In Part 1 I shared the strategies Phyllis and I used in over 30 years of voyaging to keep our boat safe from storms when coastal cruising, and in Part 2 we looked at how we selected anchorages or harbours when something nasty was on the way.
Now let’s dig into getting ready for the storm.
The good news is that over the years I have written articles and chapters to support most of the tips that follow.
I am assuming that you have read our Anchoring Online Book, so I will not be duplicating anything about anchor gear selection or anchoring techniques here.
Hi John,
Thanks for bringing it into a complete list. Even though many here will nod in agreement on most of the points mentioned, we may not always remember all of them, or not prioritise them suitably when distracted by the approaching scare. I strongly believe in check lists for various topics. This is one such. This article is a good inspiration to improve ours. The list must be made specifically for each boat.
One point I had not put on ours is the one on diving masks. That’s in spite of having experienced how impossible it is to look against the wind when it really pipes up. From that experience, when I didn’t have it, i wonder if the mask might need to be low windage, to stay on. Or perhaps that’s into the level of storm when we shouldn’t be around.
The experience was a “bomb” in Oslo about 1984, during a race. Totally sheltered area with low hills on all sides. According to the National Met office, the strongest gusts on the water were at least 150 knots, possibly much more. We had nothing up, on a 33 foot cruiser/racer with 60% of total weight in the lead fin keel. The mast top was still slapping on the water surface.
I was hanging on in the cockpit trying to stick my head up, but fearing that hear and skin might blow off. Probably not real, but a mask (not in my mind at the time) would have to be low windage to stay on. Maybe full face? Luckily the peak of it lasted only a few minutes, but it created chaos and destruction. I had forgotten the relevance of this. I’ll be looking for a suitable mask.
Hi Stein,
I’m sure you’re right that 150 knots a mask would not stay on, but given that would be the wind speeds in a Category five hurricane I’m not sure it matters that much. That said, I guess another option would be competitive swimmer goggles, which, I think, would stay on at higher wind speeds, although I don’t think even goggles would stay on in that much wind.
Hi John,
An excellent primer.
I was reminded of one surprise I encountered when I saw the picture of MC on the wall. Some walls in the fishing villages are quite a bit deeper than your picture and if you sail into Sept and Oct in Newfoundland, you will find yourself in gale conditions with some regularity.
Our surprise was that we found that our shrouds (not too far from the lower spreader even) came dangerously close to hitting the sides of the wharf when things heated up and the wind got us rocking and a bit of water movement contributed and it was low water. It was a pretty helpless feel to watch.
We carry oversize fenders and extra of them and a fender-board, but they are of the sausage variety and even strategically deployed we were too close to the wall. We liked the idea of round fenders, but never really found the need and on our 40-foot boat the round ones of sufficient size were just too hard to store. But, in this particular application, they were far more effective when it came to providing distance from the wharf (we borrowed some really big ones from generous local fishermen).
My best, Dick Stevenson
Hi Dick,
I agree, this is one of the many reasons that I recommend that smaller boats carry at least two large inflatable fenders. See linked article.
Hi John,
Agree about the inflatables: I carry 4 along with 4 of the “Taylor” type which have proven indestructible: at least by me so far. The inflatables are oversize (2 long and 2 shorter)and were still not sufficient for this fortunately unique situation. The pair of round orange fenders I borrowed had to be 4-5 feet across and did the job but only by a few inches.
I largely do not use the inflatables for wharfs and docks: they seem too vulnerable although I suspect that they are less vulnerable to puncture than I give them credit for. But they are fabulous for being able to move them quickly when needed, especially for the less strong crew and also great for between boats when one has to raft or you want fenders on the off-side for boats that come in on the pontoon next to you.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
Hi Dick,
As I write in the linked post, on the super yacht I went to Greenland on we found the inflatables amazingly robust, even with 93-feet of boat leaning on them and on a rough commercial wharf. Highly recommended.
