There is an interesting discussion about fear at the cruisers forum - CSBB

[CalebD]

The entire thread is worth reading with (surprisingly) very little name calling or flaming in it. Many of the people posting over there have been across several ponds and eventually been caught in situations where any reasonable person would probably be terrified. It is my belief that most people on this forum do not regularly sail across oceans and would most likely consider themselves either coastal or local cruisers. I know that bad weather offshore probably makes for a more dangerous situation but I also know that bad weather can be found much closer to shore as well.I know that we all pay attention to the weather before we set out but sometimes there is the phenomenon of local weather which can be quite different from the average forecast for your area. I am recalling a summer day back in the 1980s when I had a 14' day sailor anchored in the mooring field of our harbor on the LI Sound. It was a beautiful, warm summer day with plenty of sunshine until thunder was heard. I took a walk with my girlfriend down to the water to watch the weather blow in. What I saw astounded me. A super cell of weather was blowing up quickly from the SW accompanied by lightning; you have seen this cloud shape, a circular shaped wall of cloud was advancing quickly. I watched a few larger sailboats on the water as they headed into their marinas as the weather pattern engaged us. It was amazing to see the main sail of one boat get ripped off the boom and flog as her crew must have turned on their engine. I realized that I was getting pelted with sand from the other side of the harbor a half mile away and that certainly the boat I was watching was getting sand blasted as well. We retreated from the beach a ways until we were under some large oak trees and by now the wind was raging up to 60 mph (I am guessing) as some rather large limbs of the trees began falling all around us. I was terrified and glad I was not on my little boat. The temperature had fallen around 10 - 15 degrees as the front came in and it was over in about a half hour. The weather returned to a sunny summer day and I went down to check on my little 14 footer which I found was totally swamped as was another small sailboat near me. I was able to bail the boat out with a bucket and all was well. I was later told that a twister may have just touched down here. I was glad I was not out sailing on that day but will always remember the sudden ferocity of that micro burst of energy.Anyone else have a profound fear or respect of the weather and water???

 

[Ryan20728]

healthy respect may be more acurate

Your story is cercainly a good reminder to never be complacent about the weather. I like to keep an eye on the weather even at home. Keep an eye on frontal systems, the location of the lows and highs etc. I find that on the boat the weather stations on your VHF are very helpful. The National weather service will definetly include the chance of thunderstorms in their reports. When you find yourself having to ride out a thunderstorm I strongly recomend take down the sails and then slowly motor toward the aproaching storm. You can count on a downburst out of every mature thunderstorm. This downburst comes down out of the storm and then spreads away from it horizontaly on the surface. It consists of cold air, rain and possibly hail. The good thing is that it never lasts long unless it is part of a frontal system.

 

[Peter]

Gut-wrenching feeling...

When it actually hits you. This past summer, during the last week of our introductory cruises we run at Boy Scout summer camp, we had a supercell blow through our anchorage, beside the Jamestown-Surry ferry in Virginia. Ferry reported winds in excess of 70 knots, a funnel cloud almost directly overhead, and further reports of damage at marinas down river as we ended up on our slow journey back to home port with the boats. It came quick, some reported the squall was moving about 45 knots. The weather went from beautiful and sunny to hell on earth in less than 15 minutes. By the time we were able to get to the boats (we were touring Jamestown at the time and had to run back to our dinghy landing), the waves were already cresting over 3 or 4 feet, and our dinghies had been swamped by surf. Even still, it would've been too dangerous to attempt to row to the boats or even then to climb aboard. We just had to pray it would be over quickly and that the anchors would hold until it did. But we were not so lucky. It took another, myself, and whatever other 'implements' we could gather to perform our own salvage operation. 3 weeks and a loss of 10 pounds later, we got all 4 foundered boats home. What an experience that I don't ever want to repeat. Valuable lessons learned at a personal loss to no one but some pride (and the rear window of car stopped in traffic onto which the mast our catalina 27 fell, try explaining that one to the insurance agent). Interestingly enough, prior to that week, I rode out 45 knot t-storm no problem, then again, only a quarter of the wind force with that one. The link is a video I made, with my boss' son giving the narrative, in recognition of our commodore's service, with a few pics of the whole event in the end if you bear with the slide show.

 

[Stillraining]

