Reading sea state

[ihaveissues]

All, bit confused about how to tell a good day from a bad on the boat at the moment. (7mtr bayliner)

I went out yesterday about 1/2 way between the tides on an incoming tide, so about 4pm in Dublin.
Wind speed was 7kth with gusts of 12kts, wave height was .2mtr. Wind was E to SE.

I thought this would be very decent for fishing but the journey was pretty crap, rolled all over the place
and the sea was all over the place, messy if I got above 12kts. When I decided to stop and fish I didn't anchor and was drifting at 1-1.5kts while being bounced quite a bit.

I find most days I'm going out now the sea is messy. I mostly go out on an incoming tide and then in out an outgoing (just timings really, no reason)
and the sea is practically never calm, which is obviously not as enjoyable.

Is there any way I can read the reports better for calmer seas or is that just the nature of the beast?

[Gonzo]

I use windy.com and check swell and wind gusts, if the gusts are over say 30km/h and swell over 0.2m at 3s there'll be a bit of chop. Ideally for flat calm is usually swell 0.1m and wind gusts less than 20km/h.

[ihaveissues]

Thanks, so in the image below, which would you say is best day/time to go out?
I'm still learning to read Windy. Are you saying the chop is a mix of wave frequency and height?

Few guys that have boats near me say not to bother going out on an easterly wind, any merit to this?

[Gonzo]

Yeah the way I check the weather would probably be a bit different to most people, I'm also fairly new to boating but I'm in charge of checking the weather when we go out.

So I usually check wind gusts and waves like below for today (which our boat comp was cancelled):

And this is what a good day looks like to me (this coming Wednesday):

Hope this helps!

[ihaveissues]

ok, yes, really does. I do pretty much the same except don't check the wave height or frequency.
I use this account for 15 min updates: https://twitter.com/DublinBayBuoy on wave height and gusts but
doesn't give frequency and I also didn't think .2m was that big but after yesterday prob look to make sure they're smaller.

[Gonzo]

ok, yes, really does. I do pretty much the same except don't check the wave height or frequency.
I use this account for 15 min updates: https://twitter.com/DublinBayBuoy on wave height and gusts but
doesn't give frequency and I also didn't think .2m was that big but after yesterday prob look to make sure they're smaller.

Yeah 0.2m isn't really that bad unless the wave frequency and wind gusts are high, if it's 0.2m and 4s frequency with no wind it'll be barely noticeable!

[donal domeney]

The wind across or against the tide will always make the surface water looking confused.

Drifting anything over 0.6 of a knot is going to be hard to hold bottom unless you are using leads up to a pound weight.

You might look at one of these to slow down your drift. https://www.chmarine.com/trem-sea-anchor/

[Its Ofishal]

If you look at tides4fishing website for your area it kind of shows if the swell will be fairly flat or have white caps.I have a warrior and have been out in swells of 2m or so but they are only swells so while some websites give wave heights there may be no choppiness just a swell and while you see them coming the boat just rides over them. Easterlies on the east coast can make it a bit lumpy but most of the time westerlies can flatten out the water on the east.

[ihaveissues]

Thanks.

I do have a sea anchor but I haven't used it yet, just had it as a spare, so good to know it can be used for this.

tides4fishing looks good, there is so much to consider. Is this year normal? I heard it was a little windier than usual for this time of year.

[Its Ofishal]

Well you will have no problems this week till at least friday. Im just finished a messy job of preparing rubby dubby for friday (should be nice and ripe).

[donal domeney]

This might help, http://screamingreels.ie/store.html

[Its Ofishal]

Thanks Donal but I caught enough mack for dinner and chum on the weekend so its just messy but kind of worth it when its done. In the freezer now so hopefully a good day to be had. I hope to do Donegal as well this weekend.

[JimC]

There's a bit about weather and small boat here: http://www.topfisher.eu/weather-go-or-no-go/

[ihaveissues]

Thanks Jim, will give it a read.

Found nautide app to be very good also (tidesforfishing).

[ihaveissues]

So, had a very frustrating day on Wednesday. Went out at about 1pm, on an outgoing tide.
It was choppy, despite the reports saying wave height was .1m and every 2.5 seconds.
The really frustrating part was getting speed up. I have a 135hp engine, the tide was going out and at about 3k revs' the boat would only doing 8kts.
The engine seem to be struggling. I thought an outgoing tide would help speed. Just for contract, on the way back in, with flat sea, I was hitting 20kts with same revs.
Is there a reason for this?

[JimC]

Were the conditions preventing you from getting on the plane? Hence the boat was only doing 8knts? If so you might be at the limit of your boats performance in such conditions.

[ihaveissues]

I think that was it tbh. It's very interesting. I was with an outgoing tide, the waves were .1m high but couldn't get up steam.
Out on Tuesday, similar story, outgoing tide, .1m waves but I was easily up 15kts at 2800 revs. Must have just been a diff' sea state. Lot to learned.
I do find that Nautide app to be amazing though and that combined with Windy will defo help be get out of more fun days.