Heavy weather, can we be honest?

[estarzinger]

force 8+ conditions about 1% in the tropics and 3% in the higher latitudes (in the summer). . . . . a day or two per year of storm force winds on average (closer to 1 day/month in the Southern Ocean). Contrast that with the fact that we spend about 30% of our time offshore in winds under 10 knots.

That's over some +2 circumnavigations, one easterly and the other westerly, including the southern ocean and much of the high(ish) latitudes.

We had much more breakage in light airs - due to sails slating and popping in ocean swells. But the few strong weather encounters seem to stick in ones memory more, and they certainly make better 'sea stories'.

[30yearslater]

Got more than a few bumps and bruises along the way. Funny thing about the military is they tell you to go and you go. A few gales and a storm or two in the North Atlantic. Blasted flat bottom POS is now a reef off South Carolina. Had a barge run down the tug I was on in Lake Erie and end it. Rather breezy that night. The worst was last year on Lake Ontario when I tangled with a rotating thunderstorm and the associated downdraft. Nearest reporting station it passed over recorded 69 MPH. Comes on fast and is over in less than an hour. Mostly it is light air and big sails as the norm. The true storms of sustained winds are extremely rare. But hell, I love a good sea story so keep them coming even if they are pure BS.

[Lepke]

Heavy weather is in the eye of the beholder. More than 50 years ago, when I still read yacht and sailing mags, I read these stories of fighting thru storms. Some I saved. Later as a commercial fisherman, I reread them and found I considered the sea and swell heights stated in the stories to be either normal fishing weather or good fishing weather.
Unless a pressure area is stalled, the wind is constantly changing. High sustained winds do not last for days, even in a typhoon. Often when a low passes, the waves it built up are knocked down by the changing wind direction.
Almost all stories get embellished. It makes them better. Like the time a bunch of us were in the East End Club in Subic Bay, PI.....

[smith8273]

I just went south from Sausalito to Alameda single-handed. The winds started to build, and I thought maybe just try the jib. As I was un-cleating the roller furler, the wind started to whistle in the rigging. I thought to take the easy path and motor.

Glad I did. Under bare poles I was heeling, and once back I checked the weather and it was 20 with gusts to 27. That was plenty enough for me...

[Dave_S]

I have a great memory as a kid travelling from North Island to South Island in NZ in a 20,000t ? Ferry. Pitch black lots of wind and rain. I was jumping like Superman, I could jump from the bottom to top of a half flight of stairs. Up the bow I could levitate across the deck (lucky not to go over!). Not sure how big the swell was but I know it took the crew by surprise because they rushed down to tie down the cars because they were moving around.

[roland stockham]

Absolutely, we don't sit around the bar telling tails of when we got caught out in a lovely sunny day with 15kn and had to use 3 lots of sun screen, just doesn't have the same impact as a life threatening encounter with a gale off Finistare!
I also do think you have been lucky given your time at sea but it is not just about wind speed. My 'worst' tales include a 3 day storm crossing Biscay in Feb which was a little scary but other than being woken by screams from the crew because she got 10gal of cold sea water through the vent at 2am right onto her bunk we had no problems. Seas were about 50ft but very long and so quite stable (no tumbling tops). winds in the 40's for a full day and gusts to low 50's. Big strong boat and pro crew. At the other end of the scale I called the lifeboat and got piloted in on the north french coast. Wind was maybe 20kn with 6ft seas but I had been solo helming with no autopilot for about 18hr (crew below seasick), missed the tide and got stuck in a race surfing down near vertical waves and was so tired I could not cope. despite what the instruments said I was convinced I was lost and about to hit the beach. That was 25 years and a good few thousand miles ago but make the point that heavy weather for one boat and crew can be a nice brisk sail for another.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Catapault

Ken,

What is that app for med weather please ?

Regards

Mark.

We used pocket gribs for for years, switched to Weather4D pro for most of 2016 and now using PredictWind and paying for the $20 or so per year subscription to get more accurate Adriatic weather. So far it's been excellent.

But don't tell any of the armchair experts here on CF you're using it, even though we enjoy it's accuracy, we've been repeatedly ridiculed for it's use here on the forum.

Good luck.

Ken

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by Lepke

Unless a pressure area is stalled, the wind is constantly changing. High sustained winds do not last for days, even in a typhoon. Often when a low passes, the waves it built up are knocked down by the changing wind direction.

And this is what happens off the northern California / southern Oregon coast in the summer. There is an offshore high and an inland low that can persist for weeks with little change. We call it the "squash zone" or "perma-gale". In between the low and the high there is a steady strong NNW wind and the seas have a good chance to really build up to the south. You can watch the WX charts for weeks and see that region constantly tagged "gale".

In our trip through that region we were trying to stay away from the worst region of the forecast, and the WX charts led me to expect the conditions to be better than they were along our route. I eventually had to get much closer to shore than the forecasts suggested before we got out of that heavy stuff.

