When the Forecast Fails - Riding Out a Severe Storm in Our Regal
Friday evening was one of those great times to be on the water - pretty skies, a quiet anchorage, and good company. We knew there was a slight chance of scattered showers during the night, but nothing like the wind storm and drenching we were due to receive. Click on the radar image to play the movie. You’ll need Apple Quicktime to it play it.
We had motored out to Spectre Island to help secure the beach for Saturday’s annual Navarre Beach Yacht Club Shrimp Boil. We found Skip and Dyann already set up in their Larson 33. We backed in to their right with our normal bow and stern anchors set. Arriving later were Larry and Violet in their Regal 3560 and Erv and Pat in their 30 Chaparral.
All’s well at bedtime - looking to our left is the big Regal, the Larson, and finally the Chaparral.
Still being somewhat new to overnight boating, I still tend to wake up every hour to look around and be sure my anchor is holding. Peaking out of the cabin door about 1am I got quite a shock. 1st -the wind was blowing an easy 30-40mph from the east and we had frequent lightning all around (although not yet close enough to hear thunder). 2nd - a quick look around revealed my stern anchor had given way and we were now facing our friends with our nose to the wind. Seeing that we had good distance to the other boats and that our anchor was firm, I wasn’t immediatly concerned and woke Sarah up in preparation of motoring back around to the beach once the wind abated.
Our relative calm was short-lived. About the time Sarah made it up on deck, Larry’s boat gave way and started to swing around the same way we had come. I knew he had more chain out than myself so we were a definate collision risk. Sarah got the engines started while I made my way to the bow to attempt to set fenders and manage the anchor as best I could. With what little time we had, Sarah worked to reserve us along the anchor arc away from Larry while I tried to prep for a collision.
As it turned out, we ended up across Larry’s ‘T’ at which point he interacted with our anchor chain and pulled our bow into his side. With our engines in reverse and me at the bow (pushing off as best I could without putting arm or leg in danger) we managed to keep the impact to a minimum - later inspection would reveal a dime-sized gel-coat dimple. Things happened so fast, we didn’t even get time to sound the horn prior to impact - so that was Larry and Violet’s wake-up call to get on deck.
At this point, we were able to start working our boat parallel to Larry’s and set fenders. We lost one of our fenders in the process, but Violet and Sarah did a great job getting three in place while Larry and I held the boats off as best we could. After a few adjustments, we got lines passed between mid and stern cleats and the boats settled in together. Both our anchors held firm - so now we were 2 boats waiting for the wind to calm down.
Unfortunately, the wind started to get worse and we could start to hear thunder in the midst of one of the most active lightning shows I’ve ever seen. Now the race was on to see who could set up their front cockpit enclosures faster. Larry and Violet won this race hands-down due to experience. Sarah and I ended up wet - but at least warm from the wind break once our panels were up. As the gusts came up, we also saw Erv and Pat’s boat break loose and start arcing out along the opposite direction. There was no sign of life from their boat, so this time we were ready with the horn. The Larson 33 also came alive with its horn and spot-light - the wind had blown their bow sundeck cushion onto their hatch - waking him up. Skip had to do his own scramble into his aft cabin to get his primary battery alive to run the horn.
Erv and Pat ended up 30 yards to our south when their anchor set and turned them upwind. And then we all waited. Larry fired up his radar and we watched various storm cells march all around us as the wind hollowed and the rains poured. The lightning was extremely intense, but the closest hits were all outside of a mile or so near as I could count. The last storm passed about 3am and the winds went back to a leisurely 5-10mph. Erv and Pat reset first, followed by Larry, and then us. This time we all set 2 stern anchors which came in handy when a final storm blew by before sunrise.
We found our stern anchor still secure on the beach - the line had given way at our stern cleat. Larry’s stern anchor had drug (he recovered it still attached once we got our boats rafted up in the initial crisis) leaving an impressive hole on the beach. Through it all, Skip and Dyann’s boat held firm with a pair of well set bow and stern anchors. Had our anchor not given way, it’s hard to say what might have happened when Larry came loose since we would have had little time to react and might have all been asleep. His swim platform would have likely caught us about amidships as he swung and missed our set fenders being well below our rub rail.
So for the closing advice - always expect a storm, set 2 stern anchors whenever possible, double-check your cleating hitches, don’t panic when it gets rough. Given a set anchor, sufficient depth, and swinging area - our only real danger after rafting up was a direct lightning strike. Through it all, our 3 children slept sound, horns blaring included and we slept pretty good once the adrenaline wore off.
August 6th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
[…] We arrived 1st yesterday evening with our Regal 2760 followed shortly thereafter by Larry and Violet in their nice 3560. Saturday morning saw the arrival of Roger and Terri in their recently aquired 2860 and finaly Greg in his 3860. All told, not a bad showing of Regals amongst the crowd of hungry boaters. […]