A strange thing happened to me the other night

[richardh10]

Sailing along the coast of Indonesia and making great progress with a 2knot current in our favour. Starts to get dark and the current turns against us. No problem, swings and roundabouts etc. We still have a 15 knot breeze on the beam. Notice the hydrovane is struggling to keep a course so decide to hand steer for a bit. By now it is completely dark, and I mean that it is as black as I have ever known it. Realise that it is very difficult to keep a course even though I am hand steering and when I look at the instruments we have stopped dead in the water - still with 15 knots on the beam. It has by now started to rain so hard that it is like standing under a waterfall. The sea state is dreadful with huge waves. The boat is slowly turning round until we are facing 180° from our original position with 15 knots on the same beam and we are still completely stationary. The boat is not heeled over at all. I decide this is not the time to be a purist and turn on the engine which makes no difference whatsoever. Full revs but still not moving. For one mad moment I thought the prop might have fallen off. It hadn't. This continued for around 40 minutes until, with the help of the engine, I managed to very slowly make my way out of whatever it was that I had got into.

So what was that all about? Any ideas?

 

[guernseyman]

Sailing along the coast of Indonesia and making great progress with a 2knot current in our favour. Starts to get dark and the current turns against us. No problem, swings and roundabouts etc. We still have a 15 knot breeze on the beam. Notice the hydrovane is struggling to keep a course so decide to hand steer for a bit. By now it is completely dark, and I mean that it is as black as I have ever known it. Realise that it is very difficult to keep a course even though I am hand steering and when I look at the instruments we have stopped dead in the water - still with 15 knots on the beam. It has by now started to rain so hard that it is like standing under a waterfall. The sea state is dreadful with huge waves. The boat is slowly turning round until we are facing 180° from our original position with 15 knots on the same beam and we are still completely stationary. The boat is not heeled over at all. I decide this is not the time to be a purist and turn on the engine which makes no difference whatsoever. Full revs but still not moving. For one mad moment I thought the prop might have fallen off. It hadn't. This continued for around 40 minutes until, with the help of the engine, I managed to very slowly make my way out of whatever it was that I had got into.

So what was that all about? Any ideas?

Lobster pot rope.

 

[sarabande]

I wonder if there's a very localised gyre (whirlpool) associated with the met phenomena ? Also a possible electrical storm causing the instruments to freeze ?

Was the hydrovane set to work on wind angle, or did you have it linked to a compass course to steer ?

 

[MoodySabre]

Seaweed

 

[Daydream believer]

Seaweed

Probably a length of net trapped in it as well stretching out under the water some distance

 

[Wansworth]

Denizen of the deep…..

 

[rib]

I caught a bed mattress on my keel once that had a similar effect

 

[Adios]

Sounds like a dream...?

 

[Aja]

Sailing along the coast of Indonesia and making great progress with a 2knot current in our favour. Starts to get dark and the current turns against us. No problem, swings and roundabouts etc. We still have a 15 knot breeze on the beam. Notice the hydrovane is struggling to keep a course so decide to hand steer for a bit. By now it is completely dark, and I mean that it is as black as I have ever known it. Realise that it is very difficult to keep a course even though I am hand steering and when I look at the instruments we have stopped dead in the water - still with 15 knots on the beam. It has by now started to rain so hard that it is like standing under a waterfall. The sea state is dreadful with huge waves. The boat is slowly turning round until we are facing 180° from our original position with 15 knots on the same beam and we are still completely stationary. The boat is not heeled over at all. I decide this is not the time to be a purist and turn on the engine which makes no difference whatsoever. Full revs but still not moving. For one mad moment I thought the prop might have fallen off. It hadn't. This continued for around 40 minutes until, with the help of the engine, I managed to very slowly make my way out of whatever it was that I had got into.

So what was that all about? Any ideas?

We've been up and down the Malacca Straits a few times and have spotted huge rafts of plastic bottles which were at least a couple of bottles deep.

I would be surprised if you didn't see them. You did look over the side?

