Getting Through a Weekend of Severe SquallsWe had a doozy of a storm this past weekend in Georgetown. It was big. It was scary. But it was also a great reminder of the fortitude and generosity of our sailing community. All forecasters were calling for a bad storm hitting the Bahamas from Friday through to Sunday. We personally use Windy and Chris Parker for our weather checks but we also pay close attention to any other info we may receive from friends and other cruisers. PredictWind, Mr. Weatherman, The Weather Network, Windfinder. You name it, our eyes and ears are open. And all of them were in agreement that we would get slammed with strong winds, which would be even stronger in squalls. But Georgetown is a great protected anchorage for most weather conditions so we weren’t overly worried. We were ready for 40+ knot winds. Oh, wait. What about lightning during the squalls? Well, yeah. Lightning is a serious thing. A boat struck by lightning is immediately disabled. Everything electrical gets fried. All electronics, the engine, the lights, everything. Yeah, its bad. So obviously those of us who cruise full-time have strategies to avoid lightning, right? Umm, no. Not only can we do little to avoid being in an area that might have lightning but we can’t do anything to avoid actually being struck. Especially us sailboats with a big old lightning rod attached to our boats (aka the mast). People talk about lightning avoidance gear but it has two significant disadvantages. First, most of the gear available is expensive. Second, it doesn’t work. So, the working equation goes like this…masted sailboat + electrical storm = sitting duck. Yikes! The storm this past weekend was predicted to start overnight on Friday and continue through to Sunday morning, with the worst of the storm activity occurring overnight on Saturday. On the Friday morning, Wild Horses and Caretta (our buddy boat) went into Georgetown, a 10-minute dinghy ride across the Sound from our anchorage in front of Honeymoon beach. Barry from Caretta had a physio appointment in the morning and we had booked a rental car to get him and Andrea to the appointment, and me and Mike to an amazing wholesale food store near his appointment.
Returning back to the dinghy dock, we knew that the wind had started to amplify and we could see that the waves in the Sound were huge. We arrived back at Wild Horses soaking wet from the dinghy ride. No worries, we were safely back on our boat and ready to hunker down for the night’s wind event. Everything not tied down was removed from our decks. The dinghy was lifted and secured. Our full enclosure was zipped up tight. Everything was secured inside the boat (the same as we do for passages) and we had our foul weather gear at the ready. The winds only got to 33 knots that night so we considered ourselves lucky. All in all, it was comfortable, and only marginally scary 😉.
The next day, Saturday, the wind stayed strong with gusts to about 25 knots, with the expectation that conditions would deteriorate throughout the evening and overnight. Forecasters were wildly in disagreement over wind strength (anywhere from 20 knots to 55 knots) and the amount of rainfall (from 5mm to 70mm). The possibility of lightning was also in the mix by a few forecasters. It is never good when there is such wide variability in the forecasts. We just have no confidence in what lies before us. It was, however, the forecasted strong west wind that had us on high alert, as it meant that we would be pushed towards our lee shore. Not ideal, but we chose to not re-locate our boat to an eastern shore in Georgetown where many boats were anchored. We were confident in our anchor set and we didn’t want to be in amongst a whole bunch of other boats that could drag into us. With over 300 boats in the Georgetown anchorages, we were happy to be in one that contained only 3 boats. The winds started to pick up just before dusk. Then the growl of thunder in the distance. The sky began to darken and flashes of lightening could be seen in the distance. Within 20 minutes, the worst of the storm was raging all around us. The wind was strong (but never over 35 knots). Sheet lightning and ground strikes were abundant. Heavy rain blinded us from seeing more than 20 feet from our boat. And, then, as strong as the wind was from the southwest, we had a 180-degree wind shift to the northeast. Our anchor dislodged as our boat and all its chain sailed over top of it. Thankfully the anchor reset itself after dragging about 20 feet. Our neighbouring boats reported the same anchor dislodgment/resetting event. Then all the weather stopped. No more rain, no more lightning, no more wind. It was dead calm for 5 hours. When the wind did pick up again, in the overnight hours, it was short lived and it came without any drama. No rain, no lightning. The next morning, we listened intently to the regular Georgetown cruising community network on the VHF. Six boats in the surrounding anchorages had been struck by lightning. Offers of gear, mechanical and electrical expertise, and just “get your hands dirty” help poured in from the cruising community. Within a few days, all six disabled boats had some power brought back to their boats, thanks to the help of their fellow boaters.
We were happy that Wild Horses and Caretta had fared well through the storm. Getting through strong weather events is never fun and coming out the other side safely and with no boat issues is always the goal. One more storm in our sailing portfolio. We gain confidence and knowledge with each one of them. And when all else fails, we know that the sailing community will be there to assist in any way they can. Thank goodness.
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AuthorVictoria is a hiker, dog-lover, blog writer and planner extraordinaire. Oh, yeah and she is kind of fond of living on a boat. Categories
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