We have had a number of threads recently about the advisability of sailing south around Hatteras in the
winter. I personally think it is a bad idea, but that's just me. But here is an example of a situation where all kinds of things have gone wrong. While the
weather was uniquely bad because of the season, this voyage would have been a mess even at the height of the summer.
https://open.substack.com/pub/loosec...boat-abandoned
With an author who knows sailing and the ocean, this is a much better analysis of the situation than most things we see in the media. But even with that, and the astute commentary from Chris Parker, there are things that were not mentioned, that to me seem critical to the analysis.
In addition to a choice of a terrible
weather window (exactly as forecast) the
boat sailed straight out into the gulf stream! When the
wind did finally clock around to the north with a
boat as un-seakindly as that one, it must have been a truly miserable time. Making progress to the south would have been not just miserable, but terribly slow.
Coming around Hatteras the difference between sailing in 75 to 100 feet of
water and 200 feet in a North
wind is dramatic. It's only a few miles, but it makes all the difference between a fast and fun downwind run and a true misery of steep high and breaking waves.
The video shows someone hand
steering in large waves. If there was only one experienced crew on board, that must have gotten old fast. There are three possibilities here. The hand
steering was for show for the
camera, the
autopilot was so poorly tuned it could not handle the seas, or the
autopilot had failed.
This very much seems a case of someone with a lot of sea time (apparently) who really never learned the important stuff...