Med weather - for editorial balance

MapisM

MapisM

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I've seen that it has also been covered by the BBC by now, so someone might already be aware of what just happened down here in Sardinia.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24996292
Actually, i know for sure that some of you indeed are already aware, because I got a few emails from forumites enquiring about the situation.
Thanks again to all of them for their thoughts.

Anyway, back to the point of the thread title: this is to report what has been one of my most scary boating days - and while securely moored in my home berth!
In fact, yesterday we had a nasty sustained SE wind, which in my harbour means that it's blowing from the point where the wall is at the most distant point from the pleasure boats docks: 800 metres or so.
Now, believe it or not, this fetch has been enough to build up breaking waves inside the harbour, capable to make my boat (all 35T of her) pitch roughly one meter, at either ends.
I don't dare thinking what could have happened if the bow lines wouldn't have hold as they did.
Which was indeed impressive - the lines squeaking was even louder than the wind...

Sorry, no piccies or clips. During the worst moments, that was the last of my thoughts.
In fact, I had to deal with a broken shock absorber, among other things.
I'll see if I can find a video which I made a couple of years ago, during another SE wind blow, just to give an idea.
At that time, I thought it was bad, but in hindsight ti was just a light appetizer...

Right now, we are back to (almost) normal conditions, with no damages to the boat, so all's well that ends well.
Which of course is not true for some poor souls, elsewhere in Sardinia, who lost their life. And many others who are now homeless. :(
Bottom line, it's fair to say that also Med weather isn't always a bed of roses.

Not that I'd change it with anything else... I'd rather give up boating altogether, than go elsewhere.
15° as I'm posting, and the locals complain that it's cold...
Here, so much for the editorial balance! :D
 
Some boat damage in Porto Petro,mainly canopies and biminies.Car washed into dock and bit of lightening damage to buildings.
Nothing too major apparently.Road closed to Cala D Or for a time.
My chum who was there at the time said it was very scary,his boat had some minor scrapes but did comment that the sand on a couple of beaches had literally vanished.
Water was pouring through roof of restuarant and they saw some monster hailstones.
 
I saw a mention of the cyclone and downpour in the news and immediately wondered how you and S might be doing. Good to hear you're ok and that there was no damage to the boat.

Tragic stories of those who were hit the worst...
 
Glad to hear you and S are OK, P.

When I heard it on the news, I immediately thought of ye, but couldn't remember if it was Sardinia or Corsica you were based
 
Thanks everybody for your sympathies, I appreciate.

@DavidJ: Carloforte is the place I'm talking about. It's in a small island along the SW Sardinian coast.
But the major damages and the casualties were in other areas of Sardinia, mostly due to floodings.
Luckily, down here the rain was not that bad, but as far as wind (hence waves) are concerned, afaik what we got was as strong as in the worst other areas.
Are you still based in Sardinia, or did you move elsewhere?

In the meantime, I found some phone camera clips I made exactly a couple of years ago.
As I said previously, at that time I thought it was real bad, considering that we are talking of a completely sheltered harbour.
But last monday, the hell broke loose, and what you can see below is nothing in comparison.
Just to give an idea, the corner between the main dock and the harbour wall, visible from 20" to 25", was flooded with green water - go figure...

 
A friend of mine is currently delivering his new 45' yacht from Frejus (SoF) to Bari (round the heel of Italy). They apparently had a horrendous crossing from Frejus towards Sardinia with even the most hardened sailors on board getting sea sick. Last I heard they were holed up somewhere between Rome and Naples, waiting for this storm to pass.
 
Geez... It's easy to believe that it must have been a scary passage indeed.
I read that offshore there were breaking waves almost 30 feet high, in places.
The sort of sea which in fact kept stuck in the harbour even the bigger (50k tons or so!) ferries.
Otoh, I must say that the weather forecasts have been reasonably accurate, with F11 conditions predicted at least one day in advance.
Did they underestimate the situation, or what?
It wouldn't be the first time that very experienced sailors, with ocean crossing or even RTW experience, think that a "small" sea as the Med can't get as atrocious as it actually does, occasionally...
 
Their schedule did sound a bit optimistic for November, and they were planning to keep going through bad weather to meet it. Having said that, I seriously doubt they were out in the peak of the storm if it was forecast in advance to be F11.
 
Pleased you and the boat are OK, Mapism but you should know that this kind of weather is perfectly normal for we Brits;)
 
Pleased to hear your both OK and the boat came through without any battle-scars.

It was opportune you were in Sardinia at the time to be with your boat during the storm, rather than sweating it out at home wondering how she was coping, snatching and heeling in the big wind gusts.
 
Yep C, it was indeed better to have been able to witness (and somehow react to) what happened, though I must say that the marina owners and their staff have always been around, jumping from one boat to another, for the best part of 24 hours, constantly.
Quite remarkable support I must say, considering also that with some sailboats it was a challenge even going onboard, on their light passerelles jumping all over the place...

For the records, there's a lesson learned - not that I wasn't aware of the theory, but it was impressive to see how important it is in practice:
Mooring lines must be as tightened as possible. All of them, and the more the better.
In fact, no matter how tight they are with the boat static, strong gusts will still be able to move the boat, pulling them further.
And the higher the boat inertia during these sideways movements (particularly with heavy boats), the stronger the snatch pull created on the lines.
Obviously, this dynamic load is a multiple of the static one, and in fact it was during one of these snatches that I broke one shock absorber.
Tight crossed lines astern are equally important, btw.
Some boats did not have them, and it was very obvious that their swinging movements were much worse.
Of course I'm talking about stern-to mooring, Med style.

@Deleted User: yeah, I know Brits are used to eat F8 for breakfast... :) But trust me, this was bad by any measure.
In fact, I'm not surprised at all to have read what Nick_H told us - and I guess it's a Brits crew he was talking about, or wasn't it?
 
Sheesh - glad to hear you and boat are ok. There has been quite a lot of press coverage on Cleopatra here in UK and it looks shocking, with a sad loss of life There was what seemed to be quite a storm in CDA on Monday night (heavy rain and power cuts) and at the time no-one realised how lucky they were compared to events in Sardinia, but later it became clear it was nothing compared to what Sardinia endured

Reports here say >400mm of rain in a couple of hours

This is from UK broadsheet, the Telegraph...

 
jfm said:
Reports here say >400mm of rain in a couple of hours
Click to expand...
Yep, that has been the real killer.
I've also heard estimates that the overall volume of rain over Sardinia in that day has been comparable to the total volume normally falling in 6 months over the whole Country!?!
Not sure about the accuracy of this calculation, but it surely sounds terrifying even if it were largely overestimated...
Also because it was actually concentrated just in some parts of Sardinia.
We did have rain also here in the south, but not even worth mentioning, for the rain alone.
 
Yep, 'salright now B, many thanks. And it should be even better in the next days, according to forecasts.
Regardless, the worst day boating is still better than the best day working, as I learned from a T-shirt... :)
 
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