Whats the worst water conditions you've been in?

[wantacat]

Saw a thread like this over on OSO and I thought it was interesting. So what is the worst conditions you have been in and were?

[piper]

Over 80 foot swells in the Triangle while on the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier. They were coming over the top of the flight deck. FUN TIMES!!

[Kilrtoy]

Mohave 4 footers .... Thought I was gonna die and sink the new shockwave....

[INSman]

Over 80 foot swells in the Triangle while on the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier. They were coming over the top of the flight deck. FUN TIMES!!
I would love to see some pics of this, sounds awesome !!

[INSman]

Mohave 4 footers .... Thought I was gonna die and sink the new shockwave....
Havasu last year at the inauguarl poker run where 12+ boats actually did sink and I thought I was going to as well, taking on 4+ footers and a close second was Lake Powell last year in a freaky monsoon and maybe 4 footers with razor-like wind driven rain :mad:

[mororless]

The river south of Needles bridge. 2 fawkers wake surfing one goin north :mad: the other going south and I got caught just as the 4 footer broke over my bow.

[Badger301]

Over 80 foot swells in the Triangle while on the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier. They were coming over the top of the flight deck. FUN TIMES!!
Damn thats gotta be frikken scary....80ft waves wow

[piper]

I would love to see some pics of this, sounds awesome !!
Yeah I earn my sea-legs that week. The smaller ships (destroyers) turned back and went around the strom.

[BOBALOO]

Ran out of beer on "MY" day to ride in the back of the boat.
Close second was Memorial weekend this year.
3rd was coming back from the springs 2 years ago and I got something stuck in the carb and had to stop in the washing machine to pull the needle and seat from the carb. Scary...

[OutCole'd]

Havasu last year at the inauguarl poker run where 12+ boats actually did sink and I thought I was going to as well, taking on 4+ footers
I was in the middle of this coming back from Sandbar. Was a rough ride, but my boat handled it pretty good. My friends were laughing having a great time, I was nervous as hell.

[INSman]

I was in the middle of this coming back from Sandbar. Was a rough ride, but my boat handled it pretty good. My friends were laughing having a great time, I was nervous as hell.
How big is your boat ?? Mine was a 23' back then and that return trip from the sandbar was far from fun :eat:

[wantacat]

How big is your boat ?? Mine was a 23' back then and that return trip from the sandbar was far from fun :eat:
From the picture it looks like a 28 magic deck ;)

[mororless]

Piper been there. Pulled out of Naples on a CG hit 60+ seas. Could not get my sea legs for the 3 days...spent them on my knees pucking my guts out...

[OutCole'd]

From the picture it looks like a 28 magic deck ;)
Yep ;)

[Redneck]

Last year had some newbies on the boat launched at cattail partyied all day stopped by the naked turtle everyone got hammered. I was the only sober one left there at bout 11 pm and a monsoon hit as were headed back. Got to bout coppercanyon and decided to go back. Had a friend at the islander take me to get my truck pulled the boat out there. Was pretty scary.

[INSman]

I think I heard of and saw pics from the QE2 while transporting troops to the Faulklands that encountered 75+ footers, looked CRAZY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[laveydayz]

Mead last year 4 foot waves and windy as hell....was a little sketchy. Think the 80 footer over the bow takes the cake.....awesome.

[locogringo]

Havasu last year at the inauguarl poker run where 12+ boats actually did sink and I thought I was going to as well, taking on 4+ footers and a close second was Lake Powell last year in a freaky monsoon and maybe 4 footers with razor-like wind driven rain :mad:
I remeber that also. Was the only time I got wet in my boat by a few rogue waves. Pretty fun though. Feel sorry for all those sunk boats though.

[piper]

Piper been there. Pulled out of Naples on a CG hit 60+ seas. Could not get my sea legs for the 3 days...spent them on my knees pucking my guts out...
Yeah I saw those CG just getting slammed with waves. We had to fly back to the carrier quick. We landed and tied down minutes before the waves started coming over the flight deck.

