Many riding out Storm Evert in the Scillies ?

[Bathdave]

Not many boats showing on marine traffic right now

whats it like there in a big blow ? No big deal for the seasoned veterans with a spade/rocna/whatever ? Or a sleepless and anxious night?

 

[Poey50]

A Bft9 veering through 110 degrees in the pitch dark? No thanks. Newlyn chippie for me.

 

[Mistroma]

It all depends on circumstances. Last windy spell was a few years ago in Greece when we had a named storm followed by a Medicane tracking over our position. We planned ahead, found a good spot and had a spare anchor ready on deck as well. The main problem is usually other boats crewed by people with zero experience. We put our main anchor very close to shore and had about 70m of chain out, similar to the adjacent boat. A charter boat arrived late and decided to anchor in front of us and put out about 20m chain. We had a conversation and he didn't know about the approaching Medicane. The skipper of the other boat pointed out that he'd drag across his chain when the wind shifted and probably drag back into me long before that happened. At least we didn't need to shout to be heard as he was close enough for a more normal level of speech.

Mostly OK after that until the expected shift arrived and we ended up with another boat steadily dragging back towards us. Not much we could do except run out another 30m of chain and deploy lots of fenders. It wasn't sensible for us to move in the dark with the wind strength. No other problems though, just a sleepless night or two. Others came off much worse with vessels sunk or badly damaged in nearby harbours. Many were charter boats and had no idea of the approaching bad weather until it was too late to do anything.

My brother-in-law and his wife left Portsmouth at 22:15 tonight in a ferry en-route for Santander. I hope they manage to get some sleep before it gets a bit windy in the channel.

 

[Tintin]

A friend is anchored at Green Bay, Bryher, tonight. Fingers crossed, and I hope he's got a lot of tackle out.

 

[longjohnsilver]

A friend is anchored at Green Bay, Bryher, tonight. Fingers crossed, and I hope he's got a lot of tackle out.

I too have a good friend somewhere on Scilly, suspect also Green Bay, hopefully well up and aground on the beach.

 

[tat27]

I have been following Stargazer's posts from the Scillies, for the last few weeks with interest: All at Sea with Stargazer

 

[Bobc]

I hear that a few moorings have dragged and at least one boat is on the rocks. Sounds like it was an ugly night.

 

[typhoonNige]

With the number of boats in my usual Scilly bolt hole, we left and spent a very comfortable night on a mooring at Helford.

 

[andy59]

Apparently the Sennen lifeboat bashed her way over to IOS to help and the SAR helcopter was over porthcress and tean sound , hope everyone is ok.

 

[Bristolfashion]

Mooring in the Orwell is daring enough for me!

 

[bdh198]

We got out on Monday, but feeling the strength of the wind even in a protected marina in Falmouth I’m very glad we weren’t on an anchor watch in a ‘sheltered’ Scillonian anchorage during the night in those conditions!

Looking at the AIS, it seems one boat was anchored in Porth Cressa, which seems a particularly brave move considering the wind direction! Although, I suspected he had the benefit of an empty anchorage.

 

[dunedin]

Sounds like a scary experience, hope everybody has come through OK

But appropriately named typhoonNige’s comment is very relevant …..

With the number of boats in my usual Scilly bolt hole, we left and spent a very comfortable night on a mooring at Helford.

Presumably this storm has been forecast for some time? Even 10 years ago, with the last summer F10 storm forecast that I experienced when cruising, whilst it hadn’t featured in the (ridiculously short time window) Inshore Waters, I had seen it developing on XCWeather.
Having just arrived at our intended cruising area, I took the prudent but tough decision and did a prompt U-turn and spent 3 days sailing back to position ourselves in the safest harbour in the region. That storm (May 2021) sadly wrecked a lot of boats in Scotland.

Surely more boats had time to head back to better shelter? However, I guess the SW harbours and anchorages are pretty busy also. Hope everybody at Scilly and the SW comes through unscathed.

 

[andy59]

Porthloo last night

 

[bdh198]

Surely more boats had time to head back to better shelter? However, I guess the SW harbours and anchorages are pretty busy also. Hope everybody at Scilly and the SW comes through unscathed.

We were on a visitors mooring on the Helford yesterday afternoon, and I was surprised to see several were still free even when we left for a more comfortable ride in a marina.

 

[typhoonNige]

We were on a visitors mooring on the Helford yesterday afternoon, and I was surprised to see several were still free even when we left for a more comfortable ride in a marina.