Thanks John, a really good summary.
A comment on the use of electronic navigation aids if I may, from the perspective of an ex-professional navigator.
We would check our radar reflectors and their rigging – but perhaps consider windage too. And turn on an active radar transmitter (but we don’t have this). Ours is a single large passive reflector 40% up the mast, and this is fixed so not easy to remove. But we also have two smaller cylindrical reflectors we can hoist to the lower spreaders on our flag halyards, but probably wouldn’t in a storm because of chafe and the added windage – any thoughts?
If conditions are such that we are keeping anchor watch, we will have the radar on and running, not just on standby. Even our modern radar takes thirty seconds to start up from standby, and then it takes me a further minute or two to build good situational awareness, especially in heavy rain when smaller targets like anchored vessels may be obscured during most sweeps, and then appear momentarily on others. Having the radar on goes double at night and in heavy rain and having time to optimise the “gain” adjustments for rain and sea clutter is key to maximising effectiveness.
Turning AIS transmit ON will help others be aware of our proximity, especially boats without radar, but with an AIS enabled chart plotter. AIS receive to ON, which for us can be overlayed on the radar screen, as long as it doesn’t get too busy.
Old-fashioned plotting of the multiple moored vessels in the anchorage with a chinagraph pencil on the screen, helps us quickly identify boats on the move and any on a collision path. This will also facilitate identification of CPA and TCPA. Our radar will compute and display this for us, as will AIS, but I still like the analogue display.
Mark also with chinagraph our chosen navigation points, this will tell us immediately if WE are moving. And try not to rely on buoys as these move.
Take and record visual compass bearings of each potential hazard, especially anchored vessels to windward and check these against the radar bearings (and range) to positively identify each target. Repeat at dusk / dawn when our situational awareness needs to be reset.
Remember vessels to leeward, especially large vessels, which will often be anchored further out in deeper water. Larger vessels, especially steel vessels, will act like cliffs.
Repeat the above for our chosen navigation points, bearings and distances off. And plan and plot our course out of the anchorage if need be, as per thinking in the Part A article. Especially note first course and distance.
Keep an active Channel 16 watch. In NZ we can check in with Coastguard and ensure they have our latest TR. Remember to charge and test our portable VHFs.
Hi Rob,
Lots of good additions. A few thought arising:
Hi John, just to reinforce the point about tubular radar reflectors: reading this report https://www.ussailing.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2007-Radar-Reflector-Test.pdf suggests that “don’t do much” is an understatement.
Hi Alex,
Thanks for reminding me about that study. Pretty much the same conclusions as Stan’s study some years before. Given how many tubular reflectors I see out there I’m thinking I should do a tip linking to both studies.
John, what’s your thought about tying up to a strong type of government dock (if you can find one). My only worry might be if the tide surge is high enough it could push the boat over the top?
Hi Richard,
I covered that in Part 2: https://www.morganscloud.com/2024/08/05/surviving-storms-while-coastal-cruising-9-tips-for-anchorage-and-harbour-selection/
Yes, it’s a danger and one of the many reasons I prefer anchoring.
Hello,
Great topic and a very useful opportunity for us in the Med where in a calm warm anchorage all hell can open quickly and kill and sink superyachts.
In our cruising size 40-60 feet some yachts are well equipped with powerful engines (>5HP/MT) and big propellers can you explore more relieving anchor load with motoring. I saw your cautious message and in #5. Maybe some experienced cruisers would have some feedback on this method.
Thanks
Hi Dennis,
There are few things I’m certain about, but one of them is that relieving load on an anchor by motoring does not work. Simply not practical. I explain why here: https://www.morganscloud.com/2020/03/03/surging-at-anchor-the-theory-and-the-solution/
Clips from a recent storm event in the Balearic Islands showing the kind of chaos that can ensue when people get caught out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM5ESYiRwWo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t65uaXZkAc
Some very large vessels in a lot of trouble.
