Well I did not expect that.

[Norman_E]

I set off yesterday morning from Wall Bay near Gocek to sail to Loryma (or Bozzukale Bay, or Bozu Buku, according to which name it has on your chart). I had only seen a forecast the previous day, which indicated light winds.

I had to motor the first 20 miles, then had wind of about 10 knots from the west, so I sailed as close as I could, heading to make landfall a mile or two west of Ciftlik as the wind went more northerly, and increased. After I tacked to head west for Loryma the wind went rapidly to 30 knots, then to 35, gusting well over 40. The mem-sahib was distictly unimpressed!

I arrived in the huge and sheltered bay of bozu buku with 25 to 30 knots blowing inside, and circled slowly until I saw the wind change so that the flags on the Sailors House restaurant jetty were blowing towards me, then went in astern. I had to use almost half throttle just to hold the yacht from being blown out again whilst the mooring lines were attached. It blew very hard until well after midnight, and today normal winds resumed, and I had a terrific sail with a rare beam reach at almost 9 knots in perfect conditions up the Simi Channel. (my luck is normally wind dead on the nose from my chosen destination, as it was yesterday, or dead astern.)

 

[Romeo]

Sounds like good fun. Forgive my ignorance, but what part of the world are we talking about?

 

[SimbaDog]

Have had similar winds come up from nowhere in that very same place /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif Went from nothing to 40 knots in about 10 minutes /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[Alfie168]

The chap I was sailing with yesterday thought he would take the family on a nice flotilla holiday in Corfu a few years back. On their first day about two hours out they were hit by such a wind which blew out the mainsail and they had to motor back to base. The rest of the week was lovely, but that incident put his kids off sailing, and his wife is no longer keen.

I once listened to a marine archeologist on the radio explaining that these sudden high energy winds and storms in the med have provided a rich archeological record in terms of sunken ships. Glad to hear you did not join their number!!

Tim

 

[Norman_E]

I am in Turkey. I have many times had wind go from nothing much to 20 or 25 knots in a few minutes, and back again just as quickly, but for it to go well over 30 knots and keep it up for about 8 hours (at least, as am not sure when it stopped) is unusual, unless you are way out in the Aegean in a Meltimi wind.

 

[Boomshanka]

I'v just got back in from a day out on the Solent... forecast F3/4, set off this morning under motor, got into Portsmouth harbour about 2pm and sudden gust up to 35kts and then the whole afternoon turned into F6 gusting F7... certainly wasn't expecting that!

 

[Twister_Ken]

Happened to me in the Sporades. Went below in a F2 to contribute to the holding tank. Just got comfortable when the cockpit started screaming - rushed back up to find a F7. Only time I've ever reefed bare-arsed. Not a pretty sight, I was told later.