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I learned my boat floats in 1.4 feet of water..

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Out Sat night in the river. Dark, fog. Get maybe 30 yards visibility with a light. It's calm, incoming slowing down.

 

I go for the bridge up river about 3 miles?

 

Im going purely by the nav screen. Moving fairly slowly from buoy to buoy. There is a stretch between buoys where there is absolutely no visual references. 

 

Well, I learned that there is a little delay between the boats actual position and the position on the screen. I get out of the channel, no idea which way the boat is pointing. I'm on a shoal.  I trim the motor so just the prop was in the water. Getting ready to jump out and push but she floated.

 

Luckily, I look up and see the faint profile of the tops of the trees so I get my reference and point the boat towards the channel and make my way to the bridge.

 

It was a good lesson for me. I took it as an opportunity to learn knowing nobody else was out and a long way from man made structure in calm waters.

 

1. now I have a feel for the nav delay.

2. Start paying attention to the compass.

3. My boat will float in a foot and a half of water.

 

I love when we make way past the breakwater at first light and head out, there's nothing better, the whole rest of the world just melts away for me.

(*edited - member formerly known as 'windknot')

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Good lesson.. and thankfully not a costly one.. glad it worked out.. Fwiw,  I always make sure to turn on my plotter tracks for the 1st  few trips from dock to inlet..  that way, I have  plotter lines to follow when viability goes away.. 

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I have them on but The delay still got me. Also keeping the boat on track when moving at a slow speed. Not seeing how much you're correcting the direction of the boat. The compass will be key in these situations.

Edited by Lagerhead

I love when we make way past the breakwater at first light and head out, there's nothing better, the whole rest of the world just melts away for me.

(*edited - member formerly known as 'windknot')

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53 mins ago, 3Beard said:

Good lesson.. and thankfully not a costly one.. glad it worked out.. Fwiw,  I always make sure to turn on my plotter tracks for the 1st  few trips from dock to inlet..  that way, I have  plotter lines to follow when viability goes away.. 

I don't know if the GPS have gotten better since 2006 but some of my  plotter tracks will be on dry land when I go thorough the PP Canal so can't trust just one. If I stay in the center of multiple tracks I've been ok

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The pp canal would be a hell of a challenge at night in fog.

I love when we make way past the breakwater at first light and head out, there's nothing better, the whole rest of the world just melts away for me.

(*edited - member formerly known as 'windknot')

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You won't get stuck in there just bounce off the walls. 

I am very familiar with the stretch of river you are talking about. See boats run aground in there often.

I anchored and waited out a thick fog for an entire night back there. By the time it cleared we saw 7 boats high and dry that ran aground through the night.

 

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You weren't the only one out. We were the other small boat that pulled up while you were there. A lot of fog lately. I just follow my old tracks and try to avoid buoys. 

 

Presumably it was a bit deeper than 1.4 feet given your transducer isn't mounted at the waterline. What's the listed draft for you boat? Is it deep V?

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The deadrise is only 12 or 14 degrees in the back. I'm really beginning to appreciate the versatility for fishing the rivers, bay to 20 miles out. 

I love when we make way past the breakwater at first light and head out, there's nothing better, the whole rest of the world just melts away for me.

(*edited - member formerly known as 'windknot')

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I left out right at dawn one morning back in the 60s headed up the French Broad River from my grandpa's Three Rivers Boat Dock & Restaurant near Knoxville, TN to go duck hunting. It was a little foggy but there was enough light I could see where I was going. I hadn't gone over a mile when the fog became so thick I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. I had never see fog like that. I slowed my Jon boat down to a idle and hoped I would get out of that patch of fog in a minute before I hit something. Nope it wasn't happening! I couldn't tell if I was still going up the river or headed to the bank or going back the other way.

 

I got my old 1940s model 3 hp Wizard outboard down to where you could count the strokes of the motor as I eased along feeling for the bank until I gently bumped into a rock bluff. I knew where I was at then because there was a bluff on one side of the river and a sandy bank on the other side. So I waited there until the fog lifted.

 

I wasn't fearing for my life nor was I worried about damaging the boat or motor but the fact I just couldn't see ANYTHING was scary for a 15 year old boy.

 

One thing that did concern me a little was that Knoxville Sand & Gravel Co. ran barges up and down the river in this area with the old paddle wheel tug boats going to and from their sand dredges. I thought they might have fog lights where they would still be coming up the river that morning and not see me if I was out there in the middle stopped. So that's the reason I decided to keep putting along until I found the bank.

 

I had been a little scared of those paddle wheel tugs after I had a bad experience with one of them a few years earlier. They put out one heck of a rolling wake and I had tried following them one time to ride the waves. That was a BAD idea! Instead of riding over the wave like a V bottom boat would have done my Jon boat plunged nose first right into one of the big waves and half swamped my boat. Luckily I was in one of the aluminum Feather Craft Jon boats that had flotation foam in the seats so I don't think it would have sunk even if it was totally swamped. I commenced bailing water and headed back home and hoped nobody had seen me making a fool out of myself. My grandpa was a stickler for safety and that could have ended my boating days on the river had he seen me. Luckily nobody saw me plus it was a good lesson for me. I didn't take boating safety lightly ever again.

 

 

 

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My chartplotter marks bearing rather than heading so the cursor can be facing one direction but the boat is pointed in another. Can be very confusing in fog especially in heavy current. Have to use compass but prob of little use in the river with current.

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