Missing yachtswoman in South west.

Minn said:
Do we conclude that her passage plan, making use of the weather window, getting the tidal gates right and including the stopover at Mousehole to rest and to check things, was in fact a pretty good one?

Certainly mine are not any better.
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+1 absolutely. And if she took a fin keeler into Mousehole singlehanded and dried against the wall, it shows an above average level of competence
 
Minn said:
Do we conclude that her passage plan, making use of the weather window, getting the tidal gates right and including the stopover at Mousehole to rest and to check things, was in fact a pretty good one?

Certainly mine are not any better.
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I think there is room for debate regarding going inshore or around Longships, and it is at best informed speculation that she planned the former, but she does seem to have demonstrated a good knowledge of tidal planning and understanding of weather forecasts.
 
marklucas said:
I get these fed to my reader every hour (as well as from other stations) - very useful - I remember preparing to sail from Honfleur to St. Vaast and looking a Greenwich Lightship - and deciding that a F6 WSW was not what I wanted to beat into - but boy did we get back to Pompey quickly!

I digress. It would seem it was pretty windy (F5) early morning but this quickly died to nothing. As stated I have the hourly log if greater granularity is required.

Station 62107 - Sevenstones Lightship
October 14, 2012 0000 UTC
Location: 50.103N 6.1W
Wind Direction: W (270°)
Wind Speed: 2.9 knots
Significant Wave Height: 5.6 ft
Average Period: 8 sec
Atmospheric Pressure: 29.69 in (1005.5 mb)
Pressure Tendency: -0.05 in (-1.6 mb)
Air Temperature: 53.2°F (11.8°C)
Dew Point: 44.2°F (6.8°C)

Station 62107 - Sevenstones Lightship
October 13, 2012 1800 UTC
Location: 50.103N 6.1W
Wind Direction: W (270°)
Wind Speed: 11.1 knots
Significant Wave Height: 5.9 ft
Average Period: 9 sec
Atmospheric Pressure: 29.75 in (1007.3 mb)
Pressure Tendency: -0.03 in (-1.0 mb)
Air Temperature: 53.4°F (11.9°C)
Dew Point: 44.2°F (6.8°C)

Station 62107 - Sevenstones Lightship
October 13, 2012 1200 UTC
Location: 50.103N 6.1W
Wind Direction: NW (320°)
Wind Speed: 11.1 knots
Significant Wave Height: 7.9 ft
Average Period: 9 sec
Atmospheric Pressure: 29.80 in (1009.3 mb)
Pressure Tendency: +0.02 in (+0.6 mb)
Air Temperature: 53.4°F (11.9°C)
Dew Point: 40.3°F (4.6°C)


Station 62107 - Sevenstones Lightship
October 13, 2012 0500 UTC
Location: 50.103N 6.1W
Wind Direction: NW (320°)
Wind Speed: 21.0 knots
Significant Wave Height: 6.9 ft
Average Period: 9 sec
Atmospheric Pressure: 29.75 in (1007.5 mb)
Pressure Tendency: -0.01 in (-0.4 mb)
Air Temperature: 52.5°F (11.4°C)
Dew Point: 40.8°F (4.9°C)
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Those significant wave heights could be a significant clue: Those waves in a wind against tide situation around the Longships would create quite a boisterous sea, IMHO. Been there, when the ocean swell was from the west and quite a bit less, with a north-going tide, and had to turn out west a bit to find more placid water. Got nearly as far as the TSS boundary.

Close in near Longships is probably not a nice place to be except in a flat calm. On the return leg we motored south in just such conditions, at LW just before the turn of the tide, zilch wind and no swell. We kept more than half a mile west of the Longships light. Between Pendeen and Runnel Stone we saw whirlpools bigger than football pitches, and upwellings you would have to see to believe -- immense. It left me in awe of that place. It must be really scary in anything above F4 or with swell above 1 m against the tide.

Can only feel for the poor woman making that passage in less than perfect conditions, in an unknown boat, alone,

and in the dark.

Plomong
 
Minn said:
Do we conclude that her passage plan, making use of the weather window, getting the tidal gates right and including the stopover at Mousehole to rest and to check things, was in fact a pretty good one?

Certainly mine are not any better.
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Certainly looking so.

Cheers, Brian.
 
Plomong said:
....
Can only feel for the poor woman making that passage in less than perfect conditions, in an unknown boat, alone,

and in the dark.

Plomong
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All that was her choice, which she presumably made freely.
I'm just sorry that it went wrong.
Whatever happened may well be something that could equally have happened in the Solent.
 
