This is the USAS American Mariner. It was used mainly for missile tracking testing during its lifetime. After it was retired from service in 1964, it was scuttled in shallow water in the Chesapeake Bay and used for missile target practice until 1971. It now does nothing but sit in the middle of the bay collecting rust and barnacles.
My friend and I want to go see it. It's scuttled about eight miles from shore. Neither of us or any of our friends or family own a motor boat, so I was thinking about purchasing/ borrowing/ making a small row boat for us to use to make the trip.
Will the journey be very hard? It'll be at least sixteen miles total, plus a little more due to the inevitability of us drifting a little off course on the way. The ship is, again, in the Chesapeake Bay. Neither of us are particularly unhealthy (we're both pretty skinny due to high metabolisms). I'd consider myself "somewhat athletic" due to my work as a construction laborer and my frequent biking. My friend hasn't done much physical activity since he stopped running cross country two years ago...
If both of us row, can we make it? Will the sheer distance exhaust us and doom us to be swept away by the current? Or will we be overpowered by large waves in the middle of the bay?
>>775146
tldr
You will die, and become the aquatic equivalent of Christopher McCandless.
>>775149
tl;dr, can two skinny scrubs row 8 miles into the Chesapeake Bay and back without dying
>>775150
are you being sarcastic or will we actually die
>>775152
no
>>775146
>Will the sheer distance exhaust us and doom us to be swept away by the current?
Probably.
>Or will we be overpowered by large waves in the middle of the bay?
Possibly.
Plus a thousand different ways to die if you were to actually set foot on the ship for some reason.
At the very best you will get yelled at after getting picked up by the coastguard or search and rescue.
>>775166
First time I read it as 'large whales in the middle of the bay'
>>775146
You should just rent something with a motor.
>>775206
>>775210
that's plan b
>>775249
That should be plan a. Although honestly even with a motor I reckon you're going to need the Coast Guard to save your ass at some point in the expedition.
>>775146
If you don't use a motor, at least use a sail.
>8 miles from shore
>8
>FUCKING
>MILES
>going to use a home-made rowboat to row out into the whitecaps in the middle of the ocean
lmao
This has got to be a troll, right?
>>775146
It's not the rowing 16 total miles part that is the risky business really, it's the doing so out to sea with no experience and probably no safety precautions.
The ocean is the most violent, unpredictable wilderness in the world.
That being said people obviously make 8 mile offshore travels daily with ease, so just do a minimal amount of research and figure out the right way to do it. It is the difference between Davy Jones and an absolutely easy going great boating trip.
Now that I think about it it truly is amazing that routine, easy, trips can also be death-defying (or death-resulting) trips when it comes to the ocean.
As a comparison it would be like if someones daily, easy, ipod listening trail-jog through a suburban trail was just as easily someone elses wilderness-death.
The ocean really is the greatest.
Op if you have to ask a japanese image posting website any of these questions I would just play it safe and not leave the house
>>776274
>Chesapeake Bay
>Ocean
Not quite the same m8. If this deck wasn't below me I would be floating in the bay right now.
>>776896
This is pretty much the perfect disclaimer for anything on /out/ or /diy/.
>>775146
>at least sixteen miles
holy fuck mate don't do it, certainly not in a homemade little rowboat, you'll end up on the news
just rent a proper motorboat, even kids get their boat licenses
>>775146
This is a word of warning from someone who goes out on the lower bay frequently.
I have a small 15ft semi-V skiff that I built with both oars and a 15hp outboard, as well as I frequently sail with a friend in his Catalina 30. The skiff with three people it will plane at around 12kn, and I regularly take it out to the second island on the bay bridge tunnel launching from Lynnhaven inlet. I would keep a careful eye to the weather as it can quickly go south, and I would not want to be out with 10ft waves in anything under 20 ft. Along with this, the current likely won't be an issue for you as you are farther north, however, I have had an experience where the engine died around the 64 bridge and we could hardly keep the boat ahead of the current with just the oars.
If you want something similar that is closer to shore, you might want to check out the concrete ships at kiptopeke.
OP here. Checking in on the thread after a couple days of ignoring it (it was pretty much resolved after 10 minutes. I realize now that the trip is a bad idea).
I'd just like to let some of you guys know that the Chesapeake Bay is not an ocean.
