[oddfish]

Today was not too bad, I got out on the incoming tide out of Hampton and did my lobsters without fear of turtling the boat the swell that was 4' mostly but the period is about 9-11 seconds and you can see the bigger ones coming....thats when you stop horking up the gear for a few seconds. Coming in was a different story (and I knew it would be) I did not continue to fish for bait as I usually do because I figured the out-going tide would get bad (even in Hampton). I came in 1.5 hours past the tide and it was getting bad even then. What people are not getting is the volume of water coming out of the rivers. The water going out meets the incoming swell and creates huge standing waves. The Merimac is probably in flood stage ,that is many thousands of cubic feet per second it will be a mess for days. Hampton is a much smaller water shed and it is not good right now. Pick you times for entry and exit. The swell is expected to get slightly bigger for another day.
When I came in this after noon I had the boat at 4000 RPMs under the bridge just to keep control, my ground speed was 4.6 kn......Usually I come under the bridge at about 1200-1500 RPMs. Please be careful.

Randy