Friday, January 6, 2012

November Post Mortem

Here are some websites that describe the various marine emergencies that were experienced by other boats headed to the Caribbean in early November—most notably the North Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (NARC) fleet that left from Newport (Nov 1). As I’m sure you know, one person was lost when she was swept overboard. Two or three boats were abandoned and several boats had sails, rigging and rudder damage.




Roy and Gail G. aboard S/V Cordelia from Marion were in the storm and posted some awesome videos on their fascinating blog:
http://svcordelia.net/wordpress1/2011/11/29/videos-of-the-storm-nov-5-7/

Timing was everything.  The day we arrived to St. Thomas, a boat had pulled into the slip next to us, steering by emergency tiller.  They had blown out sails and had left Hampton several days before we did.  We had a great trip;  they had a terrible trip.
Here is a note from Alan F., J/160 Avatar (Quisset):
"After we were in I took a run up to Norman’s Island.  A guy sat next to me at the bar looking worn and beat. They had just arrived the same day we did, but had departed 2 November. (We left a 2 pm on 17 November.)  They had suffered 2 gales and had to hove to in some NE 45 kn winds in the stream. They could not control the boat to keep sailing, rescues going on all around.

I said, hey we had a large sit -down Thanksgiving dinner, and really did not do any sailing. Even the first night out on my watch we had only sustained 45 kn for 2 hours, top speed 20.5kn (gps 5 second average) on a single reef main and never came off the auto pilot. Diesel heat in the cabin.

With that news the guy look really depressed so I bought him another drink.  He said it was the first time he was truly scared at sea."

My wife and I don’t watch horror movies or violent movies in general. To me they reek of seeking entertainment in other people's suffering –real or ficticious.  On New Year's day we took an amazing trip back into the Roman era by visiting the Pompei exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science.  The gladiator helmet and description of colliseum "entertainment" were terrifying and vicious and in contrast with the sensitive humanity shown by the body casts.  So I am uncomfortable when armchair sailors throw out opinions or accusations or regurgitate unverified information in the various forums discussing the very real tragedy that occurred. People push way too far under the guise of learning from the mishap, but typically they just a churn a mess of assumptions and guesses --for entertainment.

-Do I have an opinion? Of course.
-Was I also watching the weather for weeks as a skipper trying to decide if we had a viable weather window? You betcha.
-Did I think the NARC was nuts to depart from Newport to Bermuda with a stationary low being blocked from moving by a massive high to its north... in November... over unusually warm water... when a coastal option was available? Yes. Nuts.  On October 31, the NWS forecaster discussion said that the low south of Hatteras was going "to bomb".  Both Don and I did not expect them to go when they did. We would have gone down the coast, giving that thing more time to show its hand, probably ending up at Hampton with the other fleets.   Yet, there but for the grace of God go I.
-Do I vehemently disagree with some of the experienced opinions on these websites? Definitely.
-Is sailing full of independent-minded folks who don’t like to be herded to a consensus opinion? Yup. Just look at all of the crazy different boats in any harbor and see that each one probably fits its owner just fine.
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