Easy, Oh Joy's maiden voyage. It was forecast for 20-25 knots and ended up blowing 62 knots. It made for a fast if interesting ride.
Sailing your sailboat what were the worst conditions you’ve sailed in?
- Thread starter dserrell
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My first Gulf Stream crossing was a long time ago. I was in an old generation Islander 34 with no electronics for navigation (before GPS, but Loran and RDF were available - I just didn't have them). Only a compass and the light didn't work. Left Dinner Key Marina, Coconut Grove, Miami at 4 pm and headed across toward Bimini with a weather report of SSE winds at 20 with seas not to exceed 4 feet. As it turned out, after passing Fowey Rocks a Northerly showed up and things got wild. Actually read about it a few months later in one of the sailing magazines where a woman fell overboard. Winds were reported to be 50 and I was looking up at seas behind me. The woman was rescued (I read) and I met a charter captain at Alice Town who said that was one of the roughest crossings he had done and that the stream was really cooking north faster than usual. I actually figured my crab course by drawing vectors out on a piece of paper and adhering to my results. I got to Bimini at about 2:30 a.m. and the other three people on board were sea sick. I awoke them to help me anchor the boat and then went to bed after determining my anchor was not drifting. But, that was the first. One of the worse crossings I had was the last time returning from the Bahamas on a 47' ketch. I had spent a couple of months cruising the Abacos and basically got our butts kicked the whole time. We had to wait for a window to cross from Bayside in Miami to West End and when we got there we were rolling into the harbour. Picked up some guests at Newport Lucaya airport and had to wait to go around the top. Got to and sat around Marsh Harbour with guests coming and going and couldn't leave because the seas were 18 feet on the outside. Made our way down to Little Harbour (Pete's Pub) and waited. Got out one morning with a rough ride past the hole in the wall down to Nassau, but winds were behind. Stayed at the Harbour Club for a couple of days and then headed back out towards Florida. Caught some nice fish in the tongue of the ocean and then headed past the NW Providence Channel light across the banks past Mackie Shoals towards North Light. Winds were on the nose and it was a rough ride. Talked to another skipper coming from Florida who had just sailed onto the banks. It was in the middle of the night. He said he had a rough crossing, but winds were behind him and he was on a big boat. Got around North Rock Light and headed to Bimini, but didn't want to try the pass to the inside with the huge swells with winds out of the west, so went down to Gun and Cat Cay cut and dropped a hook to catch sleep and food. I had been up a long, long time at that point. Once again, the forecast for the stream was not so bad and the seas seemed to calm in the late afternoon. Cooked up a nice dinner and headed across the stream towards Key Largo. It got nasty. We were able to hold a close hauled course while sailing, but we were in a center cockpit boat completely enclosed except for the back where the helm was. We tied everything down below, but still stuff was flying all over. Seas got rough and waves were pouring over the top of the boat and crashing into the dinghy on davits in the stern (47' boat). The bow was buried often and my Sig Other at the time came to the cockpit from the forepeak berth to ask if we were safe. I said it would be rough, but we were safe. She went back and spread eagled herself in the berth where tons of water were crashing over the bow. Eventually the davits were ripped from the boat by the waves, but we kept the dinghy attached. It was the roughest crossing I have done now. Got to the reef about 4 am and by the time I hit Rodriguez Key, sun was just up. I just dropped a hook, checked things out and went to bed exhausted. Later that day I got a day off and layed on the bow while the others motored the boat down the Hawk Channel to Marathon where we spend the next night before heading on the Gulf side back to Burnt Store in Charlotte Harbor. The wind was on the nose in the Gulf of M too and so the whole trip was pretty rocky and nasty, but who cares? It is good to pick your weather windows, but it doesn't always work that way, so be prepared. I recall another trip from the Dry Tortugas in a 27' racing ultralight where we (2 of us) were stuck out there due to high seas. When we finally left (after all our food, etc. was gone), we sailed 18 hours straight (no motor) over mountains of seas and got to Key West just before normal last call. It was a rough ride for sure in a very small boat. Then remember racing on lake superior in heavy seas where buckets of water were used to wash off the vomit from crew members on boats around us. Not nice, but then, you just can't go home. You have to tough it out.
Miserable!!!
Passage from San Simeon to Monterey.
Midnight, no moon, dense fog headed north into 35 knots true. 8-12 foot seas from the NW at 10 seconds and 4-7 foot seas from the SW at 16 seconds. It took 31 hours to make 86km.
Two days later we left Monterey and motored to San Francisco on a dead calm as flat as a parking lot!
Passage from San Simeon to Monterey.
Midnight, no moon, dense fog headed north into 35 knots true. 8-12 foot seas from the NW at 10 seconds and 4-7 foot seas from the SW at 16 seconds. It took 31 hours to make 86km.
