I spent my summers as a kid crossing the Winchester Bay bar in all sorts of conditions, and only fools would try to cross when the Coast Guard declared it closed (even in daylight.) This bar has killed many experienced captains who "know better" than the coasties. The "Bikini Sue" was arguably one of the safest charter vessels in the fleet, it was a 40' or better steel vessel with a captain who had been crossing the bar before I was born. He argued with the Coast Guard and the bar. He made it about 100 yards further than this captain, no survivors. The "Red Rooster" is a charter vessel that went down when I was a kid (60's or 70's) with a large loss of life. "Holiday" is another charter boat that sank off the bar, although he was peering at his radar in the fog and broadsided a fishing boat. (All survived that one due to fast response by the 44' patrolling the bar.) There seem to be two types of people who die on the bar -- the extreme novices ("Which side of the bar are the red crab floats on?") and people with too much experience. You can make it through the bar in dangerous conditions by luck often enough to become contemptuous of the real danger. There is as of yet no way to predict a "sneaker" wave that can easily be twice the average wave height, and those are what seem to get the experienced guys. (The inexperienced ones try to cross on the outside of the jetty in the fog.) A problem with this bar is that sneakers can form a long way off the mouth of the bar (past the red can, even) if the current conditions are right. It is often extra rough there. I used this information as a teenager to convince my parents that the weather was worsening when I decided that I was tired of fishing... George Rankin OysterCatcher