We picked up the last available Helford visitors mooring at 1500hrs yesterday. It was flat calm throughout last night

 

[Bobc]

This posted this morning on Facebook by someone on a mooring buoy in the Scillies last night:-

We'll be safe on a mooring buoy, won't we?
[Skinny/ short story: New moorings in Isles of Scilly dragged/ snapped in the storm.]
Last night a storm raged across the south coast of the UK, and like many others we were on our boat, we live on it.
We're currently in the Isles of Scilly, on a mooring between Tresco and Bryher. Originally we planned to head back to the mainland to hide from the weather, after enjoying a few great days on the isles, but after being at anchor originally, a mooring became free which was tucked up inside on the anchorage, close to Tresco, with a buffer of other moored boats between us and the boats swinging at anchor.
This originally felt great because one of the first issues we noticed with this particular anchorage was the disparity of swing circles between moored and anchored boats, especially at low water, and at the change of the tide, we found ourselves helping people avoid impacts as a result. So as soon as we saw this mooring become free, we snapped it up.
After we'd settled down and explored some of the islands we started to think about what came next, as we could see the weather heading our way, a good few days out, a picture that only became higher resolution with each passing day.
After much discussion between ourselves, a couple of the locals and the harbour master, we decided to stay put and ride out the storm with (what we believed was) the relative safety of what turned out to be a fairly new mooring, only being bedded within the last twelve months.
The plan was to triple up our mooring lines and we even made a mooring chain/ rope, to try and mitigate chafe. As it happened, ironically, that was the first mooring line to snap, fairly early on too!

It was a wild ride last night and no sleep was had, I was up on deck closely monitoring the two remaining lines, thankfully, they held fast.
Sadly I can't say the same for everyone else. As far as I can make out so far, at least two boats have dragged their mooring buoys, one looks ever so slightly aground, I spoke to them and we've decided to wait until about 9am when things have calmed down a bit and assess to see if there's anything we can do to help, the other vessel, sadly, was washed up onto the rocks, and at the time of writing this, it seems to have come adrift. The crew, it would appear, have left the boat in the night and made it to shore, from what could be made out on the radio. It's hard to watch it coming on and off of the rocks, but it's right at the top of the anchorage, and as much as I love our new Highfield, the sea state there looks a bit too rambunctious for my liking.
Another boat seemed to have had it's main sail pulled out by the wind and at about 3am this morning, Carly noticed it looking wildly out of control and heading right for us. I can't even begin to imagine the terror they were feeling, as they turned their engine on and then tried to motor out of trouble, at speed (due to the wind and tide) in the pitch black of night, narrowly missing several boats, and an entire wall of rocks.
All we could do at this point was to light our boat up like a Christmas tree and make it as visible to others as possible. I stood on the deck of the boat with a fender in my hand, in the howling wind and rain, contemplating if it would do much at all, given the force the boat was moving with, or wondering if it would be wiser to not risk life and limb and just let what will be, be, you know, live to fight another day and all that.
I can't remember many occasions in life when I've felt such a desire to help others in need, yet feel totally powerless to do anything of any real use, other than likely turn myself into a hazard at the same time, realising just how infinitesimally small I was, as Mother Nature did her thing all around me.
Thankfully the worst looks to have past, boat and crew are safe and well. Carly and Hank are getting some much needed sleep and I'm just going to give it an extra few hours just to be sure.
Moral of the story? As beautiful as this place is, and it is, we will never be intentionally riding a storm out here on a mooring, ever again. Run, hide, tuck up a nice river in the mainland, even on a new mooring, for so many reasons, it's just not safe.

 

[Tintin]

I too have a good friend somewhere on Scilly, suspect also Green Bay, hopefully well up and aground on the beach.

Cedric?

 

[Poey50]

The BBC are reporting that Falmouth Coastguard responded to 22 incidents requiring rescuing people from yachts. The occupants of four yachts were winched to safety by helicopter. Summer storms are not unknown, the 1979 Fastnet Race being the most infamous, but the difference this time is that the forecast was known for many days in advance and good shelter was available a few hours away. Newlyn was rafted six deep and would have taken more.

 

[TiggerToo]

...but the difference this time is that the forecast was known for many days in advance and good shelter was available a few hours away. Newlyn was rafted six deep and would have taken more.

there but for the grace of god go I

 

[longjohnsilver]

Cedric?

No.

Have finally managed to speak to them, they are in the cove and lost their anchor around midnight and eventually managed to pick up a mooring close to the bar. Quite hairy, they were close to the rocks on the east side of the cove after losing their anchor. They still don’t know how or why the anchor was lost. They hope to snorkel to find it soon, then they might find out what happened. At least they are safe with no real harm done.