I've sailed through those upwellings down around the Runnelstone ... very spooky! Maybe the poor woman simply fell overboard rather than sailed the boat into the rocks.

(haven't read the whole thread so maybe a repeat!)
 
prv said:
Don't know how Frank did it, but Colin and I had to drop the genoa on his boat at the weekend after it jammed spectacularly, wouldn't go in or out. I took the sheets off, rolled up the free sail to try to stop it catching the wind (mostly successful) and manhandled the roll round and round the forestay, adding the newly released sail to my roll each time. When the last roll came off, Col released the halyard and down it came.

This technique will become less and less effective as boat size increases. One of the plus points of smaller boats - by comparison you are stronger.

Pete
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I've always thought that removing the sheets then sailing (motoring) round in circles to "furl" a jammed furling genoa might be tediously effective. I haven't tried it, and would do it somewhere nobody could see me!
I hadn't appreciated you could unfurl then drop it - so thanks. Now added to my memory bank...
 
A1Sailor said:
I've always thought that removing the sheets then sailing (motoring) round in circles to "furl" a jammed furling genoa might be tediously effective. I haven't tried it, and would do it somewhere nobody could see me!
I hadn't appreciated you could unfurl then drop it - so thanks. Now added to my memory bank...
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+1 Thanks. (I had a headsail/furler jam happen to me, but in calm weather, in the harbour - involved climbing the mast - a very laborious and rather embarrasing episode!)
 
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Not sure if this post will appear in time to be interesting, but I have done the motoring round in circles thing to furl a jammed genoa. In Le Havre in the small hours with the yacht club's welcoming rib hanging about watching, and probably wondering why these lilly-livered Brits didn't just sail into a finger berth with the sail as was (in PLENTY of wind)........

It took us a while but was worthwhile.

A.
 
dt4134 said:
L..........
......................

I don't disagree with you in the least about the risks of taking a new boat straight out even if you're pretty experienced and, trying to be as fair as possible, there are question marks about how experienced she was in the first place and how recently she had been sailing.

What has irked me is that the press have painted is a picture of her departing into rough weather with the quay lined with weather-beaten old sea dogs all convinced to a man that she was going to her doom. The weather data doesn't support that.
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I suspect that some of us would have left Mousehole on the basis of the forecast and had little difficulty apart from some uncomfortable moments for the first few hours. A 12 hour delay might have been a little more comfortable. However, for a single handed sailor of, apparently, modest experience there was insufficient margin for error or accident.

I concur regarding the press. On the 25the anniversary of the October 1987 storm, the BBC has been trotting out that old clip. They never show the whole broadcast because, as they have told the Met Office, it would ruin a good story.
 
I think this is a lot more complicated than first appearance. My wife works at a local hotel. We have found out that the same woman stayed there in the summer ! She had to be asked to leave and the police were involved "mad as a hatter" were some staff comments. not going to go into details as I don't know what's gossip and what isn't. But one thing was that she would not listen to a word anyone said and was very difficult to deal with. So I don't think it was just inexperience or bad luck.
 
The Daily Mail is a horrible misogynist rag which tries to scare women by printing stories like this, implying that we are stupid if we even think we can do anything adventurous and should stay at home. I would love to believe what they say isn't true.

Unfortunately, if the quotes from the Cornish Cruising instructor are accurate, it does look like the lady was foolish.

Very sad all round.
 
Wandering Star said:
I'm looking forward to the December issue of YM when we can expect to read about what really happened, I'm sure we can rely on YM to get it right without any sensationalism factual errors or spelling/grammar mistakes - we'll be watching.
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That'll be a very brief article, then.

"A lady left Mousehole planning to sail round Land's End to Appledore. She didn't arrive, and pieces of boat later washed up at Sennen. The end."

Pete
 
Robert Wilson said:
IF that article is more or less true, then it appears that she made a collossal error of judgement.
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That article didn't mention an error of judgement. In fact as far as I can see there's no meaningful information in there at all.

1) Boat handling seems bad. So what? That doesn't mean she's going to stack it on rocks at sea.

2) She got milage wrong in conversation. So what? There's no reason to think that she used *that* milage for a passage plan or any other purpose. No doubt she got the dividers out before she left.

Perhaps the most useful bit on information was that it seems from the photo she was carrying a bit of weight. To a limited degree, adds to the chance of a medical problem IMV.

Personally I think that article tells us nothing, but as it's the mail I skim read it and may have missed something.
 
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