DieselDogg
Member
- Dec 18, 2013
- 98
- Boat Info
- Boatless
- Engines
- Diesel
Yesterday afternoon we went out for a a cruise and a dinner on Lake Washington. It was me, wife, 2 yr old and our nanny. I've been boating on the lake for 8 yrs now, so I know it pretty well and I always feel very safe on the water here. It's a big body of water, but it's still a lake and water temps in the summer are usually 70+.
As we were coming back to the slip around 7 PM, a pretty strong wind picked up in the same direction as the longest stretch of open water. Using Google maps I measured it to be almost 7 mi of open water. It was out of NW blowing directly into Yarrow Bay, which is where our slip is, for those of you who know this area. The wind speed was probably in the mid to high teens. This created 3-4 foot waves. I decided to hang around for a bit to see if the wind would die down as our slip is very hard to get into with that much cross wind. Plus, I really just enjoyed getting a feel for how the boat handles in bigger water.
After 20 min of that, about 300 yards out, we spotted a capsized small sail boat - probably about a 14 footer. There was another powerboat that made it's way to check it out. We headed towards them. The wakeboard boat came by us and asked us that we call for help using the radio as they only had cell phones. So I did exactly that. Picked up my radio and called in Mayday. USCG answered right back and we were able to coordinate help from that point. There were two people in the water, both with life jackets. They were eventually plucked form the water and their boat was towed away.
Point of my story is that if this took place three weeks ago, I would have been useless as I had little clue on how to use the radio. Luckily, I've been reading up on it over the last few weeks, so I was able to, for the most part, properly communicate using VHF. If this was three weeks ago, I wouldn't even have the radio on. So all that reading and youtubing actually paid off. It really felt pretty good to know exactly what to do. My wife was actually surprised and said I sounded like I knew exactly what I was doing. She asked how I knew.
On the other hand, I also realized how unprepared we were out there. We boat here all the time and it's always predictable, except for yesterday. I went out there with a quarter tank of fuel. Good thing I didn't need to be out there for longer. I did see my fuel gauge starting to dip below the quarter mark and that was an uneasy feeling.
So things I learned were:
1. Preparation pays off big time
2. Never assume the weather will be fine if the forecast says so. Be prepared for the storm no matter how calm and sunny it is when you leave the dock.
It was a pretty exciting evening, especially that nobody was hurt.
As we were coming back to the slip around 7 PM, a pretty strong wind picked up in the same direction as the longest stretch of open water. Using Google maps I measured it to be almost 7 mi of open water. It was out of NW blowing directly into Yarrow Bay, which is where our slip is, for those of you who know this area. The wind speed was probably in the mid to high teens. This created 3-4 foot waves. I decided to hang around for a bit to see if the wind would die down as our slip is very hard to get into with that much cross wind. Plus, I really just enjoyed getting a feel for how the boat handles in bigger water.
After 20 min of that, about 300 yards out, we spotted a capsized small sail boat - probably about a 14 footer. There was another powerboat that made it's way to check it out. We headed towards them. The wakeboard boat came by us and asked us that we call for help using the radio as they only had cell phones. So I did exactly that. Picked up my radio and called in Mayday. USCG answered right back and we were able to coordinate help from that point. There were two people in the water, both with life jackets. They were eventually plucked form the water and their boat was towed away.
Point of my story is that if this took place three weeks ago, I would have been useless as I had little clue on how to use the radio. Luckily, I've been reading up on it over the last few weeks, so I was able to, for the most part, properly communicate using VHF. If this was three weeks ago, I wouldn't even have the radio on. So all that reading and youtubing actually paid off. It really felt pretty good to know exactly what to do. My wife was actually surprised and said I sounded like I knew exactly what I was doing. She asked how I knew.
On the other hand, I also realized how unprepared we were out there. We boat here all the time and it's always predictable, except for yesterday. I went out there with a quarter tank of fuel. Good thing I didn't need to be out there for longer. I did see my fuel gauge starting to dip below the quarter mark and that was an uneasy feeling.
So things I learned were:
1. Preparation pays off big time
2. Never assume the weather will be fine if the forecast says so. Be prepared for the storm no matter how calm and sunny it is when you leave the dock.
It was a pretty exciting evening, especially that nobody was hurt.