 

[richardh10]

I did look over the side. Nothing. I assumed at the time that it was something atmospheric rather than physical

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Sounds like the "dead water" phenomenon, caused by a layer of fresh water over saline water. A common thing in Arctic waters; many of the old accounts of voyages in the Russian Arctic describe it. Given the deluge you mention, perhaps there was enough fresh water (run off from the land?) to cause it.
Basically, the boat is causing internal waves at the interface between fresh and salt water, and that causes enormous drag.

 

[Biggles Wader]

Or you were aground

 

[capnsensible]

Or you were aground

Yeah the answer will be something obvious, not a strange weather/ water anomaly. Probably.

 

[Seven Spades]

I would go with you having run into a fishing net.

 

[bluerm166]

Ok here's another strange event .
Anchored in a very calm anchorage ( Neeltje Jans) with half a dozen other yachts-none at all close.
Woken in the middle of the night by a terrible shattering /rending/crackling noise that continued for a couple of minutes in the darkness.
First imagined a collision by another vessel that would surely make us sink.But all the other yachts looked in place and without any lights coming on.
How on earth could they have failed to hear such a noise?
Then maybe a lightning strike ?
After the heart settled down a little and having put all the cabin lights on I found the answer.
An automatic life jacket had inflated in the part enclosed wet locker and it was the gradual ripping of the velcro that created the noise,amplified by the bulheads,and the hanger being scraped along the rail as it made itself more space.Nothing in the locker was recently wet and the jacket hadn't been used lately.
Phew.

 

[jamie N]

Anchored by Portmahomack in the Dornoch Firth after a cold and wet transit from Inverness, I'd refreshed my self with a couple of liberal drams whilst listening to the radio. All hell broke loose as the tale of a Hitchcock terror story reached a very noisy climax after several minutes of quiet whispering, where I'd nodded off, waking only as bedlam was released by the piercing scream of a damsel being ravaged.....!
I was SO startled that I very nearly spilt £10's worth of Ardbeg....>>>!!

 

[Frogmogman]

Sailing along the coast of Indonesia and making great progress with a 2knot current in our favour. Starts to get dark and the current turns against us. No problem, swings and roundabouts etc. We still have a 15 knot breeze on the beam. Notice the hydrovane is struggling to keep a course so decide to hand steer for a bit. By now it is completely dark, and I mean that it is as black as I have ever known it. Realise that it is very difficult to keep a course even though I am hand steering and when I look at the instruments we have stopped dead in the water - still with 15 knots on the beam. It has by now started to rain so hard that it is like standing under a waterfall. The sea state is dreadful with huge waves. The boat is slowly turning round until we are facing 180° from our original position with 15 knots on the same beam and we are still completely stationary. The boat is not heeled over at all. I decide this is not the time to be a purist and turn on the engine which makes no difference whatsoever. Full revs but still not moving. For one mad moment I thought the prop might have fallen off. It hadn't. This continued for around 40 minutes until, with the help of the engine, I managed to very slowly make my way out of whatever it was that I had got into.

So what was that all about? Any ideas?

Giant squid ? Like Captain Nemo ?

 

[Wansworth]

Anchour Ed off Santander yacht club for several days and couldn’t pull the anchour up,tried all manner of maneuvers just as I was about to panic it came up all innocent

 

[Daydream believer]

Anchored by Portmahomack in the Dornoch Firth after a cold and wet transit from Inverness, I'd refreshed my self with a couple of liberal drams whilst listening to the radio. All hell broke loose as the tale of a Hitchcock terror story reached a very noisy climax after several minutes of quiet whispering, where I'd nodded off, waking only as bedlam was released by the piercing scream of a damsel being ravaged.....!
I was SO startled that I very nearly spilt £10's worth of Ardbeg....>>>!!

I do not believe you. There arn't any damsels up in Portmahomack. The only females roaming the heather are extremely dangerous. More likely to do the ravaging

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Yeah the answer will be something obvious, not a strange weather/ water anomaly. Probably.

Dead water is not particularly unusual., and the circumstances of a tropical deluge near land would seem to be conducive to it. See Dead water - Wikipedia