On Thursday I went out at about 8:00 a.m. planning to be back in by noon or one o’clock due to the forecast calling for afternoon t-storms. Weather was gorgeous and I got further from home than I should have; I sailed up the lake to the north until about 10:50 am before turning around. Coming back the wind died away and I was going upwind so progress was slow. At 1:12 my wife texted me that a bad storm had hit the house and power was out - "get back to the dock" she said. I actually had started the motor and was heading in before that, seeing the clouds building in the west and hearing thunder about 5 miles distant, but left the sails up thinking that if I could catch a puff or two I could get home quicker.
Well the storm rolled in with frightening speed. I could see the wind front approaching from about 2 miles away, pushing a wall of white spray torn from the water surface before it, a sight I will never forget. It covered those 2 miles in under 2 minutes. I hauled down the genoa, let go the main halyard, and put on my life jacket and then it hit with the main half down, laid the boat almost on her beam ends then spun her around and drove her. I was more or less helpless, could not turn into the wind to get the main the rest of the way down. The main thrashed itself to ribbons in short order. The wind pressure on the mast and remains of the main still heeled the boat 30 degrees and more even though it was far on the port quarter. I kept the tiller down to leeward and the engine on with the motor tiller down to leeward too, could round up about 20 to 30 degrees from dead downwind but no more. I had about a mile of open water under my lee but by steering up to port as much as I could, bought another mile (the lake at that point lies on a SW-NE axis, wind was in the west so by steering approximately 65 degrees I was a little more parallel to the shore). Used up my two miles in maybe 15 or 20 minutes, although it seemed much longer. There was a brief lull when I was no more than 100 yards off shore during which I got her turned around and headed back into the wind, then another hard blast pushed me bodily to port and backwards onto the rocks.
Hit with a hard shock and then for the next 30 minutes the waves, 2 or 3 feet high, would pick up the boat and drop her back down on the rocks. I could’ve jumped out and waded ashore, only about 10 feet, but stayed with the boat. I was relatively safe there, just hard up against a couple of large boulders.
At 2:12 p.m. I called the sheriff’s department to ask them to contact the lake patrol, gave them my lat/long from Navionics (35 deg 58.954’ N, 95 deg 15.346’ W) and told them I was not in danger but did need assistance.
The wind finally slackened and shifted direction 180 degrees as the front moved east. With the wind shift I was no longer pinned against the rocks and floated free into a little cove. I lowered the motor (I had raised it to keep it from beating on the rocks) and started back down the lake. Called the sheriff’s department back and said never mind about the lake patrol, I had refloated and was under way.
On the way back down to the marina the wind was blowing pretty hard from the east, around 20 kts or so but nothing like before. She did steer even though the rudder had taken a severe pounding on the rocks. I motored back to the marina which I realized as I came in had been heavily damaged, the covered dock at the end of the sailboat dock where my slip is had been torn completely away and driven into the main dock where the office and gas pump are located. I started a different thread on the marina damage.
After pulling into my slip and starting to put everything away I noticed that the floorboards were awash and the carpeting saturated. With help from a couple of other sailors who had come out to assess damage, we passed some ratchet straps and ropes under the hull and secured to the dock to hopefully keep her from sinking. I only have a manual bilge pump and the plastic hose which is original equipment from ’79 was dried out and brittle, it cracked and split so I couldn’t pump out. One of the marina people said they’d get an electric pump over there and pump her out as soon as the power is back on. I plan to get a battery powered bilge pump and float switch to hook up and keep her pumped out and afloat until I can arrange to have her hauled so I can see the extent of the damage underneath, which I am afraid is pretty bad.
I learned that the storm is what is called a “derecho”, a fairly rare event in which straight-line winds of over 60 mph are sustained for an extended period. The entire area suffered millions in damage and there’s been a disaster declaration. Power is still out now, about 40 hours later, for several thousand homes and not projected to be fully restored until Monday afternoon.
Counting blessings, I survived unhurt and was not dismasted or sunk. In hindsight I can say that I never should have gone out or stayed out so long with the forecast for storms. Seeing the storm coming I should probably have anchored – even if it dragged I probably wouldn’t have gone aground.
Well the storm rolled in with frightening speed. I could see the wind front approaching from about 2 miles away, pushing a wall of white spray torn from the water surface before it, a sight I will never forget. It covered those 2 miles in under 2 minutes. I hauled down the genoa, let go the main halyard, and put on my life jacket and then it hit with the main half down, laid the boat almost on her beam ends then spun her around and drove her. I was more or less helpless, could not turn into the wind to get the main the rest of the way down. The main thrashed itself to ribbons in short order. The wind pressure on the mast and remains of the main still heeled the boat 30 degrees and more even though it was far on the port quarter. I kept the tiller down to leeward and the engine on with the motor tiller down to leeward too, could round up about 20 to 30 degrees from dead downwind but no more. I had about a mile of open water under my lee but by steering up to port as much as I could, bought another mile (the lake at that point lies on a SW-NE axis, wind was in the west so by steering approximately 65 degrees I was a little more parallel to the shore). Used up my two miles in maybe 15 or 20 minutes, although it seemed much longer. There was a brief lull when I was no more than 100 yards off shore during which I got her turned around and headed back into the wind, then another hard blast pushed me bodily to port and backwards onto the rocks.
Hit with a hard shock and then for the next 30 minutes the waves, 2 or 3 feet high, would pick up the boat and drop her back down on the rocks. I could’ve jumped out and waded ashore, only about 10 feet, but stayed with the boat. I was relatively safe there, just hard up against a couple of large boulders.
At 2:12 p.m. I called the sheriff’s department to ask them to contact the lake patrol, gave them my lat/long from Navionics (35 deg 58.954’ N, 95 deg 15.346’ W) and told them I was not in danger but did need assistance.
The wind finally slackened and shifted direction 180 degrees as the front moved east. With the wind shift I was no longer pinned against the rocks and floated free into a little cove. I lowered the motor (I had raised it to keep it from beating on the rocks) and started back down the lake. Called the sheriff’s department back and said never mind about the lake patrol, I had refloated and was under way.
On the way back down to the marina the wind was blowing pretty hard from the east, around 20 kts or so but nothing like before. She did steer even though the rudder had taken a severe pounding on the rocks. I motored back to the marina which I realized as I came in had been heavily damaged, the covered dock at the end of the sailboat dock where my slip is had been torn completely away and driven into the main dock where the office and gas pump are located. I started a different thread on the marina damage.
After pulling into my slip and starting to put everything away I noticed that the floorboards were awash and the carpeting saturated. With help from a couple of other sailors who had come out to assess damage, we passed some ratchet straps and ropes under the hull and secured to the dock to hopefully keep her from sinking. I only have a manual bilge pump and the plastic hose which is original equipment from ’79 was dried out and brittle, it cracked and split so I couldn’t pump out. One of the marina people said they’d get an electric pump over there and pump her out as soon as the power is back on. I plan to get a battery powered bilge pump and float switch to hook up and keep her pumped out and afloat until I can arrange to have her hauled so I can see the extent of the damage underneath, which I am afraid is pretty bad.
I learned that the storm is what is called a “derecho”, a fairly rare event in which straight-line winds of over 60 mph are sustained for an extended period. The entire area suffered millions in damage and there’s been a disaster declaration. Power is still out now, about 40 hours later, for several thousand homes and not projected to be fully restored until Monday afternoon.
Counting blessings, I survived unhurt and was not dismasted or sunk. In hindsight I can say that I never should have gone out or stayed out so long with the forecast for storms. Seeing the storm coming I should probably have anchored – even if it dragged I probably wouldn’t have gone aground.
