Running inlets or river mouths

Classes and rules are great and I dont knock them as a place to start and good source of information but, time on the water with someone that knows how to drive a boat ( and is good at it) is time well spent. Going and doing is always a better teacher when it comes to driving things, and shooting.

I have the job of teaching two things in life, basic marksmanship and driving concrete trucks. I can tell you what to do all day but until you feel it you wont get all of it. I also have taught boat handling for free to more then a few people( you get what you pay for) and I could not tell you half the rules or the water or what chapman has to say about it but I can tell you what a small boat 30ft or less will do in the water. Go use you boat.

One thing on rules and right of way. It does not matter if your right if you are dead. Most people on a boat today (90%) could not tell you the rules if you beat them and they could care less if you did tell them. Boating is not a competition. So when in doubt throttle back and let the asshat go first. You loose nothing being safe and gain everything.
 
I can put you in contact with instructors who can help you learn to do this more challenging stuff.

This was a good long thread with lots of advice, but on thing I'd like to emphasize is that your boat is a really good one, and it can handle a lot more than most captains. That gets said a lot here, but its true.

In these conditions you don't want to try to come about. I've been caught in this type of situation before, and you will probably have trouble doing that. Once you are committed in water like that you need to keep going, mostly.

These conditions are common at the mouth of a river and should be expected. The best thing you can do is realize what the impact of wind, tide and current are on the inlet by observing it frequently and noting the tide stage, current and wind and get a feel for where your limits are.

Be aware that the inlet will behave differently after the tide turns. So a terrible ride out in an incoming tide might be paired with an easy return later in the day on an outgoing tide.

Generally, you want to take these inlets in the deepest parts of the channel. There the waves will be shorter, and spaced farther apart. Even if this is slightly the case, the result in your trip can be tremendous.

Of course, being aware of these conditions and making the decision to not go when its bad is the best thing you can do.
 
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