Not to mention the tragic sinking of the Bayesian
Hi Phillip and all,
Do you know whether unsettled weather was at all forecast for this Balearics storm?
Decades ago, while sailing in Greece, 2 quite experienced friends on their respective boats were at a nice safe anchorage on a nice quiet day when hit with a completely un-forecast wind that put their masts in the water. There being no warning and it being a nice day, hatches, portlights, and the companionway were open. They suffered significant down-flooding before the boat righted themselves and there was significant damage to both vessels.
I know I was not alone in being a little shook up among the friends of these skippers by this event. Such a bald example of the arbitrariness of life and our powerlessness in the face of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Both boats were fortunate to not have any injuries, but both had to deal with season-long repairs far from familiar waters.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
Hi Dick,
I’m a bit sceptical about the claims that there was no warning.
First off it seems that at least the possibility of severe weather was forecast the day before: https://crisis24.garda.com/alerts/2024/08/spain-adverse-weather-forecast-across-eastern-mainland-regions-and-the-balearic-islands-through-at-least-aug-16
Second, I have never seen that much wind without some warning in the sky. And if there was a scary looking sky, then anyone in an anchored boat should have closed all hatches before it hit.
The other thing that has come to mind is that the anchorage where than happened is quite open and subject to swell so staying there with that forecast might not have been a good idea.
Hi All,
I think that tactics for pop-up thunderstorms and tactics for prolonged storms are often lumped together but there can be key differences that are worth thinking about. Prolonged storms are usually forecast reasonably well whereas the thunderstorms often show up as something like 20% chance of severe thunderstorms day after day (and many of those have wind gust of like 40 knots and not the 60+ to compare to real storms) which means many people myself included end up playing the probability game which you eventually lose. The other key difference to me is duration, many of the severe thunderstorms have damaging winds of <10 minutes.
We definitely pick anchorages differently for these 2 possibilities. Some of the differences for us are:
The biggest change for us though is probably that we are willing to use the tactic of leaving an anchorage to ride out a thunderstorm a few miles offshore whereas I would never intentionally spend a prolonged storm out there. The difference is in the waves which don’t build to dangerous heights in the thunderstorm. As an example, a popular spot around here is the Isles of Shoals about 6Nm off the Maine and New Hampshire border and wide open to the west where thunderstorms come from. We have been there on a day with a low chance of any thunderstorms and realized that a thunderhead was coming at least twice and it has happened several other places too. It takes a cruising boat at least 1.5 hours to get to the next reasonable anchorage so by the time you get a visual, the alternative anchorage isn’t an option. We have left the harbor, had a bunch of wind and some unpleasant chop about 2Nm to the south then returned to see carnage and hear stories from people who had their back against a rock breakwater in 3’+ chop on unknown moorings (it is a rock shelf with very poor holding). For a stable cruising boat with a bit of prep work, I believe that dealing with one of these storms in the open is not particularly dangerous and I have done it dozens of times. I would never go to this spot or many others with a real storm in the forecast but I also enjoy going there and don’t worry too much if the benign looking forecast turns out to be wrong as we have a reasonable way of dealing with them. I would certainly prefer to be in a good anchorage and try to be but we play the probability game a bit differently here and don’t feel it is too large of a risk.
Note that the thunderstorms I am referring to here are generally of the pop-up type. Ones associated with strong fronts are usually well enough predicted (and often stronger) and tend to have reasonably strong wind afterwards so we choose our spot more like a real storm then. All of this is becoming less common for us as forecasting improves and smart phones have made a huge change with being able to see the weather radar.
Eric
Hi Eric,
I agree, a completely difference scenario and responses with pop up thunderstorms. And. like you, I would in many cases prefer to be out in open water and that goes treble for Isles of Shoals!
Hum, your comment sounds like the start of a great article, or maybe a two parter on handling thunderstorms. You would be more qualified to write it as, while I have ridden out a few wild ones offshore, I have not actually spend that much time coastal cruising places with frequent pop up thunderstorms. If the muse should hit you, I think it would be useful, particularly since climate change seems to be making thunderstorms more frequent and stronger.
