we started fishing the western basin between the water intake and west sister just drifting with the wind and letting our boat do all the work. but I got an old 18' Cherokee aluminum boat and put my 80 HP Mariner motor on it with a 15p prop. we made a trip up just about every weekend from Memorial weekend until around the 1st week of July. we never had a day we couldn't get out. but a few times if it started getting rough we headed to the harbor. an 18' deep-V is an ideal boat for the western basin plus it's easy to trailer or use playing in the water at home. don't ever feel ashamed to head in if it starts getting rough while you are fishing. it will save you a much rougher ride back in and it may even save your life. One thing that is very important in rough water is speed. there have been many times on the central basin that we only ran between 11 and 14 MPH from 15 miles out in my 21' open bow cobia glass boat. just enough to keep the bow up so we wasn't just dipping water over the bow. we have fished 5 footers when we were already out. just go slow when it's called for.