Hebrides / Bailey - Phenomenal Sea State In Today's Shipping Forecast

[Deleted member 36384]

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/marine/shipping_forecast.html#All~All

Gale warnings - Issued: 2149 UTC Wed 23 Nov

Southerly severe gale force 9 expected soon, increasing violent storm force 11 later

Shipping Forecast - Issued: 0505 UTC Thu 24 Nov

Wind
Southwesterly gale 8 to storm 10, occasionally violent storm 11, perhaps hurricane force 12 later in northwest.
Sea State
High becoming very high, occasionally phenomenal later in north.
Weather
Rain or squally showers.
Visibility
Good, occasionally poor.

It's not often that we read the term "phenomenal" in the shipping forecast: waves over 14 m (46 ft).

 

[Evadne]

Is it called "Phenomenal" because only muppets would set off into it?
(Phenomenal - doo doo, doo-doo-do, phenomenal do-do-do-do....) I'll get me coat....


Seriously though,this was one cruise I was glad not to have gone on.

 

[Seajet]

The forecast of 100mph winds today does make me glad my boat is out of the water.

All I can suggest to owners of boats still afloat is 'despite instincts don't try it, this is a time for the insurance berks to earn their fees' !

 

[Ricd]

I am sure I heard that the pressure was due to drop by 50mm in 12 hours!!

 

[Barnacle Bill]

The forecast of 100mph winds today does make me glad my boat is out of the water.

:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/devon/6205418.stm

 

[Roberto]

It's not often that we read the term "phenomenal" in the shipping forecast: waves over 14 m (46 ft).

Taking a 15m significant wave height H1/3, according to an oceanography textbook
H1/10 would be 19m, and one wave every 80 would touch 24m

 

[Little Rascal]

Yikes!!!

 

[Ricd]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/devon/6205418.stm

Second picture boat with broken mast was my old Gibsea 312,,,£18K damage caused to her alone plus 25 other boats damaged on the hard standing.

 

[awol]

The forecast of 100mph winds today does make me glad my boat is out of the water.

All I can suggest to owners of boats still afloat is 'despite instincts don't try it, this is a time for the insurance berks to earn their fees' !

I can't imagine many yachts being afloat off the Faroes, the bit of land that is likely to get these winds.
The soft south may get wind gusting into the 30's so don't ask for the claims forms just yet.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Around 1988/89 we had over 100 mph in the upper Firth of Clyde from West to North West. At that time a barge was piling special markers for the new Trident Submarines. The barge dragged its anchor and a quarter proceeded to come to rest against the sea front car park at Gourock. Over a matter of hours the corner of the barge battered the sea wall until it cracked, then the waves got in and washed out the car park from behind the wall.

The Western ferries were unbelievable still running as the sea state was only about 2 - 3 m. The ferry would have left from the Dunoon side (weather shore) to McInroys point on the Gourock side (lee shore). The ferry had to go beam on, to berth against the floating road. Well the poor punters must have been terrified as the ferry rolled like a pig, we watched as she battered the jetty and slammed into the floating road. The roll was so violent that a floating seat got jettisoned off the fly bridge. As it hit the sea it burst open depositing about 100 lifejackets into the ogin which proceeded to blow along the shore.

The Captain had no choice but to reverse off and head back to Dunoon; not a pleasant trip "doon the water" that day! Meanwhile back at Kip Marina the pontoons were buckling and breaking as the yachts all healed over due to the windage on the masts.

The most memorable part of the storm was the noise; incredibly loud, shrieking accompanied by a roar, bangs and rattles as all sorts of stuff was on the move due to the wind. IIRC I saw a windsurfer board blow away along Gourock Main street!

 

[[2574]]

All I can suggest to owners of boats still afloat is 'despite instincts don't try it, this is a time for the insurance berks to earn their fees' !