Calab: I was caught out

in the exact scenario you just described back in 1976 in my Mac21.  I was almost all alone in Puget sound out of Everett as it was a work day and most other boaters well...were at work ...being 17 and a bit free I sailed allot solo...this day was no different . I was between Hat (Gedney) Island and Everett it was awful dark over Mukilteo to the south and I new a squall was coming...well it cam alright and I have never sense experienced that on the water...exactly as you described... It had me almost knocked down buy the time I had the jib and main down..but that was just the beginning. The wind was so fierce so fast that I was still listed at 30 degrees under bare poles . trying to lash the main on the boom the main was riped from its slugs and out of my hands twice and laid flat on the water only attached to the boom.. this took all my strength to hoist aboard each time and i was getting tired quick. The wind waves went from 2' to 8+ in what seemed like minints. To make matters worse I was being pushed to Camano Head , a rock strewn bluff 200' tall. Finally with sails battened down I fired up my 1959 Johnson 6 horse outboard ( Purred like a kitten ) and headed for Hat Island Marina.. All's well I thought untill I picked up and shook my 3 gal fuel tank to see what I had...I WAS ALMOST EMPTY...I was literally running on fumes. I renwed my aquantince with God that day and by his grace made the Marnia 1/2 mile or so away wallowing in thoes sea. I could not help but fathom my predicament on the rocks if I were to run out of gas.  I got some scolding and lecturing on foolhardiness from some old salts and rightly so when I finally entered that marina begging for fuel (No services there, all privet too.) I leaned more that day then 100 combined and it has stuck with me. The old Mac is long gone but not the lesson.

 

[CalebD]

Nice photos Dick Dixon.

The micro burst storm I described happened when I was in my 20s and many parts of the memory are still vivid. One thing that strikes me as unusual about that incident is that those kind of thunderstorms do not usually come through the north east with any regularity as one might expect in the Gulf of Mexico, the Plains states (tornado spawner) and even the mid-Atlantic coast. There is no way of stopping them from going wherever they want to however. The relative infrequency of this kind of event in my area caught many sailors off guard as the one I witnessed having its sails doused by the wind. It is nice to know that once properly prepared (eg., all canvas down) one can weather the 60+ knot local winds in relative safety. As I retreated up the road from the beach there are many 100+ year old oak trees that were shedding limbs all around me. I was quite mesmerized by the experience but certainly being under the oak trees was probably more dangerous than being on a properly prepared boat.I enjoyed everyones contribution so far. Peter's story (and video) impressed me and must have impressed the Boy Scouts who were along for the wild ride. I was sorry to hear about the rigging on the Catalina 27 meeting up with an automobile. You must have had fun explaining that to the insurance adjuster.Stillraining, your story reminds me about youthful exuberance and biting off more than you thought you could chew, but chewed nonetheless. The same 14' day sailor that was swamped by the 'micro burst' storm in my story took me and a sailing friend about 7 miles across LI Sound to the NY/Connecticut border when the pintles/gudgeons on the rudder finally failed. I thought we might be able to sail the boat if we balanced the jib and main but this boat had a handkerchief for a jib so that was a non starter. Luckily we had a sturdy wooden oar aboard (engine, in case of getting becalmed) which was employed by my friend as a sweep oar off the transom. We got home for dinner through ingenuity but I had thoughts of hitch hiking home from Larchmont and beaching the boat somewhere. This does not sound like a big deal but in a boat that could only make about 3-1/2 knots at top speed the 7 mile trip there and back easily took 4 hours. Fortunately we were blessed with decent weather. I still have the poor old boat and the memories.Nasty weather has always fascinated me from a vantage point of land, no matter if localized like a micro burst, or regional like a gale or hurricane. I have been lucky enough so far as to not be caught out on a boat in much more than 35 kt winds and in spite of reading and preparing I still have healthy trepidations when that day comes. Deceased, retired, novices and pessimists; four categories of sailors.

 

[Dick Dixon]

Here's a link to another photo I took.....

that same week as we were crossing Pensacola Bay. Threatening weather moved northward from the gulf, seemingly focused on ruining our day. But as menancing as this looks, the thunderstorn on the left moved to the east and away from us. The one in the background dissapiated. Dick

 

[letterman]

check it out

Saw one. The July 4th storm on Lake Erie. I was working about 60 above the water, in a restaurant that was made to look like a ship. It overhangs the water, but barely. The winds made a wave of about 6 feet, actually a wall of water. One side was calm, the other hell. Sailboats were toppled, powerboats sung, marinas devastated. Shut down the electricity in Cleveland for three days. Blew down hundreds of trees. At the restaurant three windows blew out, two in, one out. Took the lid right off the piano and would have decapitated the player except he ducked. I saw one sailboat lose it sails in seconds. Toledo actually got it worse than we did.The longest Derecho on record cut a path from Upper Michigan to the coast of Maine. Luckily it happened in sparsely populated Canada. http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/casepages/jul41969page.htm

 

[Bad Obsession]

