"We watch the weather. We go out when its nice. We stay in port and happily enjoy the scenery when its not."
Anyone ever take one of these box barges anywhere, where the water is Blue , not Brown??
Yes, in fact I have, many, many times.
I have personally crossed the Gulf Of Alaska twice in my "box barge" to use your words. Once in my 34' Bayliner, and once in my 47' Bayliner.
The gulf crossing is 320NM of open ocean, with nowhere to hide, nowhere to go. I can tell you that there are few places along the coastlines of North America that require as long of an open ocean crossing.
There's around a 300 NM jaunt along the Baja peninsula, but I think thats about it. Everything else is shorter, in the relam of a hundred miles or so max distance between safe harbors.
Every time my boat leaves the harbor we're in blue water. Every single time. We venture out into the Gulf of Alaska, which is widely known as a very dangerous place.
Again, and I state this from personal experience...
With prudent weather planning you can take probably 90% of the boats represented here on TF coastal cruising anywhere you want to go.
You need to come to Alaska sometime. Look in the harbor. Yes, there are a few FD boats, but the vast majority of recreational boats are just like the boats owned by TF members. They are Coastal Cruisers. On a decent weekend they are out, crossing stretches of blue water, and then anchoring up for the night in a protected bay.
Think about this. Our harbor has hundreds of slips over 30'
Almost EVERY one of the boats in those slips crossed the famed Gulf Of Alaska on their own bottom. And guess what? They didn't sink. Nobody died, and the sky did not fall....