So its a nice sunny Sunday and the wife and I take our 18 month old out on the boat yesterday for a cruise. No wind at all and zero chop. The baby falls asleep within 5 minutes of being out there and I pick a course pointed south that keeps her in the shade of the bimini as I idle out onto the lake. She sleeps for an hour and I guess we made about 6 miles at this point but we are only maybe 2 miles from shore. As the baby wakes up my wife is looking after her and I shut off the motor to float around while we have lunch. I look out and notice a huge freighter coming out of Hamilton Harbour off in the distance, over a mile away for sure, maybe 2. I don't think much of it other than "damn that is a big vessel for Lake Ontario" and go back to pulling some lunch out of the cooler for the baby.
About 20 minutes later I look up from helping feed our daughter and headed straight at the bow of the boat... IS THE BIGGEST FREAKING WAVE I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!
I am not kidding around here and I have been boating for almost 40 years. I don't know how to measure it but I have to guess that from trough to crest this wave is 10'. The motor was off as we were just floating along and THANK GOD we were pointed right at it. I had no time to do anything but grab my daughter and yell at my wife to get down in the bottom of the boat. We hit the initial wave, dropped into the trough and then I swear it felt like the bow was pointed straight up for a minute before we rode down the other side. Amazingly no water came into the boat, probably because the crests were far enough apart to let the boat react. The baby was crying, probably from my reaction and I have to tell you it was a very scary moment. I don't want to guess what would have happened if we were sideways to this monster. Our daughter did have her life jacket on but my wife and I never wear them. There were a ton of boats out on the lake and behind us by a mile or so were two large sailboats that I saw hit this wake a few minutes later and both plunged their bows deep into the second wave. I'm sure anything not secured below would have been tossed around. I thought maybe I should broadcast a warning on my VHF but I haven't really learned how to use it yet and have no idea about the protocol of doing such, what channel, etc.
SERIOUS lesson learned about big lake boating. This freighter was leaving Hamilton Harbour with what I now can guess was a full load of steel and must have been very very heavy. Who would have thought the wake would be that large and travel that far and still be so substantial. Anyway, you can believe I will be so observant in future and really feel lucky to have avoided a possible deadly accident.
I think this will be my last season on the lake with a 21' boat. I do love having the marina so close to home and everytime we get out on the water I say how much I love being out there. I think a 260 is in my future or a Vista.