I learned a lesson about weather the hard way

I have told this story a few times before on this form but it is definately one with a bit of a lesson. I am a police officer and I have chased people with guns, served high risk felony search warrants, and been in high speed chases but I have never been as scared as I felt on this day.I had just bought my current boat, a 1990 Catalina 30. The boat was in Deltaville and I had to transport it home to Colonial Beach (30 miles up the Potomac River). The trip was about a 60 mile trip and I had planned for it to be a two day trip. I had to get my new boat out of the marina that it was in and I only gave myself the exact amount of time off to make the two-day sail. This was in early April and I knew that the weather could be unstable this time of year (but we had been having a really nice stretch of weather).I had watched the weather the night before and I knew that the weather was due for a change. I never heard that a cold front was coming through but I knew that the weather was going to deteriorate the evening I was supposed to get back. I figured that I would be back before the weather hit.My uncle, who has 30 years of cruising a sailboat around the Chesapeake Bay, was accompanying me on the trip. He is an extremely good sailor and I am so glad that he was here. When we meet out on the water on trips we still make a toast to the Coan River (this will be explained later).We left Deltaville early in the morning, around 0630 hours. We had beautiful weather and the winds were absolutely perfect. I had caught the tide just right so I left the marina as the tide began to come in. We were making excellent time because of the weather conditions and the tidal lift.As we began to approach Smith Point I made a decision to round the lighthouse. This added a few miles to our trip but I felt that it was safer and I was unfamiliar with the water between Smith Point and the Lighthouse. My uncle said that we would have been fine if we had gone inbetween the point and the lighthouse but I just wanted to be extra safe because this was my new boat.The wind died as we were approaching the lighthouse so I cut on the diesel to make time. Right as we were getting to the lighthouse the wind shifted and it started to blow at 5 knots out of the Northwest (The direction to head into the Potomac River is Northwest and this happens a lot to me when I am sailing back into the Potomac River). Just as we began to round the lighthouse at Smith Point the wind began to build. It went to 10 knots. We extended our course so we could sail into the river. Before I made my first tack to come into the Potomac River the wind built to 15 knots. I started to roll the jib up some to reduce sail area. The sky began to get dark gray and conditions continued to deteroriate.Soon the wind was blowing 20 knots, steady, with higher gusts. At this point we were motor sailing with the main and jib was rolled up. The waves began to build and get rougher. They were already getting 2-3 feet.The wind built even further until we were 40 mile per hour sustained winds with higher gusts. I had lashed the main to the boom (this was a scary experience because I didn't have jacklines out and the waves had built to 4-5 feet. It was not raining, the temperature had dropped 20 degrees, and the waves had built even further. I was taking breaking waves over the bow and we had one wave break ontop of the dodger.After 5 hours of beating into the waves we had made very little progress. My raingear was sub-par it I was wet underneath and very cold. The closest place to go into was the Coan river and it was a ways off. I was afraid that it would be dark by the time we got there, if we got there at all (coming into harbors in the Chesapeake Bay area at night is bad because it is hard to see all of the crab floats and it is so easy to hang one on the shaft). I really felt that we might not make it and I was trying to think of what I would say to my wife about loosing the new boat. I then realized that if we loose the boat I won't have to tell her anything because we will die from hypothermia.Finally, after having our brains beat out for 8 hours we made it into the Coan River. I have never been so happy to set the hook. It was still very cold and the wind howled all night long. I was almost hypothermic from the trip and I couldn't get warm enough in the boat. I slept under two sleeping bags and I was still cold. There was a frost on the deck of the boat the next morning.When we woke up the next morning the wind was still howling. We decided to stay put rather than going out and having our brains beat out for hours and hours.Finally, about 2:00 in the afternoon the wind had subsided enough for us to move. I knew that we couldn't make it home but we still headed downriver for 4 hours (we made it to Tall Timbers that night). I had to call people at work and tell them that I wouldn't be back in time and I had to tell my wife that I was running behind because of weather.I was lucky. No one was hurt and the boat, by some miracle, was not damaged. I will tell you that I watch the weather much closer now and I watch for fronts. I also found out that trying to keep a schedule at sea is a bad idea and it is smart to give yourself extra days for layovers, if need be. I also learned to prepair my boat better and have the necessary gear aboard in case things come up. I keep extra dried food on the boat so I can spend more time out if I need to. One other thing that I had learned from this experience is to be flexible. I should have turned 180 degrees and sailed with a small piece of jib to the Great Wicimico River. I would have been a lot farther from home but I would have taken far less of a beating because it would have been downwind and running with the weather.

 

[Capt. Ed]

Salem Sound storms

First of all the one thing I have on at all times is the weather alert on my VHF . This will usually give me 20/30 mins to find safe harbor ,not much but it helps . My wife and I were out on a dicey day ,we knew there could be storms so we stayed close to home . I asked my wife for the glasses ,I could see that the race committee was pulling the youth fleet into Marblehead harbor real fast . They knew something we did not. So on with the diesel max speed to the mooring. We could see the storm with major lighting strikes ahead . We made it to the mooring with nothing to spare. As I began to decompress a bolt hit real close . So close that it hit a 25 power boat surrounded by 30 40 foot sailboats . The boat burned to the waterline. The Salem ferry had stayed at the dock to weather the storm .The storm abated and the ferry departed for Boston . As the ferry ran down the Marblehead shore we became aware of another storm approaching . A typical wall cloud was over downtown Salem heading our way. We put on our PFD and I made a Security to the ferry .We got slammed by 50/70 mph wind layed the boat on the side ,ya we were scared as hell . I reached the ferry and they were able to scoot into a small cove that got them great shelter .The aftermath ,several overturned boats ,a million dollars damage a a local club ,but no one hurt. They ferry captain could not that us enough , and we had an offer to ride free . Oh by the way the alarm never went off! But I still used it to advantage on several occasions .