What did I miss today - beginner's question

[PixieAU]

I checked Seabreeze, it told me winds of 10 knots or less. It also told me they would be East to South East. Wave height was 3' to 4' which didn't seem excessive. High tide at 8.32am. Sounded like a nice day.

Yet when I crossed Moreton Bay from Scarborough at 5am it was choppy as all get out. It wasn't too breezy but boy was it lumpy (for my tinny). I thought the island would have offered some protection but even in behind the wrecks it wasn't glassy like it has been other times. Even the dolphins were riding the waves in the middle of the bay!

What should I have been looking at? What causes the chop to be like that? There were very few boats out there with me so obviously I missed the memo. I also think I've put my son off coming out again.

Thanks

[Blackened]

G'day

If you went out after the tide had peaked and it was runing out, the effect of the tide running out vs. the wind coming from the ese that is, opposing, has made the waves in the bay very short and sharp. They tend to stand up and do it well, when the tides oppose the winds.

Dave

[Prowl n Wolf]

G'day, When we head over to Tangas for the day leaving from Beachmere, I have a look at seabreeze and check if the spitfire channel has completely settled over night. I also try if possible to make my ride home as Dave said- wind with tide. I'd like to add that this doesn't always work so knowing your boats limitations is important. Regards, Tony.

[Short Fuse]

We fished the Brisbane River on Monday evening, and the wind did not drop out as expected. It was still kicking along at better than 15 knots at 10.30pm as we returned to the Pinkenba ramp. Made the comment to my deckie that I was glad we had not decided to do an early run across the bay on Tuesday morning. You would have had a run in tide this morning against a south easterly wind, so it would have lumped up a bit in the centre of the bay.

Cheers

Jeff

[Horse]

Always check a few sites. BOM was talking 10-15kts and was pretty spot on

[PixieAU]

thanks for the feedback

yes it was a run in tide and I am assuming SE as predicted. there were patches between Scarborough and Tangalooma which weren't as bad as others but on the whole it wasn't a leisurely trip

[Horse]

The banks channel the tidal flow so in some places the tide V wind is significantly worse. A lot of people run from the River or Manly when the SE are blowing if heading to Tangas

[PixieAU]

Good point. I live in Aspley and have logical choices of Nudgee, Deep Water Bend and Scarborough. Others such as Shorncliffe, Beachmere, Bribie etc. aren't too far either. I hadn't really thought about selecting boat ramp on tide/wind, I've usually picked the closest ramp to where I want to fish.

[morphias]

Welcome to boating in Moreton Bay. :) Wind against tide or tide against swell - Moreton Bay is one of the standout places in the world for it.

A bloke down as the Manly Yacht club just recently had a new timber boat delivered from a builder in NZ. The builder came out to do the handover and they took it out in the bay on what looked like a nice day. Within 20mins, the builder said they needed to take the boat back in because it would break up if it continued to be exposed to the short sharp chop. He said he had never seen anything like it before and the boat had not been built to take it.

You get lightly build tinny's craking welds around the bow and some of the big tuppaware's coming out of China (like the Cheoy Lee's) having similar issues with braking engine mounts, cracking around forward porthole windows in the hull, etc.


Ben.