[mbrown2]

About 16 years ago in a 20 footer...Saw the monsoon coming as we entered the channel from the backside...turned around and headed back around the island for the launch ramp at the marina.....hit 3-4 footers windswept...in a 20' boat that was pretty friggen scary...
If I would have known then what I know now I would have stayed in the channel and went to the marina out of the way of the big water.

[hoolign]

Whats the worst water conditions you've been in?
I was having a bath and went to squeek out a bubble...well it wasn't a bubble!

[laveydayz]

Haha Lmao....launched The Torpedo.

[Debbolas]

Lake Mohave
Cottonwood cove
in our 19ft Sea Ray, 3ft swells breakin over our open bow and washing out our ski locker....had the bildge pump on.....no place to beach, had to go through towards Katherines and our house boat.......Scream says it was a 2 force gale wind, or something like that.............
the other one was Lake Powell, the channel (washing machine) razor rain, crowded conditions and the houseboat from hell towing 7 things behind it at Antelope Point, and a boat decides to stop in front of us..............I had a pic....but I think it got lost in the great ***boat change over...
I can't even image 80ft waves :jawdrop:

[INSman]

Lake Mohave
Cottonwood cove
in our 19ft Sea Ray, 3ft swells breakin over our open bow and washing out our ski locker....had the bildge pump on.....no place to beach, had to go through towards Katherines and our house boat.......Scream says it was a 2 force gale wind, or something like that.............
the other one was Lake Powell, the channel (washing machine) razor rain, crowded conditions and the houseboat from hell towing 7 things behind it at Antelope Point, and a boat decides to stop in front of us..............I had a pic....but I think it got lost in the great ***boat change over...
I can't even image 80ft waves :jawdrop:
Powell does get crazy, can't wait to go back in August !! :messedup: :D

[Debbolas]

Powell does get crazy, can't wait to go back in August !! :messedup: :D
We are going in a week!!! :cool:

[INSman]

We are going in a week!!! :cool:
Water is on the rise, should be quite a bit higher and warmer by mid August !
10-19th for us this year
Have a fun and safe trip !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :rollside:

[ShutYaPieHole]

Lake mead by far 4 years ago. Damn near sunk a 60' houseboat. Fukin swells came out of no where. Some were even clearing the top of the houseboat We were towing 3 other boats which all broke lose. It cost us 400.00 bucks to replace all the crap that came flying out of the cabinets. THAT WAS SOME SCARY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RICH

[shueman]

August Monsoon in Havi 'bout four years ago. Came rushing down from the north really quick...blew out windows at the Nautical. We were on the north ramp at Windsor in a high-sided Glastron trying to get back on the trailer. Waves were coming over the stern....Went to the jet ramp to help to peeps get off the water. There were 4 or 5 lice just gettin' thrashed on the concrete ramp....The wind sprung the door on the '87 S-10....

[24ROD]

Havi about 3 years ago in april. All boats regatta, hail storm, funnel clouds, and lots of big water. Man that hail hurt like hell :2purples: And one cold MoFo :sqeyes:

[C-2]

On the ferry from Havasu Landing to Havasu City during a raging windstorm - the ferry was in troughs, all you saw was water - so I'm guessing it was at least 6 foot swells. the only boats on the lake that day were floating by without people, saw 3 of them :eek: :eek:
Other than that, the SCOPE poker run from Long Beach to Newport in my 21'. I've never hit so hard in my life - the boat flexed so hard it snapped a piece of windshield at the midsection; my throttle arm was black and purple and it was hard to walk for a few days.
Since then I take everything Havasu has to throw at me in stride...it was nothing like my venture into the big blue.

[alfonzo]

Over 80 foot swells in the Triangle while on the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier. They were coming over the top of the flight deck. FUN TIMES!!
!!!WINNER!!! holy sh*t!

