vliho storm

[jneale]

60 knot 'hurricane' lastnight knocked many boats down in boatyard at Vliho (Levkas) and 1 Catamaran blown over (presumabaly at anchor), 4 people killed.,

 

[duncan99210]

See the "Hold on to your hats in Corfu" thread for more on this.

 

[artemis07]

Vliho storm

It was more than 60knots, more like 100 (with 35 years north sea experience I know the difference between 60 and 100 knots). We had about 30seconds warning and managed to start the engine unlike most people. We were knocked flat at least three times and feel lucky to have survived with minor damage to the boat and only bruises to ourselves.

A truly terrifying experience.

 

[blueglass]

It was more than 60knots, more like 100 (with 35 years north sea experience I know the difference between 60 and 100 knots). We had about 30seconds warning and managed to start the engine unlike most people. We were knocked flat at least three times and feel lucky to have survived with minor damage to the boat and only bruises to ourselves.

A truly terrifying experience.

strewth -that sounds like a complete nightmare. If you have the time or incilnation and I don't blame you if you don't, a detailed accouint would be of interest to many of us. Do you have any info in the rumoured 4 killed, numbers of boats beached/sunk, wrecked in the boatyard etc.
The video on the other thread shows one body on the beach. I can't believe it is the same place we have sheltered safely from high winds so many times.
Very glad to hear you made it OK.

 

[lefkasman]

Vliho squall

This catamaran capsized at the height of the squall trapping one female in the cabin, showing great bravery Ruari Bradley swam into the upturned hull and rescued the woman ....

 

[lenseman]

More details here:

http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/9/47728

 

[lenseman]

If anyone has any doubts as to the severity of the storm then this video by Alex Kokkinis taken during the height of the storm brings home to anyone who thinks that the Mediterranean are benign sailing grounds.

You will note in the early section of the video that the wind blows right to left and at 2: 55 as it changes very dramatically and swings 180° which suggests that it was a tornado! Watch the ketch drift dragging its anchor to the left.

I think that it was as artemis07 states, much more than 60 knots and fully agree, nearer 100 knots.

All the yachts blown over at 4:57 and the covered body of someone who didn't make it at 7:34, so sad.

http://mylefkada.gr/eidhseis/nea/6435-vlyxo.html

 

[VO5]

That is much more than 60 knots. That is serious wind IMHO. It looks like an intense microburst to me. All over very quickly. It would be interesting to know if precending the blast the wind changed temperature, alternating between warm and cold ? One feels very sorry for those affected by this event including injury, loss of life and the inevitable trail of damage. It goes to show the Med is not the idyllic pond many believe it to be.

 

[ninky]

Terrifying. We spent a stormy night at anchor in Vliho on a flotilla holiday a couple of years ago but never dreamt anything like this was possible there. Thoughts go out to those involved.

 

[seagypsywoman]

More photos: www.theionian.com

 

[jimbaerselman]

I was north of Corfu at 21:00 on Monday night, on a ferry bound for Ancona. Strong southeasterlies (around F7) were blowing and increasing, cloud was thick and low, lightning was increasing, and a northerly swell was building up, opposing the SE swell, which was well developed.

At about 2200 the lightning had arrived overhead, and in the strong flashes two thick waterspouts could be seen. For two periods of about 15 minutes the winds were well above 40kts, blowing first from one direction, then another. Water was white with foam, and it was not possible to see the length of the ferry inn the flying spray. Temperature variations were marked. After a period of variablity the wind switched to northerly/north easterly about 7. Then slowly dropped over a few hours.

The experience was very similar to the passage of a strong cold front I suffered in the '70's when doing a delivery with a strong crew from Gib to Malta. Luckily, it was light enough then to see the approaching roll cloud, and we managed to remove all sails before the severe gusts hit. With bare poles, the boat was laid 70 degrees over on a couple of occasions.

I expect the land effects around Nidri considerably accelerated some of the gusts, making the local experience far worse. How dreadful for all concerned.

 

[binch]

Before

This has happened before, but in winter. I took a photo of sunsail's boats on the slip, with their masts awry like spillikins.
PBO published the pic, together with a short lecture on the foolishness of using oil-drums as props. Drums are made to expand and/or contract so extremes of force will dislodge them.
During this storm, I got the engine started in time and we stemmed the wind. It was difficult in the middle of the night with nil visibility, but we were OK. It was all over in ten minutes.

 

[VO5]

I was north of Corfu at 21:00 on Monday night, on a ferry bound for Ancona. Strong southeasterlies (around F7) were blowing and increasing, cloud was thick and low, lightning was increasing, and a northerly swell was building up, opposing the SE swell, which was well developed.

At about 2200 the lightning had arrived overhead, and in the strong flashes two thick waterspouts could be seen. For two periods of about 15 minutes the winds were well above 40kts, blowing first from one direction, then another. Water was white with foam, and it was not possible to see the length of the ferry inn the flying spray. Temperature variations were marked. After a period of variablity the wind switched to northerly/north easterly about 7. Then slowly dropped over a few hours.

The experience was very similar to the passage of a strong cold front I suffered in the '70's when doing a delivery with a strong crew from Gib to Malta. Luckily, it was light enough then to see the approaching roll cloud, and we managed to remove all sails before the severe gusts hit. With bare poles, the boat was laid 70 degrees over on a couple of occasions.

I expect the land effects around Nidri considerably accelerated some of the gusts, making the local experience far worse. How dreadful for all concerned.

It is interesting you mentioned "temperature variations were marked".
In a previous post on this thread I posed the question because in my experience these temperature fluctuations are the harbrigers of sudden ferocious gusts.

One night, sailing in mid Atlantic at night with no moon the wind suddenly began to fluctuate in temperature though the barometer was steady. I suddenly decided on instinct to go bare poles immediately.

