When that nice anchorage goes south

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by Anders

It will not show any weather but should show the lightning. Mine is on all the time.

Anders, does yours ring a real alarm? I pick an alarm tone, but instead it makes only a one time beep. Not enough to wake me up when sleeping at anchor...

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Franziska

Anders, does yours ring a real alarm? I pick an alarm tone, but instead it makes only a one time beep. Not enough to wake me up when sleeping at anchor...

No it's just a sound when it picks up a strike within the alarm area. I can't recall having an unexpected thunderstorm at night when on the boat.

[AKA-None]

Doesn’t even look like there would be time to try and drag your foresail off and stuff it down below

[ride5000]

Originally Posted by fxykty

How do you know how much throttle to use? Visibility is basically nil. And the wind typically goes up and down - sufficient throttle for the gusts will rocket you forward in the lulls.

Perhaps engine(s) running in neutral and ready to put in gear if needed on dragging?

you should be able to feel the tug of the rode as the boat moves. once the bow starts to point/drift in a different direction, back down as you are slacking the rode.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Franziska

Have look if you have the correct app. See attached:Attachment 263787

Great! Thanks, I had the wrong one.

[Sailer_Med]

I'm a new Med sailor, this season has been my first. After watching some blows comes through from the safety of my slip in the heart of Traumontana country (not unusual at all to see 60 knots on the anemometer) I've got an abundance of caution with respect to anchoring and weather in the Med.

I've also learned that I can make headway with the wind 20 degrees off the bow at 40 but it is slow, about 3kts at full throttle. We've rode out 40 with 65 knot gusts on moorings in Cadeques, without dragging but we were "concerned."

I would without hesitation start the engine and motor against the wind if we were dragging into danger. Anything above idle and forward will assist your anchor's hold. I know that with 60 knot+ winds at 1500 RPM we are not making any headway but it would help the anchor. I'm not sending anyone out (nor am I going) on the deck to monkey with the anchor snubber, or chain, to fend off other boats, or anything else. The chance of recovering an MOB in this situation is zero; you can only hope that there is a beach leeward and they are wearing a life jacket. This is what insurance is for...

We watched that storm move through the evening of Aug 16, from our cruising ground in the Costa Brava. That night anchored at one of our favourite swimming/chirenguito spots we could see the HUGE lightening storm passing well north us and out across the Gulf of Leon. We had been watching this weather for two days developing on Wunderground and AMMET (the spanish national weather).

The next morning we got up early and motored for our home port. It was the first time I have seen anything that even resembled a swell on the Med. Normally it is just messy wind chop, (1-2m at 4 seconds) not well organised and frankly miserable to deal with. But that morning it was an organised swell coming in from the NNE at about 1.5m and 6s. We new that some serious weather was happening someplace pretty far away...

We have been sad to see such catastrophic damage and relieved that it wasn't visited on our boat this time.

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by wingssail

Great! Thanks, I had the wrong one.

I wrote an email to the developer to see if he can help with putting an alarm which wakes one up if asleep at anchor.
My alarm does just beep once very lightly. No matter which audio file I choose.

[goboatingnow]

I mentioned before that taking the med weather for granted can be fatal. The speed these systems can appear and the unexpected ferocity means even the wary get caught. Add in dramatically overcrowded anchorages and poor exit strategies and you have a receipe for trouble

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

I mentioned before that taking the med weather for granted can be fatal. The speed these systems can appear and the unexpected ferocity means even the wary get caught. Add in dramatically overcrowded anchorages and poor exit strategies and you have a receipe for trouble

True, many are the times when the predicted 10-15kts abeam has suddenly changed to 30-35+kts on the nose.. then half an hour later the update comes over the VHF..

[HeinSdL]

Originally Posted by ride5000

you should be able to feel the tug of the rode as the boat moves. once the bow starts to point/drift in a different direction, back down as you are slacking the rode.

The reality is quite different. The boat mutates from cute puppy on a leash to wild untrained horse on .... the same leash. Sense of orientation is gone due to 50m visibility, you can't see without goggles anyway (hail is what hit us last year in a similar very short lived thunder storm), you know the engine is on only by looking at the rev counter regardless of how much you make it work. And the cold... sitting there semi naked in hail.

Engine should be running for sure, though in my view mainly in case of a lightning strike and of course to be ready should the anchor fail.

I am rethinking though the concept of furling head sails. Might revert to my excellent genoas 2 till 4 which for sure require more handling but 1. performance... and 2. No more huge tube stuck on the forestay which is exactly where you never want wind to get a hold.

[HeinSdL]

I uploaded a screenshot of Blitzortung, would someone be so kind (Franziska?) to give a very brief explanation of how to interpret this?

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by HeinSdL

I uploaded a screenshot of Blitzortung, would someone be so kind (Franziska?) to give a very brief explanation of how to interpret this?

White squares (5km square in your setting) show the most recent lightning, red a little older ones.
The number is the number of lightning in that square.
So you can see a fronts moving direction, as white is where it is now, red where it was.
Additionally you can see the front moving to some extent by using the time play buttons up in the right corner.

So the one attached here, has just "left" Corsica right now and is about to hit Italy.
Attachment 263857

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by Franziska

I wrote an email to the developer to see if he can help with putting an alarm which wakes one up if asleep at anchor.
My alarm does just beep once very lightly. No matter which audio file I choose.

Update on the warnings. It does work and plays the sound.

Even though currently the only way to test it seems to be to set the alarm radius large enough that it picks up a far enough thunderstorm.
You need to activate the warnings and pick a warning sound. It will not give you feedback that the alarmsound you choose has been set.

As there are no thunderstorms close to here I set the alarm radius to 500km and picked a song from the Stones.
Suddenly it played it and indicated a storm 495km away.

I'll set mine now to 50km distance for the notification and 25km for the alarm.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by HeinSdL

The reality is quite different. The boat mutates from cute puppy on a leash to wild untrained horse on .... the same leash. Sense of orientation is gone due to 50m visibility, you can't see without goggles anyway (hail is what hit us last year in a similar very short lived thunder storm), you know the engine is on only by looking at the rev counter regardless of how much you make it work. And the cold... sitting there semi naked in hail.

Engine should be running for sure, though in my view mainly in case of a lightning strike and of course to be ready should the anchor fail.

I am rethinking though the concept of furling head sails. Might revert to my excellent genoas 2 till 4 which for sure require more handling but 1. performance... and 2. No more huge tube stuck on the forestay which is exactly where you never want wind to get a hold.

Aside from the reduction of windage and better sail shape, you get the option of changing sails. Start off on a nice day with a #2 and when the afternoon wind turns blustery you switch to the #4. There is nothing sweeter than a fine yacht like your X slicing to windward in a breeze with a small sail set.

In fact that (changing sails) can also be done with a sail on a furler. I don't know why more people don't change sails on their furler when needed. I think it is a mindset, (plus, it is work, after all, and that is to be avoided at all costs).

And certainly, when you are done sailing for the day the sail comes down. Bag it in a sausage bag and leave it on the foredeck. No windage but ready to go up in a moment's notice.

[goboatingnow]

My own strategy is start engine immediately.