[alfonzo]

Piper been there. Pulled out of Naples on a CG hit 60+ seas. Could not get my sea legs for the 3 days...spent them on my knees pucking my guts out...VERY close second :wink: thats crazy!!
Other than 6-7' ocean swells(the bigest I've been in)..Havasu, when the monsoon's hit is pretty gnarly.

[Froggystyle]

1996. El Nino winter. I was a new student in BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition / SEAL) training and we were just classing up. January 10.
Many of our class had never seen the ocean before. Straight out of boot camp in Great Lakes from whatever farm they came from. This was going to be an interesting day.
Being a Nor-Cal surfer, I knew big water when I saw it, and nobody had ever seen Coronado this big before.
As it was our first week in training, we started doing one of the first evolutions as a "boat crew". Which is to say that 7 people (6 enlisted, one officer) are in a 12 foot long rubber raiding craft called an IBS (Inflatable Boat Small)
Surf was a no shit 15 foot. Triple overhead at times, blown out and cold. Water temp was 52 degrees. For those of you who know, a real 15 foot wave has a face greater than 25 feet. This was all in shorebreak as well, so it was extraordinarily shallow.
We had several people quit before going out. It was pretty insane. The evolution was to paddle out through the surf, dump your boat by flipping it over in deep water and paddle back in. Nobody made it, ever. Those that made it out flipped on the way in. Those that didn't make it out just turned into a SEAL trainee yard sale on the beach.
Here are a couple of pics of the evolution. These were nowhere near the size of the El Nino waves, but it gives you an idea of the scope of the boat vs. the wave. The bottom pic is of about a 3-4 foot wave max. Middle is closer to a 6 footer. The top one is a bad view as it is only a 6 footer but looks huge in the picture. There is actually a video online of the top one going and it looks violent but not huge.
http://www.highperformancecars.com/froggystyle/raft_wave[1].jpg
I will try to find some pics of our class later. Nothing I have ever been in compared to that. I broke two teeth out when a paddle hit them and there was multiple other serious and not serious injuries.
Havasu on a big weekend is a joke... ;)

[THATJEFFGUY]

I can top all those ! Once I passed out drunk in the bathub with the water running...damn near drowned :D

[Magic34]

Lake Powell when I was about 16 years old (10 years ago). I had grown up in boating, hell we made a 34' mold that a current boat builder uses back in 1985. There was a large group of us and we were in a canyon all day. I am usually pretty nervous about storms so I told them that we should go check it out because all we could see was the sky directly above us. Well, we went out and there was a huge storm coming in on the horizon. I was very clear to our boat driver that we need to head back, about 28-30 miles from camp. The 3 other boats wanted to "tube" back with tubers behind them, taking their time.
I won the arguement on the boat I was on, by the way 18' Celebrity bowrider. The storm moved in quickly and we came out of what I would call a river section of the channel, and into a large bay, I think around Gunsight.
The waves were well over 6' and the driver looked at me and asked what to do. The wind was blowing very hard and raining as well. We could ne see over 1 wave to the next.
I gave him the WTF look and saide we are in the middle of it and camp is the only palce we could really go, since we were close now. I told him to trim up a little and keep the bow up and power consistent with the waves, not on plane, just keep us from sinking.
We made it back, minus the windshield, but we still had 3 boats out in it. 2 made it to a cove and waited it out, with a crap load of water in the boat they had to pump out, the other boat sank.
To this day, that was the only time I put a lifejacket on thinking the water was way too rough. That is also why my first personal boat I purchased was 29' and they keep getting bigger.

[Rexone]

Qualifier 105 returning from 8 day Alijos Rocks trip, offshore Santa Ana's all the way back to San Diego, probably heading almost directly into 12 foot swells with a few giants mixed in that dwarfed the height of the boat. Waves were crashin over the wheelhouse needless to say no one out on deck. Skipper would throttle to zero on the big ones as they crashed over the top, throttling through them put the boat in mid air which kind tore shit up a little. 105 footer. That trip had me a little on edge for about 24 hours. We were several hours late back to the dock too. I remember tryin to sleep in the bunk and coming off the bunk and bouncing off the one above a few times.
The movie The Perfect Storm while much much worse conditions brought back memories of that trip.
Been in a couple pretty rough Catalina races too in small boats. Little sore after those. Catalina in a 38 gets you spoiled a bit.