Two days later we left Monterey and motored to San Francisco on a dead calm as flat as a parking lot!
- Sep 8, 2009
- 171
Thanks for your post! I've been wanting to reply to lots of posts from everybody, and appreciate everybody's posts. It's these events we encounter that makes sailing such a challenging sport! Encountering "true 8-12 foot seas" lets us know things happen, so we better be prepared and adapt as necessary! Sailors posting their worst conditions sailing stories are able to tell their stories, and I"m thankful their still with us. 
However, lots of sailors have lost there opportunity to tell their stories, because they were unable to survive the worst conditions!
However, lots of sailors have lost there opportunity to tell their stories, because they were unable to survive the worst conditions!
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Doomed Ship
My sailboat's only seen 30 knots, but have been aboard larger vessels with alot worse. Including dodging ice bergs north of Spitsenbergin, but here's an encounter that spooks me, a doomed ship, this vessel passed us fishing in Gloucester around 18 years ago.
My sailboat's only seen 30 knots, but have been aboard larger vessels with alot worse. Including dodging ice bergs north of Spitsenbergin, but here's an encounter that spooks me, a doomed ship, this vessel passed us fishing in Gloucester around 18 years ago.
Attachments
If he saw her 18 years ago that was 1991 and the year of the Perfect Storm, which I was also in & very young & dumb. He probably saw her on one of her many trips to the banks as she was a common sight on the banks back then. I used to fish for Blue Fin and we used to see all those Gloucester boats as well as the Portland fleet....
As for me, none of my worst have been on my own boats, so I don't feel qualified to answer. Most I've seen on our current boat is 45-50 but it was in a bay and only three - four feet. Certainly a wet ride with foam but nothing really worthy. In the open ocean, on our current boat, perhaps 30-35 and 8-10 but the wave periods were not anything to even bother writing about.
P.S. For those who visit Isle Au Haut Maine you run a good chance of seeing Linda Greenlaw (Perfect Storm). We've run into her a number of times on the Island and also out to eat here in Portland.
That's Linda's lobster boat, the Mattie Belle, ahead of our boat..
Imperfect storm
Linda has also written two or three books that are really worthwhile reading, incredibly funny.
Linda has also written two or three books that are really worthwhile reading, incredibly funny.
Chesapeake Bay July 2004 (I think), 100dgf, wind died completely,flies everywhere,engine wouldn't start, no more cold beers ....
I gotta relate a 3 incidents. One was in winds up to 48 kts with my Irwin 32. Two reefs in the main kept us moving w/o any real problems. it was an offshore breeze so seas were not a problem.
T storm with winds around 60 kts according to shore reports. Lots of lightning. The 24 ft. Eastwind could not maintain course under power and we had to run with the storm.
At anchor in the North Channel, Canada. 120 kts sunk a boat nearby, knocked boats on the hard off their cradles. We did drag and hit another boat's bow pulpit causing $120 in damage.
T storm with winds around 60 kts according to shore reports. Lots of lightning. The 24 ft. Eastwind could not maintain course under power and we had to run with the storm.
At anchor in the North Channel, Canada. 120 kts sunk a boat nearby, knocked boats on the hard off their cradles. We did drag and hit another boat's bow pulpit causing $120 in damage.
I have been caught in pea soup fog before the days of the Chart Plotter, and we have piloted our 43 foot Slocum down the coast in small craft advisory conditions with swell 10-12ft, plus wind waves and 30-40 knots on deck. But for "worst conditions I would have to go with Liam Wald "Passage from San Simeon to Monterey".
We have been pasted by the Point Sur wind gods more than once. http://www.goliard.us.com/history.html Pt Sur plays a part in The days of Plastic Boats, and Iron Jenney's, and the last part of The Trip To Santa Cruz Island. "the Coast Guard weather broadcast (on Channel 22) called for NW swell of 10 Feet, and gusts locally to 35 Knots through 3:00AM"
The problem at Pt Sur is you are usually motorsailing to weather, and there is a long jump to the next safe harbor. It can be a painfully slow and rough passage even with a working auxilary engine
By the way, I got the Andrea Gail / doomed ship connection from William's picture. I did not connect the timing Cool post!
We have been pasted by the Point Sur wind gods more than once. http://www.goliard.us.com/history.html Pt Sur plays a part in The days of Plastic Boats, and Iron Jenney's, and the last part of The Trip To Santa Cruz Island. "the Coast Guard weather broadcast (on Channel 22) called for NW swell of 10 Feet, and gusts locally to 35 Knots through 3:00AM"
The problem at Pt Sur is you are usually motorsailing to weather, and there is a long jump to the next safe harbor. It can be a painfully slow and rough passage even with a working auxilary engine
By the way, I got the Andrea Gail / doomed ship connection from William's picture. I did not connect the timing
Cool post!- Status