Thanks, all, for the info and the good advice. Another question, then.
We got swamped when I tried to go around a little peninsula to get to
a relatively calm cove which was close to our position. But to get to
the cove I had turn sideways to the waves, and that was not good. But
turning or quartering into the waves would have taken us further out
from shore, away from the cove, to the open water.

So it seems my choices at that point, before we were swamped, we 1)
try to get to the cove, which I did and it failed; 2) turn into the
wind and head away from shore or 3) beach it on the near side of the
little peninsula, where I ended up beaching anyway.

Any advice on that?


(pb) wrote in message . com...
I am new to boating and have a couple questions about what to do when
caught in bad weather. Last weekend I got caught on a lake in a bad
thunderstorm in a 16.5' bow rider, deep V fiberglass hull powerboat.
Clearly the biggest mistake I made was not to get off the lake when
the sky began clouding up, but the storm came quickly and this
question is about what to do after the storm is on you. Please no
flames, am trying to learn from my mistakes here.

The waves were surprisingly (to a newbie, anyway) high and the boat
got swamped. The water level was somewhere above the deck and below
the seats, hard to say for sure (it all happened so fast!) We were not
far from shore and had children on board so I chose to beach it ASAP
(unfortunately on a fairly rocky shore) and wait the storm out. Once
beached, the boat was forced by the waves onto its side and waves were
coming into the boat, and the rocks beat up the hull. After the storm
we got some help and got the boat back out into the water and
pumped/bailed out the water.

The question is, what should I have done after we got swamped? I am
told the boat will not sink due to foam filled hull, so I think I
probably should have turned the boat into the wind and waves and
waited the storm out on the water, while running the bilge pump and
bailing. Is that correct? Or what should I have done?

Thanks.