Fear ?

[OldBawley]

Boating for 33 years, sailing the same yacht 26 years, cruising the Med all year round for the last 14 years. We sail an old small boat, have to be careful, our boat is not foolproof.
Sailing single handed, I was surprised by extreme weather twice the last weeks.
Learned in seconds that sitting inside using the laptop while sailing is not good seamanship.
A sudden 100° wind shift with increase from 3Bf to who knows, ( no instruments ) but a lot more than seven Bf brought me in quite some problems.
Four sails up, the yacht heeling more than ever before, the jib backed and his sheets caught under the anchor winch gipsy, a lot of anger shouting had to be done to free the sail and reef down.
Once the sails ware reefed and we ware moving again I could drink some water ( Stress dry mouth ) and have a look at the sea. Never ever had I seen such short deep breaking waves.
Second time, I saw the s**t coming, was prepared, however, the weather forecast was way wrong.
This morning the plan was to sail to Monemvasia. Forecast OK, but the Greek national service warned for thunderstorm. Don´t like thunderstorm. Anchor was fouled so it took some time. By then, clouds coming over the hills. Once out at sea I had a better view and saw the clouds getting big and dark. At 8 am in June.
Turned the boat and went back into Yerakas. Tomorrow is an other day.
Anyway, it is the 13° today.
Could it be that it is time to stop sailing ?

 

[1bobt]

Hello
Pleased to hear that you are safe .Its complacency/familiarity that gets you ,no way stop sailing just take more care
best of luck
bob

 

[vyv_cox]

Yes, lots of thunder in the forecast at present. Most of the areas in both Iraklion and Limnos Navtex broadcasts have 'thunderstorm' and a couple say 'thunderstorm strong'. Keep away from that one. It is a strange year for weather.

 

[Tony Cross]

Good Lord. You're barely 100 miles north of us on Crete but here in Agios Nikolaos it's 23 deg already (0950), the cold and stormy weather seems to be passing just north of us. It's clouding over here now and they forecast light rain later but so far there is little wind. We're getting lows passing over us giving us a day or two of southerlies that we never usually get at this time of the year but it's still mostly bright, sunny and warm here.

We were host/hostess on a sailing trip for a corporate jollie on Tuesday, just a 9 mile jaunt from Daios Cove resort to Mochlos for lunch. Strong southerlies on the way there, great downwind sailing (though we did head up to wind and gybe back and forth to make it a bit more exciting for them). On the way back between Nisis Psira and Crete itself (a gap about a mile wide) the strengthened afternoon wind was F7 gusting F8 and right on the nose (of course) and we had 2m swells rolling in from a fraction off the port bow. Everyone got wet, well soaked actually. Once clear of the acceleration zone and under deep reefs we had the toerail in the water and the excited squealing returned.

 

[vyv_cox]

Iraklion Navtex covers 15 sea areas. Their 0200 UTC transmission included the words 'thunderstorm' in all but two of them. Many suggest 'improving later' but the Outlook for the following 12 hours? No significant change! How significant would they like it to be before it is worth noting?

 

[OldBawley]

Glad the HNMS is not shut down as did Greek TV and radio broadcast.
Lots of commercial weather sites, the HNMS is the only one predicting thunderstorms and available via VHF.
During the thunderstorm yesterday, power went down in Yerakas. Tavernas had to cook with candlelight, no wifi, dingy full of rainwater.
I hate thunderstorms, winds can go up to 10 Bf ( In the North Sporades and Turkish coast in winter ) and turn 360°.

 

[TQA]

Be afraid - it is safer!

A man who is not afraid of the sea will soon be drowned, he said, for he will be going out on a day he shouldn't. But we do be afraid of the sea, and we do only be drownded now and again.

 

[Kukri]

Had rather a similar experience in less exotic surroundings, off Felixstowe, near the Platters, thirty years ago. Nice day at sea, not a lot of wind, storm cell over the land, jib, staysail, main and topsail - didn't like the look of things - got the topsail down and ... we were slammed flat.

 

[Nostrodamus]

The trouble with weather in the Med seems to be all over. I can plan to sail on a particular day and be watching the weather forecast for a while. For some unknown (to me) reason the forecast seems to change to something completely different. How it changes so much, so quickly I don't know,

 

[macd]

How it changes so much, so quickly I don't know,

And often out of a clear blue sky. Still, better that than the grey sort.