[beyondhelpin]

Coming back from Catalina one afternoon got caught in 10 to 12's.(measured from the backside of the wave. Lucky we put in a Seal beach instead of Mission Bay. We were in a 22' Scarab. Man they were huge. We had 9 people in the boat. About every 5th wave we would nose into one and the water would come over the bow and peel over the winshield and send a 3" to 4" wall of water over the cockpit landing on the sundeck.
Pretty hairy! It was late when we left Catalina because of a dumbass friend of my wifes. She was from the Soviet Union and this was only her second time to be out on a boat. She was about to crap her panties! Since I was not familiar with the coast line up there I wanted to get back well before dark. We did not have a GPS. Wanted to do the minimum speed to plane out which was about 25mph. Otherwise we would have not made it back till the next morning! Everything was cool me, me and my bud where just throwing back brews and having a enjoying a hell of a ride.
Everything would have been just fine except we came across a big boat adrift
in the water. No electrical power. So we called sea tow for them. There were quite a few people on the boat so we waited for help to get out there. Big mistake. Now it is almost dark when we get back to shore. I have followed a compass heading back in rough water and I dont see the entrance to the harbor.I have no idea whether to head north or south and it is getting dark. Bright idea=look for life guard tower number and call sea tow for directions. Sounds good in theory. The numbers on the tower are hard to see in twlight. Keep easing in to read. Before I know it a big set is coming in on me. I see it out the corner of my eye. Turn the boat and hammer the throttle. It seemed like we went vertical. Holy shit! Now I am scared for good reason! One more bad wave and we are out of harms way. My buddy read the number of the tower just in time, so I called seatow and we were just 1 to 2 miles south of the harbor.
Everyones nerves are shot including mine. We motor up to the harbor and a certain amount of tranquility sets in........for a moment. The Russian girls 9 year old daughter starts sreaming pee pee.....pee pee over and over again. She would not go in the water or hang over the transom. I tried in vain to calm her. The little girls mom did not say anything to her and my nerves were shot. I dont scold anyones kids but I told her to sit down and shutup till we reached the ramp. Not another peep out of her!
What was the kicker is the dumbass bitchs dumbass boyfried brought Schafers beer then drank ours instead of his swill. All we had left for the last hour was his beer. I would rather drink seawater. I guess I really did not need anymore beer anyway. Believe me I cannot put into words the ride back from the island and do it justice!
Sorry for the long post. There was other stuff that happend on that trip but I am tired of typing!

[RiverRatMike]

in Parker when the wind blows hard up stream making some pretty good sized swells. It's been really bad out there before with huge white caps and 3 to 5ft swells

[HM]

Was fishing out of Cabo San Lucas on a 25 foot boat. Boat broke (1 driver that no speaky english and 2 passengers) and drifted out to sea into 30' swells. We loss sight of land. Nothing like being in the troft of 30' swells in a 25 foot boat. We strategically positioned 5 gallon buckets to drag so that the nose of the boat faced the oncoming swells. Thought I was a gonner that day.
:cry:

[DeltaSigBoater]

A few years back on lake mead down at sandy point I looked up and saw big black sky and told all my buddies that we have 10 minutes to get the f**k outta dodge, and I got the "oh dont worrie about it" speech from people who never have experienced a life threatening situation. Once i put my life jacket on while loading the boat my group sorta realized I wasnt joking. The ride back was over and hour, with 5 to 6 foot swells and hard rain. Burried the bow more times that I would liked to remember. At one point I had 3 smaller boats following me back.

[dc96819]

scariest 20ft sets at pipeline :supp:

[Huckleberry]

Lake Mead, on Virgin Basin three summers ago. I was heading from Glory Hole to Calville Bay Marina, going into strong headwinds an 5-6 footers. I took several waves over the front before I got to the narrows. To make it worse, the day before this I had broken two ribs being a fool on a SeaDoo. Each time I came crashing down from a huge swell every part of my body screamed in pain.

