"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...

http://www.youtube.com/embed/ByGSMmenPDM?rel=0

Columbia River Bar on the left coast.

If you can watch this without having your heart in your mouth then you
have never been boating in rough conditions.

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WOW! You're right Wayne, that was scary. Those guys are nuts.

I've forgotten where it was ... I think it was just south of the
Wrightsville Beach area ... and I was trying to pick up the ICW from
the outside heading south. There had been a storm that passed up the
coast and I found myself in some good sized, fast moving and closely
spaced swells traveling on the same heading as I had to go to pick up
the inlet. This was on the Navigator. The seas weren't breaking and
were nothing even close to those in your video, but they were fast
moving and big enough to lift the stern so high that the rudders
became useless. Each time one caught up and passed under the boat it
deposited it in a heading that was probably 20 - 30 degrees off my
intended course. I tried zig-zaging a bit, but that really didn't
help much and I couldn't go fast enough in the area to try to "surf".
It was a 45 minute, white knuckled ride until I finally made it into
the inlet. I learned not to fight it and to not try to
over-compensate with the helm, but rather just make a heading
adjustment whenever the rudders would bite.

I can't even imagine being in the seas those fishing boats were in.