Less than ten minutes later the barometer plumetted 6 millibars in one go. And the wind built suddenly bringing torrential rain, thunder and lighning overhead and within 1 mile (formula number of seconds between flash and noise divided by 5 = distance).
The wind became ferocious but the curious thing is that its direction fluctuated wildly, backing then veering alternatively.
This lasted 20 minutes or so, and then the wind resumed from the south F5.
The flag had taken fright and had wrapped itself tightly round and round the flagpole in a clockwise direction.
We resumed our course and set sail without further incident for the next 4 days.
I think we went through the very centre of a rapidly advancing and very deep and tight low, scary.

 

[OldBawley]

In early spring 2002 we visited Vlicho. Anchoring in Tranquil bay was difficult, some long time residents wanted no neighbours. We anchored in the big bay, our CQR would not hold in the soft mud. We wanted to leave the boat for a day to visit the waterfalls.
Long before, the owner of a big Grand banks donated me a allu anchor, the predecessor of a Fortress. A 1,5 meter long Viking allu anchor, capable of holding a 30 ton Mobo. Useless to a small sailing boat one may think, still I made a self launching device on the davids for the giant anchor and took it on our cruise. This was the ideal anchor for this mud. The Viking with 20 meter of chain and 40 meter of 18 mm rope made me feel secure.
Came back from a day visiting the waterfalls, we had a beer in the taverna opposite of our boat.”That is curious” I said to the owner of the bar, when we left for our walk there were 20 yachts, now there is only one. Then he told me that one hour ago “ One of these storms” had swept the bay. Everything drifted and had to leave, except of that little yacht over there, pointing at our old boat.
The mainsail cover was torn, fenders were lying on deck, a lot of stuff was gone with the wind. Looking at Google Earth, I suspect that some kind of funnel effect is created by the slopes of the mountains which make a severe storm into a nightmare.
The wind in “Anthony Quin bay “ on Rhodes is sometimes, depending on the direction of the wind double of the wind outside the bay. Outside force 4, inside 7 to 8. Even more after a few drinks. Like Jim said, land effects.

 

[pelissima]

Cats capsizing in a blow ??

This catamaran capsized at the height of the squall trapping two females in the cabin, showing great bravery Ruari Bradley swam into the upturned hull and rescued the women ....

I understand monohulls having their toe rail in the water during such a blow, but cats capsizing is at least frightening and deserving further investigation me thinks.
And it worries me the silence of cat owners re the incident.

 

[blueglass]

I understand monohulls having their toe rail in the water during such a blow, but cats capsizing is at least frightening and deserving further investigation me thinks.
And it worries me the silence of cat owners re the incident.

perhaps the wind got underneath between the hulls and flipped it over fore and aft rather than a capsize?

 

[VO5]

I understand monohulls having their toe rail in the water during such a blow, but cats capsizing is at least frightening and deserving further investigation me thinks.
And it worries me the silence of cat owners re the incident.

Yes, the silence is deafening is it not ?
I am not surprised because cats offer the luxury of extra space and the resulting luxuries and comforts that accompany having that extra space.
This is of particular significance to oliveaboards.
But here is one example in which a cat can be overwhelmed in a way we could not imagine and I agreee it needs further investigation.

 

[GeorgeP]

We were less than five miles away in Little Vathi and just had some heavy rain. We heard from others who had been in Vlithi. One guy I spoke to had his boat flattened and dragged his anchor 400 metres. It was 60 knots in Nidri and 100 knots in Vlithi just next door, according to reports. It must have been very localised.

 

[Jeannius]

I understand monohulls having their toe rail in the water during such a blow, but cats capsizing is at least frightening and deserving further investigation me thinks.
And it worries me the silence of cat owners re the incident.

I posted this on another forum...

Personally I would not want to be at anchor in my cat during hurricane force wind. This is because of my experience in Hurricane Omar, St Maarten in October 2008.


We were tied up in the middle of an approximately 80ft x 80ft superyacht slip in Marina Port de Plaisance, Simpson Bay Lagoon. Omar came through as a cat 3 with recorded windspeeds in the lagoon of 135 knots. When we came back next morning, Jeannius was fine but we could see an upturned cat no more than 200 yards away.

We dinghied over and then went and talked to the Island Water World staff and were told it was a Lagoon 410, the owner had been aboard and had got out through the escape hatches.

There were reports that there'd been mini-tornadoes embedded in the hurricane and that one of these swept through the lagoon (there was certainly a narrow swath of severe damage on land nearby) and that one of these caught the Lagoon and flipped it.

Being at anchor in a hurricane and catastrophic fire out at sea are the only two things that I really worry about on a cat. I've sailed my cat in winds that exceeded 50 knots for some minutes without a problem and crossed the Indian Ocean when 30-40 knot squalls came through every few hours for 10 consecutive days and the seas were pretty large. All without problems.

I would definitely not be at anchor with a hurricane expected. By preference I'd be in a nice big slip, all to myself, in a marina and 2nd choice would be run up into mangroves, tie off in the trees and put anchors out from both exposed corners. I would have been very scared if I'd been in Vliho, just as the owners of all the monos must have been.

 

[curlysue]

Microburst

Speaking to a friend of mine who is knowledgable about weather due to his many years in air traffic control who says he thinks what happened was something called a 'microburst' which is a massive surge of downward pressure generated from thunder storms ( which of course we had that night ) which hits the ground ( or sea ) with incredible force then bursts outwards in all directions. It generates winds up to 120 mph and normally causes a noticeable drop in air temperature. Wikipedia and Youtube have info and examples. Scary stuff !! Glad we left Vliho two days before. Phew !!