[Sherpa]

Scariest event: running home back thru Franks Tract with an honest 4-6'
swells coming in hard......... lotsa wind.... the section is only about a mile
long to run thru, but in a 19 mastercraft, it's enough.... serious bow-up
driving and slide-slipping kept us from taking on any huge breakers over the
bow........oh, did I mention it was dark too-?
Rain: Lake Travis....... I took out 5 people from work..... it raining soooo
hard, + the head wind, the bilge pump ran continuously for aver an hour trying
to keep up...... drove about 10 miles back to the damn (launch ramp) and
couldn't hardly see a darn thing the whole time........
--Sherpa

[HOSS]

Over 80 foot swells in the Triangle while on the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier. They were coming over the top of the flight deck. FUN TIMES!!
Now thats some hairy sheet!
Went on the new jet ski`s Saturday during the woosy hurricane. Topped out at 7' .Occasional with the right breaking swell 10'.

[Wicky]

1996, approximately 200 miles of Cabo. Hurricane Cat 1 downgraded to a Tropical Storm. 70 mph winds. The Qualifier Excel was the boat. 124ft.
You put pillows on each side of you to sleep so you don't roll out of your bunk. I have some good pics but can't upload!!
Oh yeah, 30ft seas.
Over 175 trips to Catalina in a 17' Boston Whaler many of which were in small craft warnings.
Over 100 trips to San Clemente Island. This in a 22 Whaler. Many times with 2Oft seas.
Life is good.
Wicky

[boxscore]

August Monsoon in Havi 'bout four years ago. Came rushing down from the north really quick...blew out windows at the Nautical. We were on the north ramp at Windsor in a high-sided Glastron trying to get back on the trailer. Waves were coming over the stern....Went to the jet ramp to help to peeps get off the water. There were 4 or 5 lice just gettin' thrashed on the concrete ramp....The wind sprung the door on the '87 S-10....
I was on the water that day... Drove down the river after spending the night in Laughlin. We had about a 30mph tail wind. Hit the top of the lake and the swells had to have been 2-4'. Couldnt put the boat onto plane. Drove 3mph all the way back to the marina fulled trimmed up to keep from stabbin the sponsons. The bilges were pumping water overtime. Scary shit.

[Wicky]

Qualifier 105 returning from 8 day Alijos Rocks trip, offshore Santa Ana's all the way back to San Diego, probably heading almost directly into 12 foot swells with a few giants mixed in that dwarfed the height of the boat. Waves were crashin over the wheelhouse needless to say no one out on deck. Skipper would throttle to zero on the big ones as they crashed over the top, throttling through them put the boat in mid air which kind tore shit up a little. 105 footer. That trip had me a little on edge for about 24 hours. We were several hours late back to the dock too. I remember tryin to sleep in the bunk and coming off the bunk and bouncing off the one above a few times.
The movie The Perfect Storm while much much worse conditions brought back memories of that trip.
Been in a couple pretty rough Catalina races too in small boats. Little sore after those. Catalina in a 38 gets you spoiled a bit.
How was the fishing?

[Dave C]

mavericks, huh!?!...... one of the big wave surfers from the islands got killed a few years back. I think they underestimated the size of the waves. poor guy!
Being a Nor-Cal surfer, I knew big water when I saw it, and nobody had ever seen Coronado this big before.
no kidding...ditto :jawdrop:
Scariest event: running home back thru Franks Tract with an honest 4-6'
swells coming in hard......... lotsa wind.... the section is only about a mile
long to run thru, but in a 19 mastercraft, it's enough.... serious bow-up
driving and slide-slipping kept us from taking on any huge breakers over the
bow........oh, did I mention it was dark too-?
--Sherpa

[dirty old man]

