I don’t think that gusts and squalls quite count as caught out. Our boat’s record was 57knots true wind experienced when sailing past a Swedish island. Although it was a breezy day, I only noticed the reading at the end of the sail to see what had been recorded. I have from time to time found myself in winds in the mid-30s or more while sailing but these generally only lasted for maybe twenty minutes and not enough time for the seas to build up.
'Great storms' have always been around and there are accounts of them from a couple of hundred years ago, though I accept concern about the effects of climate change on their frequency. I doubt if many yachtsmen were out in '87, but in any case it would have been obvious that severe weather was likely. I remember watching the famous Fish forecast which mentioned a storm crossing northern France and, you may or may not accept my word for it, I remember thinking "but what if it swings north?". For that reason I wasn't entirely surprised to be woken by a deep roaring noise and looking out to see a large mature cypress in the garden leaning over at 90 degrees, from which it actually recovered, unlike large swathes of woodland around us in Hertfordshire.
The X channel was a doddle. Twin brother and I were planning a weekend Solent Cruise together in October. In the event we saw the Forecast, Gentle Nly Friday night, SW gale Sat night Sunday. So we scratched the Solent and went over to Cherbourg Friday night then got up at 5am to come back on the Sunday. When we left it was blowing 55kts at Chi met.
It was a bit daunting setting off knowing that once we left we'd be committed - there would be no going back, but with the smallest foresail and the deepest main reef we flew along surfing all the way. Fantastic, never grinned so much in all my life.
Then there was the time we saw 13.5kts TTW in a Moody 31 surfing on massive waves in a following Gale from Largs to Holy Loch.
I love charter boats.
Only dinghy experience so far. I can remember a course in Wayfarers on Loch Tay in pretty big winds which was quite fun, though of course the instructors were in charge. In my own boat, with no rescue cover, I always chickened out of even slightly bad weather, since a capsize out in The Forth seemed to have obvious death potential.
My late father claimed to have been capsized in a Wayfarer on Loch Tay by the engine exhaust from a very low flying jet, which used to be a common sight flying very close to the water.
Well it certainly wasn’t the flat calm this morning. Tucked in under a cliff very well sheltered but very variable, so can’t quite be sure of wind strength or direction - though the TWO cruise ships anchored a bit further out suggest SW.
Presumably a Buccaneer, and likely had to climb from its usual cruising altitude to avoid him...
That is SO funny ; absolutely GOAT as kids would say today If I understand correctly (Greatest Of All Time).A prominent meteorologist shocked his pro colleagues - and the the rest of us - at a joint RMetSoc/RIN meeting in So'ton some time back, when he admitted publicly that 'Met Office statistics show clearly that, if you forecast for tomorrow what you actually have today, that would be right more often than any of the extremely costly numerical models in use.'
The silence was deafening as the implications sank in!
I've often wondered if it would serve me/us better if I acquired a printout of yesterday's Actuals and used that to guide my decisions re coming and going....
Couldn't have been trying....
