2015 Another bad year in the Azores..?

[boatman61]

News just coming in on Portuguese TV... 100kph winds and 10 metre seas hit Atantic crossing boats near Azores.. 1 six year old girl dead and Father (French) serious after 7+hrs in water.. 7 other vessel had crews lifted off by various means..

[boatman61]

Hipotermia vitima criança resgatada ao largo dos Açores - País - Notícias - RTP

Total off 14 rescued from 5 boats...
Sad to hear about the young girl..

[GordMay]

Em inglês

➥ Maritime Bulletin - Major rescue operation off Azores, 5 yachts with 14 crew in distress

➥ Elizabeth City-based Coast Guard crew helps with rescue in Azores

[dpddj]

Sad and unfortunate news on so many levels.
I am ignorant of the weather there this time of year (or any other times, for that matter). Is this unusual?

[monte]

I don't know about unusual, but definitely not a place I'd like to be right now.
I've been worried about friends crossing back to Europe the last weeks looking at the weather in that region. I'm thinking Phil's approach of running well below the Low is the best/safest option.

[Matt Johnson]

Wow, that looks horrible! Last year had constant storms rolling off the East coast in May and June 1-14, so we waited until mid June for our crossing. Even then, we had to run into Bermuda being chased by a forming TS and later went out of the way 250 miles south to avoid another storm.

Our cowardice paid off, and we were the only boat that we spoke to in Horta without some kind of damage from the crossing. Good luck to anyone doing the crossing this year!

Matt

[monte]

Yeah Matt, the reports say the rescues were 500M south of the Azores, which should have put them near the edge of that system and running with it as it shows in the video on the Portuguese link above. Most likely all were further North when it hit them and ran a couple of hundred miles before being rescued. Very lucky to be in range of helicopter assistance, I think 500M is about the limit. Kudos to the Portuguese SAR who do an amazing job looking after a huge body of water for a relatively small country, as well as the other SAR that assisted. So lucky they were doing training in the area, or well planned...

[barnakiel]

No. It is about regular. It is still very early and small craft should not be there. The one that is there should be prepared for anything.

On our two occasions we crossed in June. (you can also get hit in June, just your chances of not getting hit are better).

The screen is Horta 48 hours ago. Clearly on the opposite side of the system.

b.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by monte

Yeah Matt, the reports say the rescues were 500M south of the Azores, which should have put them near the edge of that system (...)

Unless the system slid between them and the Azores.

Look up the screen I dumped from windfinder for Horta 2 days ago. I do not know if it was the same system that pasted the boats. It might. If so, wind arrows tell you the rest of the story.

Hugs,
b.

[monte]

Nick, It looks like it was forecast to, and went directly over Horta heading ENE, which would explain the easterlies. Heres a shot from Tuesday showing the same as your predictwind forecast

[Polux]

A child died. Very sad I can't imagine the father's pain.

Out there there are 50K winds and 10m waves:

Operação de salvamento a 500 milhas a sul dos Açores (vÃ*deo) - Açoriano Oriental

French girl dies from cold off Azores after boat sinks | Zee News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BROhwd3VMKs

[chuckr]

We crossed over in 2013 and did not even think of leaving Antigua until May. We left May 1 as we watched front after front come off the east coast of the USA and just did not feel it was a good time to go. We had one window that kinda looked good the week before we left and talking with Chris Parker and looking at the models I decided to sit as if the front moved farther south than forecast it would not be good. We sat. We found out 2 other boats left on the window and both did not make it to the Azores as we got boat watches on the way across and once in Horta we found out a 3rd boat also was missing. The front did come down farther south and it got real nasty.


It just seems a bit early to cross right now but what do I know.

[Matt Johnson]

Polux,

Anything in the linked article mention what the reason for getting off the boat in the video? Where was this in relation to the Azores?


Edit: I see they were 500 miles south. Looks like they were actively trying to avoid this one.

Matt

[Kenomac]

Maybe it would be a good idea to automatically have threads like this one, along with the rescue video merged with the multitude of "blue water boat" threads where the OPs insist that boats which have been built to a minimum standard are OK for world cruising?

Just a thought.

[Polux]

More information:

The Maydays come from a a French sailboat (that capsized), an US one, a Swedish one, a Norwegian one from a Dutch sailboat. Twelve people aboard those boats.

The Maydays started to be received a 2.00 AM of Yesterday and today at 1.00 AM 3 of the 5 rescue missions were concluded (6 crewmen).

For what I understand now everybody is safe, with the exception of the deceased little girl. Half the rescues were made by the Portuguese Air Force, half by two merchant vessels directed for the locations.

The sad story of the little girl had to do with the capsized French sailboat and with only two crewmen able to jump to the liferaft. The father and the little girl stayed on the water (probably at night) and were only located by a Portuguese search airplane several hours later. They stayed on the water 7 hours, the little girl was still alive but died later in a Spanish Hospital ship. Just terrible!