Small craft advisory

The Weather Service's warning that wind and seas have reached hazardous-to-small-boats territory.

A small craft advisory means sustained winds or seas, roughly the 20 to 33 knot band and the steep water it builds, that small boats have no business commuting in. It is issued for the coastal waters you would actually be on, and it is the forecast line rental operators cancel against.

The inside Waterway blunts the seas but not the wind, and the inlets on an advisory day are flatly out. When the advisory flies, the break-even math favors the marsh cruise, the early start, or the rain check.

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Put the words to work

Vocabulary is easier at the helm.

The free South Carolina boater safety course teaches all of this in twelve chapters with a sixty question practice exam, and when you are ready for the water itself, one form gets you rental quotes from local operators.

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