Potomac hammered by thunderstorm

[Jim Seamans]

We had a once in a summer thunderstorm go through on Thursday July 19 in the afternoon. All of this is second hand from people at the dock.The winds were clocked at 90mph at the Nice bridge which is 10 miles up river from Cobb Island. The weather guys said we had a massive micro burst, the storm started up around Dahlgren and tracked down to St Mary's which is around 30-40 miles Ron who was on the dock said it came in real fast and looked like a wall of water up in the sky. Said they went from a fairly nice afternoon to abandon ship. Ron said it lasted about 30 minutes constant. Almost every boat in the slips were laided over but everyone survived. A few biminis got torn, my main started coming out the mast but Ron wrapped a line around it to the mast. Nice save Ron. I forgot to lock it in (dummy me).The 'Jenny Lynn' a H37, was out on the river and got slammed. They saw it coming at the last moment and were trying to get their sails down when it hit. They suffered a knockdown water coming in some open ports. Their rudder quadrant is broken couldn't get the engine started and had to be towed in. Ripped their jib and probably some other damage. Reports of large cat going over and pitch poled, no other info on them. There were calls going out all up and down the Potomac.We had been out sailing this weekend and when putting the boat to bed yesterday, I went to put the cover on the pedestal and couldn't find it. Thought Joan had taken it off but no. So that is a loss to the the storm.Hope, 'Jenny Lynn' relates their story here.Anyone else involved with the storm? Lets hear from you. JimS/V Java

 

[Ben16737]

They weren't joking.

I live in St. Mary's county, we did get blasted. I work right next to the St. Mary's river, near its mouth at the Potomac, it was an impressive sight to see. I only went outside to check my car windows, and ran back in as soon as I realized what we were in for. It felt like prime conditions for a tornado.But it was all over quickly. Take a look at the graphs for Pax on sailflow.com; they show ~10 all day til 4 o'clock, then the gusts spike up over 55, then just as quickly back to 10. All over in about a 1/2 hour.

 

[Shippy]

time of year

Ouch....we had something like that up here last Tuesday (I think it was Tuesday). It actually became a reported tornado (Fallston area). Fortunately for the boats, the worse was more inland.

 

[Gaditano15920]

Good training!!

Thanks Jim for helping me relive the nightmare!! Just kidding...it was a gourgeous day on the river winds 10-15 knots, low humidity...just perfect. NOAA called for 30% chance of rain, typical this time of year...no biggie. We were heading back to the marina at Cobb Island after a wonderful sailing day when we noticed a dark white mass over the island heading our way. As I turned the boat into the wind to drop sail it hit us with full force, waves, wind and driving rain. I managed to drop the main quickly but the foresail takes a little bit to furl so consequently there was lots of noisy drama going on up front. Even though the rudder was turned the boat did not respond since we lost all forward momentum. We quickly hit 40 degrees on our inclinometer and thought we were about to flip. I turned the engine on to get some water going over the rudder but it was to late by then, we stayed in that position (35-40 degrees) for what seems a lifetime. My first mate Jenn went downstairs to button all the hatches and to get the extra flotation devices. Got to give her a big thumbs up for managing all that in the violently picthing bowels of the boat. Since we could not turn the boat into the wind under engine power I figured the next best thing would be to drop anchor and ride it out but with the angle of the deck that severe I had a better chance of going for a swim than dropping anchor (no I was not tied in). About 15 minutes into this fun the iron genny decided to turn herself off so the decision to drop anchor was pretty much made for me at that time...that was special . Jenn hailed the Coast Guard and gave them our GPS coordinates in case we went into the drink. They asked the usual triage questions and decided to keep an ear out for us every few minutes to make sure our situation had not worsened. They were kinda busy during that time I'm sure. The microburst finally dissipated, the iron genny cranked right up but since I think I had monkey gripped the wheel to hard for to long since now it was stuck. We ended up calling Boat US towing and got towed back (unlimited towing ). Got hauled out and drank a couple of bottles of Pinot Noir. We learned alot that day and chaulk it up to great training. We have completed our afteraction/ lessons learned report and will be even more prepared for the next one. Boat damage was torn UV protection on the foresail, maybe some stiching damage and damaged steering...I think I may even have a few fingerprints embedded in the wheel itself. Bitch of it all is that we wont be able to get back in the water for a month or so unless Jim or my brothers at the Pirates Den Marina offer up some space on theirs!!

 

[Gaditano15920]

No clue

Shippy,  Dont really know why the engine conked out...we had a full tank so I know she didnt pick up any air in the system (thats happened before on a rough trip plus low fuel). I kept the rpms down to around 2000 so as not to stress her out. Only thing I could think of is maybe she overheated since the water intake was out of the water?? I dont have a temp gauge so maybe that was it...anyway she started right up after about 30 minutes. Those yanmars are bulletproof. The steering problem on the other hand I believe was cause by my temporary adrenaline fueled superpowers since I kept the wheel cranked all the way in my futile atempt to put her into the wind.We discussed what we could have done better; Heading to a protected anchorage if possible, dropping anchor sooner, dropping sail earlier...you know the basic things you read about.S/V Jenny Lynn