I never understand this; I'd much prefer my boat to be afloat when there's strong wind about where the hull is suspended and fully supported as intended in water. She always looks so vulnerable stuck up in a steel cradle or propped on bits of wood. She is tied to a marina pontoon behind two lock gates though! On a swinging mooring on an exposed estuary would be quite another thing!

 

[Kelpie]

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/marine/shipping_forecast.html#All~All



It's not often that we read the term "phenomenal" in the shipping forecast: waves over 14 m (46 ft).

A new set of sensors have been put in place on the West side of Lewis recently, which have been recording bigger than anticipated waves, so maybe we can expect a bit more phenomenal weathe in future.

Oh, and I can confirm that it is a little breezy up here at the moment. F8 gusting 9, SSE.
That's the direction that my mooring is most exposed to so I'm rather glad the boat is out of the water...

 

[penfold]

It's pretty lumpy even here in the North Sea east of Shetland. Not been flung out of my bunk yet, but it's had a good go.

 

[Quandary]

Windy weather

The Red Baroness left here an hour or so ago but she looks as if she has only to get to Troon but a look at the Live Ship map of AIS plots shows quite a few boats in the Minch (and an SAR helicopter heading toward Stornaway) the ships going Northward are making speeds in the mid teens but a couple bashing south are down to 4-5 kts. Not all the ferries are tied up yet.

Thanks to the provider of the link, I find it fascinating to flash up the west coast shipping in conditions like this, to see who is still moving and how fast.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

I wandered around my garden (next to the sea in Hebrides sea area) in a Force 12 a few years back with a Tilley storm lamp and a hurricane lamp. The storm lamp blew out, but the hurricane lamp stayed alight. The forecast must have been about right.

 

[Sybarite]

The forecast of 100mph winds today does make me glad my boat is out of the water.

All I can suggest to owners of boats still afloat is 'despite instincts don't try it, this is a time for the insurance berks to earn their fees' !

Not a day for the spinnaker?

 

[ffiill]

Certainly V windy tonight here in NW Highlands-we are usually sheltered in our Glen -so can well believe forcast.
As for the worst storm personally ever its got to be The Boxing Day night storm 1998.
At the time we lived half way up Canada Hill on Bute facing out across the Clyde-my boat was in the inner harbour in Rothesay.
We were at a friends house on the sea front when the power went at about mid night-that is the only lights we could see on the Firth of Clyde were the beacons and lighthouses.
Everything certainly frm Greenock down to Ayr went off as well as Arran and Bute.
We remained without power for two days and parts of the Island for over a week.
So how windy was it-well all the dwarf trees growing along the promenade into Rothesay were pulled up-these were little more than 5 ft tall and had been cultivated over decades.
Any boats that had remained on moorings in the Bay ended up on the beach-Chimneys galore fell down sadly resulting in two fatalities.My boat withstood it despite being wellied by a neighbouring catermaran which broke free.
Luckily I did not go to check it out as it was in the square opposite the harbour where the fatalities occured.
Our house was built tucked into the hill side but we spent the night listening to a horrendous screaming sound as the wind roared just above our roof.
The next day the road past Mount Stewart was totally blocked by a forestry plantation next to it-the trees all having been snapped of about 10 feet from their bases and liberally scattered across a wide area-the road was covered in a layer 5 or 6 trees deep.
Never ever seen anything like it yet it was so local that there was little media coverage.

 

[maxi77]

My 'good' West Coast gale was in 73 when our submarine was in Loch Goil moored between 2 bouys for some trials. The wind got up during the late aafternoon and we went to full seagoing watches in case the moorings gave way as we reckoned we had less than 5 minutes to get under way. I can tell you those two hour watches on the bridge in sight of the pub were grim.

 

[davierobb]

sounds bad on VHF

phenomenal sounds 10 times worse when you hear it over the VHF, even if it's not in your area.

 

[PhilipF]

Situations like this, and I like to look at the Atlantic Pressure charts. Trouble is since the BBC have revamped their weather site the bookmark I used to use to link to it has gone, when I try the links given they all lead me to the same page, but.... so sign of a Pressure Chart.