Thornton69
Well-Known Member
- Sep 15, 2014
- 1,150
- Boat Info
- 1981 245 SDC
2021 Solar 420
- Engines
- '97 5.7 Bravo 2
'20 Merc 25 EFI Jet
This far up north, the winters are long. Boating is a big part of our lives and we are fortunately close enough to the coast that we can push the season a bit longer than most. I also keep it in the shop over the winter so there is no snow banks to worry about. Just the winter weather systems that can pound the snot out our coast.
Parked the boat mid October last year and gave it it's first splash last weekend with my youngest son for 3 days on the Douglas Channel. The skies were blue and seas mild for the first couple days. Temps were down to -9 C and up as high as -2. The crab and prawns were plentiful and we were able to capitalize on them. Had a great time with our annual opening run which includes an overnight at one of our local hot springs. Had them to ourselves.
There was a weather system though that decided to show up early and turned our trip into a bit more of a 4 day adventure. An outflow of 35knts with gusts of 50 or more. Seas were a solid 4' and we were forced to duck out for cover when they started hitting closer to 6'. Am sure doesn't sound bad for the offshore crowd, but in this channel, those waves are no more than a couple boat lengths apart. Tough to keep the bow from stuffing and threaten the structural integrity of the windshield. We were not able to hold anchor in that bay after multiple attempts and choosing to have those seas at the stern was not comforting. We decided to try to make it through a small passage that led to a protected bay on the south end of Kitsaway Island. Had a relatively soft grounding and had to wait it out for the next tide (4:30 AM) to float her out. Glad Sea Ray build's a tough hull.
Everything worked out well and we got a good reminder of how not to forget to respect mother nature. Wasn't going to post our adventure, but figured we need more boating posts. Here's some pics. Don't beat me up to bad. We get old but hopefully not boring.
Parked the boat mid October last year and gave it it's first splash last weekend with my youngest son for 3 days on the Douglas Channel. The skies were blue and seas mild for the first couple days. Temps were down to -9 C and up as high as -2. The crab and prawns were plentiful and we were able to capitalize on them. Had a great time with our annual opening run which includes an overnight at one of our local hot springs. Had them to ourselves.
There was a weather system though that decided to show up early and turned our trip into a bit more of a 4 day adventure. An outflow of 35knts with gusts of 50 or more. Seas were a solid 4' and we were forced to duck out for cover when they started hitting closer to 6'. Am sure doesn't sound bad for the offshore crowd, but in this channel, those waves are no more than a couple boat lengths apart. Tough to keep the bow from stuffing and threaten the structural integrity of the windshield. We were not able to hold anchor in that bay after multiple attempts and choosing to have those seas at the stern was not comforting. We decided to try to make it through a small passage that led to a protected bay on the south end of Kitsaway Island. Had a relatively soft grounding and had to wait it out for the next tide (4:30 AM) to float her out. Glad Sea Ray build's a tough hull.
Everything worked out well and we got a good reminder of how not to forget to respect mother nature. Wasn't going to post our adventure, but figured we need more boating posts. Here's some pics. Don't beat me up to bad. We get old but hopefully not boring.