Been in lots of bad situations but here at Lake Mead seems to be wierd. The wind keeps the swells close, not roller coaster like the ocean. No length of boat seems to work, you just have to beat it back home or head for a cove. Usually those afternoon monsoons are short lived. Don't even want to tell you about Tacoma to Inchon, Korea in the winter of the 50's

[boater72]

A few years back on lake mead down at sandy point I looked up and saw big black sky and told all my buddies that we have 10 minutes to get the f**k outta dodge, and I got the "oh dont worrie about it" speech from people who never have experienced a life threatening situation. Once i put my life jacket on while loading the boat my group sorta realized I wasnt joking. The ride back was over and hour, with 5 to 6 foot swells and hard rain. Burried the bow more times that I would liked to remember. At one point I had 3 smaller boats following me back.
Same place for me but about 20 years ago. We had houseboat and just had to get it and our boats over to the other side of the point but was scary. Saw the ski boat go under and pop back up. :cool:

[Mardonzi]

Lake Powell here,,, July of 2002. The airport at Page was clocking the wind at 70 m.p.h. The waves on Padre Bay there were 6'+ that day,,, Not a fun experience for someone in a smaller boat. There were approximately 20 boats sunk on the lake that afternoon....

[BROADMINDED]

Damn

[moneypit]

It was 1970 something( I was a little guy). We had the place at Havasu Landing and Grandpa loaded about 10 of us into the boat and we went across the lake to the Nautical for dinner. After it got dark a monsoon came in and it was so big and bad that boats were being sunk while tied up to the docks. I remember seeing boats being thrown on TOP of the docks. We had the new and fresh 24' Cambell. He didnt want to leave it tied up to the dock because it was going to sink or get ruined.
I remember grandpa telling everyone to get their life jackets on because we were not staying there. He said, "were going across the lake".... I will never forget that trip across the lake that night, It was pitch black out.. (not very many lights in Havasu City back then). All the women and children were down in the cabin and freaked out. The swells were huge and they were getting drenched outside the cabin.
I dont know exactly how big the waves were. But to this day my uncles and grandmother says it was the biggest storn that we had ever dealt with on that lake.

[nodigg]

That's an easy question...DILLIGAF's House in Bullhead before he settled down! No water to be found anywhere, nothing but BUD-LITE!

[lucky]

when i was caught by my pocket dialed cell phone - talking about how the girl on the ramp was hot and i'd lick her from head to toe !
that would be the worst hot water conditions ever :squiggle:

[Wake Havasu]

So what's the best course of action when its gets rough with heavy swells on a lake?
tie up?
Or go to cove?
And what’s Powell like in late June?

[AzLakeLizard]

So what's the best course of action when its gets rough with heavy swells on a lake?
tie up?
Or go to cove?
And what’s Powell like in late June?
Well we are always advised to head for a Canyon/Cove and wait it out because out in the open areas it is just like a washing machine! The waves bouncing off the cliff walls and reverberating back.. what a mish mash that makes!
Right now we are 92 degrees outside, sunny and a small breeze .. most of the time in Late June the weather is great!.. but there are always those storms that sneak up on you..

[Wake Havasu]

[QUOTE=AzLakeLizard]Well we are always advised to head for a Canyon/Cove and wait it out because out in the open areas it is just like a washing machine! The waves bouncing off the cliff walls and reverberating back.. what a mish mash that makes!
Thank you for your rapid reply!
Cove it is!
If need be!

[Rock-A-Bye-Baby]

is it easier to predict these storms now? i'd think with the internet and weather techonology, we'd be able to forsee anything coming our way. Or do these freak storms not make the "5 day Yahoo Forcast" i always look at?

[submakr]

About 5 years ago at Lake Mead. Heading back to the marina from across the lake with the boat loaded down with camping equipment, chairs, ice chests, etc. Got windy as all heck. Big waves coming over the front, bilge pump on. Everyone in life vests. Kids crying. I thought I started hearing strange noises from under the engine hatch (my imagination). Another family was with us in their boat (they sold it after that season)!!!
Made it back, had a few beers and changed shorts!!!