storm seas
tuesday morning, near the end of our voyage -- but had to have drama at the end! during the night a cold front that'd been triggering tons of thunderstorms over mainland florida finally caught up to us -- the folks on watch knew there were squalls in the area (they show up on radar), but around 5am (?) one hit us somewhat unexpectedly.
I was asleep in my bunk (having done the 7-11pm watch under moody dark, clouded skies full of far-away heat lightning, and due to get up at 6am to get ready for the 7am-1pm watch) when the boat suddenly heeled far over to starboard, and lots of shouting and clatter from up on decks as A watch scrambled to get some of the sails down in a hurry -- very exciting for them! all of us B-watchers jumped up & got our harnesses on & ready to help, but by then they mostly had things under control, despite a driving rain, so we just stayed below, ready in case of need, & waited for our watch to start, as more people on deck would only confuse things.
their best estimate of the squall was Force 8-9, probably 25-30 knots of wind -- I've been in worse than that on some races, but it's a lot of wind, & many people had never been on a boat in a storm -- scared but also thrilled! and once I did go up on deck, around 6am once the rain stopped, this was the sea state -- not raging, but still very confused and dark...
storm seas
tuesday morning, near the end of our voyage -- but had to have drama at the end! during the night a cold front that'd been triggering tons of thunderstorms over mainland florida finally caught up to us -- the folks on watch knew there were squalls in the area (they show up on radar), but around 5am (?) one hit us somewhat unexpectedly.
I was asleep in my bunk (having done the 7-11pm watch under moody dark, clouded skies full of far-away heat lightning, and due to get up at 6am to get ready for the 7am-1pm watch) when the boat suddenly heeled far over to starboard, and lots of shouting and clatter from up on decks as A watch scrambled to get some of the sails down in a hurry -- very exciting for them! all of us B-watchers jumped up & got our harnesses on & ready to help, but by then they mostly had things under control, despite a driving rain, so we just stayed below, ready in case of need, & waited for our watch to start, as more people on deck would only confuse things.
their best estimate of the squall was Force 8-9, probably 25-30 knots of wind -- I've been in worse than that on some races, but it's a lot of wind, & many people had never been on a boat in a storm -- scared but also thrilled! and once I did go up on deck, around 6am once the rain stopped, this was the sea state -- not raging, but still very confused and dark...