Outstanding. You got a taste of what it could do in a "situation" right off. Better than learning the hard way. Glad he got her fixed for your test drive. Gives him some credibility. Hopefully he gave you some pointers while he (I guess) was navigating the waves. While we are talking about waves, I don't remember if you are new to boating or not, but on any body of water it helps to have a current weather report and keep one eye on the weather. Don't wait till it's on you, when you see one brewing, head for the dock. If you want, you can wait it out and go back out when it passes over. Sure beats getting caught out in a storm.
When I was growing up on the Texas coast, in the mornings things were beautifully tranquil. Over the course of the day, most every day, the wind would increase in intensity to the point that in the afternoon, it would be up 15-20 mph and the bays would be full of white caps. Nice thing about that was that the seas were following so the ride back to the dock was soft and dry even though you were burying the bow in the next wave.....helped to have a good flare to the bow and a closed deck and windshield.
Another one of the problems there was afternoon squalls. The water circulation cycle from surface to atmosphere to surface was such that around noonish, you'd see the Cumulous Clouds collecting and then they would change from white to grey to near black, the sky would blacken and here'd come the squall. High winds whipping the water into a frothy turmoil and then It would rain cats and dogs for 5ish minutes and then poof....all dissipated and seas were gently rolling.
So, to stay out of trouble it helped that you knew these things and kept a keen eye to catch them before they caught you.
Good luck.
Mark