Hi John,
I have actually had the topic of dealing with pop-up thunderstorms on my list since I first sat down and made a list although it has admittedly been on the lower priority end. We end up dealing with these pop up storms a few times a year but people in places like Florida deal with them constantly.
Eric
Hi Eric,
Great to hear, I will look forward to it when you have time.
Hi John,
Your comments on the dodger are very interesting and I think I might change what we do. I have always taken it down but as you point out it leaves no good watchkeeping position. While I would absolutely not want a green water strike on it, I think it should hold up to the wind and incidental spray in an appropriate anchorage. In fact, it has been up in the strongest wind we have experienced at anchor on this boat which was steady low 60’s gusting low 80’s for close to an hour as that was predicted to be a normal gale so we hadn’t prepped for that much.
I can sort of answer the question of dodging another boat dragging down on you by using the engine although I wish I didn’t have the experience to. If the bow is yawed to the wrong side, you are unlikely to succeed unless your prop is right in front of the rudder and you have 10’s of seconds of time as you can’t get the bow through the wind fast enough and you are moving in the wrong direction. If you are yawed the correct way, you can succeed by putting the rudder over to fight the force of the rode pulling you up into the wind and give it a lot of throttle but you are actually following the arc of the rode so you need to move ahead a bunch. If you move ahead too early/too much, you will get to the point where the rode is quite sideways and will pull the bow around and now you are aimed directly at the boat you were avoiding. So from a maneuvering standpoint, with some practice you can make some difference but it takes some luck and I hope no one ever gets enough practice to be good. And what you really have to worry about is that it is usually pretty hard to figure out where the other boat’s anchor rode is going so even if you keep from having boat to boat contact, the chances of them hooking your rode and forcing you to slip or raft up is probably close to 50%.
I recently switched from the setup you describe with a line on the end of the chain to a hardpoint which is long enough to cut on deck. What I went to is a piece of poly line that is 60′ long but otherwise the same dimension. The theory here is that you can just cut it and not have to worry about attaching a float as the line floats and there is enough lengths for normal anchorages. Having been dragged down on more than a few times, I feel that the trouble of getting the ground tackle back contributed to my reluctance to slip the chain. For example, not only would I need an appropriate line and buoy, I would need to remember to reach beyond the roller and back in when attaching the line as the buoy won’t fit below the captive pin and I don’t want to remove that. I can see 2 downsides to this approach though. The first is simply that poly line isn’t super strong but this isn’t there for extreme strength as that is what the snubber and chain stopper take care of, it is there for dealing with mistakes or stuck windlass switch/solenoids. The other is that the poly line increases the chances of fouling a prop but we will be going backwards away so it is only a risk if trying to retrieve it mid storm and in poor visibility. Not perfect but I convinced myself that it is better overall.
One thing we make a point of doing is for the off-watch person we have everything laid out so that they can respond quickly. I like having everything I might need laid out and ready to be jammed in my pockets or on me (headlamp, tactical flashlight, knife, jacket(s), harness, etc.) and sometimes it means sleeping in clothes that are appropriate.
Eric
Hi Eric,
Lots of good suggestions as always. And thanks for the fill on dodging a dragger. All makes sense to me.
Also, good thought on the poly-pro to avoid buoying. As you say, not without drawbacks, but then nothing is.
