boat without question. No question about it I miss HP. I bought it for different reasons and think it'll be a great boat but gee whiz I just want it to get on top of the chop, it's just not that kind of boat, at least with 300s. Glad I bought it but would also like to have my PP too!

Thanks to everyone's input, look forward to a fun summer!

Good luck with the new boat Indy!

Should be fun, if I can get past the performance aspect!

On another note, looks like we were bracketed Small Craft Warning days, definitely made the right choice of days but was just kinda 80+ miles of suck.

You'll get past that performance stuff. The reality of climbing in the bilge to replace a starter, told me that I'm getting too old for the stern drive performance boat. That's why I already sold my Sonic. Lol

Truth, flushing the egg beaters was a joy!!

Well how about that, an offshore thread. I enjoyed reading from concern to success. Congrats.

ROF...I actually thought about that as I was posting, I wasn't sure there was anybody left running offshore LOL...More like BlingBoats.com these days :)

Everything on this site is “Bling” boats. Nothing but the rich and famous is all that is ever posted on this site.

a legitimate working man asking questions is refreshing.

Where's the pics??

I'll post what I got but it isn't much, I was pretty busy the whole time...sorry, I wanted some too. Best pic was at the gas dock because I wasn't getting knocked around LOL!

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...b301e0072e.jpg
Coming into the Verazano

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...7b82617fbe.jpg
gas lol

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...1783571c3e.jpg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...6755799562.jpg

Yeah it seems most knock how bad the ocean can get. From my reading here the great lakes or lake mead would make the deadliest catch crew cry lol

I'm a no one that only would venture out on calm days, usually. One time I had my wife and I went the ocean route to save time. It was a miserable 20-30 miles. Took a pounding. I laugh when i read guys in 18' boats out in 12' waves. Lol my ruler must be different.

I'm glad you and the boat made it in one piece. Hopefully you enjoy a trouble free season with it!!!​​​

Wow Indy, that boat looks real clean! That is perfect for what you want to do! Now, when are you going to head to Claudio's?

Thanks GC, probably a bit later in the summer! Took it for its "first ride" yesterday, shot over from Norwalk to West Cove (Oyster Bay). How nice it was not to get the sh*t kick out of me like last Tuesday. I not doing that again anytime soon LOL.

Just a few thoughts for anyone looking to get one of these type boats, they like HP, the hulls don't really get on top unless you're on the throttles. Mine is a 31'9" LOA with twin 300s, doesn't really feel like the hull is "comfortable" unless I'm pushing 4800 minimum, otherwise it feels like it's just pushing water. 350s would be best but they came stock with 300s. Definitely not like my old boats but it has tons of really great features that's going to make it a fun summer. No regrets.

Funny footnote to this story...as we were making way through the "marshy rivulets" from Freeport to Jones Inlet we were mostly at idle speed with some limited planing speed. As we got into the inlet it was nice and calm (which was the last calm we'd see that day!) and I brought it up to plane.
The boat being 5 minutes new to me I'm just trying to figure the thing out, after a few minutes on plane I bring it back down to idle and my buddy asks me what's going on? I told him something wrong with the boat, I think we're dragging tabs, maybe I'm not reading the gauge correctly so I go back to the transom and look under the swim platform and they're up...thinking to myself that strange I swear we were dragging them with setting all the way down. I go back to the helm get back on plane and shut it down again and I say to my buddy something's f'd up, I think we must be dragging a lobster pot or something so I go back and he raises the outboards...nothing...they look fine. Both props are on not dragging anything. I just shrug my shoulders and don't know what to think.
Turns out it just the way the boat is LOL, it's a big heavy boat with outboards that doesn't run anywhere near what a romping offshore boat will...I'm just getting used to it and have no regrets but sheesh...what a difference. So if any of you get one, don't worry, it works great! I'm finding out that the joy of an offshore boat is getting there, the joy of this boat is being there!! It's just great to be on the water no matter what :D

You left the best part of your fun story ‘til last. :)

Maybe a tune would help liven them up.
https://www.nizpromarine.com/shop/?s...shore-f225-300