so not long after we got our boat, my wife decided it would be great to take her friends from PTA on a sunset harbor cruise.
i had some performance angst (did i mention its 38 ft and my first boat..).
turns out to quite the event, had around 12 guest onboard, one of them works for california dept fish and game (on the waterfront.)
my plan was to just cruise around the harbor marina until the sun was close to setting, then head back to the slip; but this guy had to suggest we sneak out the marina and into the neighbor marina (Huntington Beach) and surely I could not find any reason not to, especially with his expert advise.
we came out of the marina channel and had a 15 min ride in choppy weather and into the Huntington Beach inlet, its faily wide however on the port side is a navy ammo dock so unless you want to get in trouble you need to stay on the starboard side well marked off.
there is a bridge which i knew we had to clear but according to the DFG buddy it would not be a problem.
at the bridge the inlet is fairly narrow, like a river basically.
and tide is coming in so even i am going idle, we are still moving pretty good.
DFG buddy goes to the aft of the FB to visually clear me, says we are fine to clear under the bridge, then some 20' before the bridge he bellows.."i wouldnt do it.." panic stricken i put it in reverse hard, hear the crowd below me scream... there is boat behind you.. more panic. i am not sure i will at best either crash onto the rocks on the shoreline of the inlet or run into the boat behind me, i go on instinct and rev up the port forward, manage to turn the 38' boat around U turn without hitting the rocks.
the only casualty was in the saloon, lots of food/appetizers had slid off the table during my hard maneuver, no drinks were even spilled...
ok so not so much bad weather but still a good story..