Re: Bad Weather question
First, welcome to the world of boating. I think you will find it to be a lot of fun and a great way to unwind from the pressures of everyday life. That said, it is an activity that is best enjoyed when considerable time and effort is invested in becoming educated in regard to safety, boat handling, maintenance, etc.
I'm not familiar with your boat, so I did a little surfing on the net to see what type of hull it is. It looks to me that the boat is one of the recently popular deckboat hybrids - a little bit deck boat, a little bit ski boat, a little bit cruiser, etc. While it looks like a very nice and very practical boat in many ways, it will have certain limitations. In regard to rough water, that limitation may be handling ability and "seaworthyness." This is not to say that it isn't a good boat - it just might not be the boat to handle rough water comfortably, or in extreme conditions, safely.
Now that you have had an experience that has shown what weather and "sea" conditions that your boat doesn't do well in, you have a benchmark on what to avoid. In this sense, you have just had your first lesson in seamanship. You also had a lesson in the importance of maintaining a constant awareness of weather conditions.
From now on, I suspect that you will check the weather before you go out in the boat. Now that you know to do this, extend the practice by monitoring weather throughout the day. This is easy to do - just about any VHF marine radio these days has multiple NOAA Weather Radio channels built in. When it becomes apparent that those conditions will exceed both your boat's capabilities and your experience level, its time to make a change of plans and get to safety. BTW, this is true of any boat. Each has its own limitations and they must be respected.
As others in this thread have said, boating safety and seamanship courses are also valuable. I have been boating for nearly fifty years and learned what I know about the activity from the teachings of other boaters, practical experience and a minor amount of studying. I also hold a commecial pilot certificate and had to study weather and climate during flight school. Inspite of all of this background, I recently decided to begin to do some formal study on boating and safety. I'm doing this because of a thread right in this boating forum, which asked how many members have actually taken a boating safety course. Frankly, the thread made me think about a few things. None of us "know it all" and, as I thought about the topic, I decided that there were surely many things that I have forgotten over the years.
For this reason, I have started the process by "taking" the BoatUS Foundation online boating course. I'm studying a little bit each night and willl take the exam when I'm ready. Once I have completed this course, I'll probably find another one to do - perhaps Power Sqaudron or something like it.
I guess the bottom line is that we have to always be willing to learn as boaters.