[TJ D]

Originally Posted by roland stockham

Absolutely, we don't sit around the bar telling tails of when we got caught out in a lovely sunny day with 15kn and had to use 3 lots of sun screen, just doesn't have the same impact as a life threatening encounter with a gale off Finistare!
I also do think you have been lucky given your time at sea but it is not just about wind speed. My 'worst' tales include a 3 day storm crossing Biscay in Feb which was a little scary but other than being woken by screams from the crew because she got 10gal of cold sea water through the vent at 2am right onto her bunk we had no problems. Seas were about 50ft but very long and so quite stable (no tumbling tops). winds in the 40's for a full day and gusts to low 50's. Big strong boat and pro crew. At the other end of the scale I called the lifeboat and got piloted in on the north french coast. Wind was maybe 20kn with 6ft seas but I had been solo helming with no autopilot for about 18hr (crew below seasick), missed the tide and got stuck in a race surfing down near vertical waves and was so tired I could not cope. despite what the instruments said I was convinced I was lost and about to hit the beach. That was 25 years and a good few thousand miles ago but make the point that heavy weather for one boat and crew can be a nice brisk sail for another.

A lot of truth in this, Roland. Crew attitude does matter a lot. I've had people aboard as crew who were absolutely horrified in 25 knots. I'm sure they went home and talked about the huge, edge of oblivion storm we were sailing in. I wouldn't have even made a mental note of it had it not been for the other guy.

Also, the sea state comment is spot on. Wind's sort of an easier thing to quantify, so that's why I went with that metric, but the only time I've ever done structural damage to one of my boats was sailing upwind in a mere 20-22k, but with a really nasty sea. (The hull to deck joint bolts sheared over about 6' after a particularly nasty crash).

[Mithril Bham]

Known people fishing the Bering all my life and heard amazing stories. Hate storms myself. Worse I've seen (in 55 years of sailing) were winds reaching 82 MPH off of Victoria (not sustained for too long but not gusts) in a Southern Cross 39 under power. All traffic into Victoria shut down. 35 MPH next day to Friday Harbor in November. Highest recorded winds ever that night of 104 in the San Juans that night.
That said wind can seem higher than it seems. Best to ride out storms in port.
Everybody likes a good sea story.

[softdown]

My favorite song in some ways. Gordon Lightfoot is the ultimate wordsmith.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vST6hVRj2A

Wind isn't too dangerous until it is. It has killed plenty of mountaineers and sailors. Lots of boats at the bottom of the ocean.

I figure we should respect the dark possibilities that nature presents and figure that a lot of people are given to rather fantastical exaggeration.

I've lost skin due to hypothermia including a small chunk of my right big toe. The screaming winds had a lot to do with that event. I like to play it safer these days.

Good subject...thanks. Glad that some people refuse to lay in bed in a fetal position while tuned into the extreme Safety Sams.

[Catapault]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

We used pocket gribs for for years, switched to Weather4D pro for most of 2016 and now using PredictWind and paying for the $20 or so per year subscription to get more accurate Adriatic weather. So far it's been excellent.

But don't tell any of the armchair experts here on CF you're using it, even though we enjoy it's accuracy, we've been repeatedly ridiculed for it's use here on the forum.

Good luck.

Ken

Thanks Ken,

PS: I have little use for 'arm chair experts' and tend to ignore them.. But I AM a fan of what works, by other people doing similar activities !.

Heading out into the Agean in 3 weeks, and the Adriatic in August...

Hopefully no nasty weather !

Regards

[Suijin]

I've seen winds over 35 knots offshore probably a dozen times, but that's pretty exclusively related to ocean races where you can't pick your window and you go when you have to go. And deliveries of those boats back on a schedule. If I recollect correctly very few times did those blows last longer than 24 hours. I can only confirm that one lasted at least that long, come to think of it. And of those dozen or so experiences, I think maybe three or four max of them were non-races.

The only one that was really concerning was returning from Bermuda, hove to at night and surrounded by thunder and lightning with a non-responsive freighter bearing down on us. But that had more to do with the lightning and the freighter lol

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

We used pocket gribs for for years, switched to Weather4D pro for most of 2016 and now using PredictWind and paying for the $20 or so per year subscription to get more accurate Adriatic weather. So far it's been excellent.

But don't tell any of the armchair experts here on CF you're using it, even though we enjoy it's accuracy, we've been repeatedly ridiculed for it's use here on the forum.

Good luck.

Ken

I'm a bit befuddled why anyone would ridicule you for it. All the data is pulled from the same couple of sources; you just found a service that is affordable and and which has presentation that works for you.

Hell, I use the WindyTV app all the time. PredictWind looks like rocket science in comparison, lol

[B00B00]

Yes I do agree that people do tend to massively overstate the wind strength and also the average boat speeds. In both cases they look at the highest number and choose that. In my experience the average boatspeed is normally the slowest number you see on the dial.

We get our share of gales in NZ, wellington in particular has an average of over 100 days of gale force winds per year and an average wind strength of 29km an hour (10kph more than Chicago).
It really does howl there and with some parts of cook straight/french pass getting 5-8kts of tide it really makes for some truly heinous conditions.
I can honestly say we have raced in 50kts of wind there many times-gusts only, not sustained but still fresh to frightening.

This was the last time I sailed down there. 35fter at 27kts boatspeed, if you dont believe me then watch the video.... We had 35-55kts for about 5hrs, probably one of the best 5 hrs of my life... Skip the first 30 sec.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_kdKU-lWVg