Thanks for the comprehensive list. It’s not always possible to foresee a big blow, and this was the case this past Monday when a much stronger than expected squall blew through while I was on the hook in the “pond” on Block Island. The approaching late afternoon thunderstorm looked a bit ominous but not out of the ordinary. I watched and prepared for what I thought might be a momentary 20-30 knot blow. However, the storm brought sustained winds into the 40’s and peak gusts around 50 knots for a full 20 minutes with significant hail. I actually filmed the whole thing. As I came on deck when the storm hit, it quickly became apparent that things were going sideways (figuratively but some boats did go sideways as they dragged). The wind shifted 180 degrees to the north and, as you might imagine, relative positions of anchored boats changed dramatically. I had already turned on my instruments, but I quickly realized that I should also start my engine. My 65lb spade and all chain rode needed to reset. When it did I was dangerously close to bearing down on a large powerboat. The engine allowed me to stay off of him even though my anchor had reset adequately. While I was relatively safe, a few boats were not. A few takeaways – some folks don’t secure their furled headsails properly, taking several wraps with the sheets and securely cleating the furling line to keep it from blowing out. There were several flapping jibs. Some coastal cruisers use woefully inadequate ground tackle. One 38ft Hunter had a 15kg anchor and an all rope rode. He dragged. I leave large fenders on deck when anchored in places life this so I won’t need to scramble, and I was glad they were handy during this storm. If this had happened in the dark and during a busy weekend, it would’ve been really bad. Had I not been on the boat at the time, I surely would’ve got tangled in that power boat’s ground tackle or even slammed into him. Also, I have a Saga 43 with Solent rig, so a riding sail is a must with any breeze on anchor, but it’s hard for me to ascertain whether the sail helped or hurt because it cause the boat to heel over 20 degrees during the storm. Did it prevent excessive yawing? Perhaps, but I was using the engine during the worst of it to steady that motion. Had I to do this over again, I would’ve taken it down knowing I’d use the engine to assist.
Jesse,
As you know from our owners’ site. I’m also a Saga 43 devotee – one of the “originals”. Of the very few issues I have with the otherwise excellent design of our boats, one is that the twin roller furling headsails create a major yawing problem in anything over 20 kts which I have not been able to significantly reduce with any kind of riding sail.
I respect John’s point about the risks of having a 2nd anchor in the water but I can tell you from experience that simply dropping a medium size anchor (even a lunch hook) at 60-90 degrees off the main bower settles the whole boat down immediately. There does not need to be much scope on that 2nd anchor and it doesn’t even have to really set… it just drags enough to turn the bow back into the wind as soon as there is any load on that rode. And because it’s not thoroughly dug in, it’s reasonably easy to retrieve.
I’ve experience a 180+ degree wind shift when anchored this way and the 2 rodes do tangle a bit but it’s always been easy enough to either retrieve the smaller anchor or drop both. I am a fan of the 60′ of poly pro approach based on the terror of seeing anything dragging toward me when it becomes “Time to get out of Dodge!”
Best regards,
Roger Neiley
S/V SoLunaMare
Hi Jesse,
Yes, an afternoon thunderstorm and cause a lot of havoc, but it’s also a very different scenario than we have been dealing with in this series. See Eric Klem’s comments further up the thread.
Also, the kind of thing you went through is why we recommend always anchoring with the best bower, and that said anchor should also be the boat’s storm anchor:
https://www.morganscloud.com/2019/04/24/specifying-primary-anchor/
https://www.morganscloud.com/2015/06/10/third-anchors-storm-anchors-and-spare-anchores/
https://www.morganscloud.com/2019/03/14/15-steps-to-getting-securely-anchored/
And that we should always set our anchor for storm force winds:
I’m interested that you say you used the engine to assist. I can see that given you were close to another boat, but are you sure you were not making the yawing worse. Having rode out many storms and a few hurricane I just can’t see how motoring ahead could really cut down load on the rode or yawing, except possibly with the assistance of a powerful bow thruster: https://www.morganscloud.com/2020/03/03/surging-at-anchor-the-theory-and-the-solution/
John, I think that having the riding sail up may have countered the yawing even if it heeled the boat over. Not really sure but I do know that without question, using the engine helped me stay off the 60ft powerboat behind me – at least off his chain. I use a 65lb Spade and 225ft of 5/16 G4. I probably had 130ft out in 25 ft of water plus 25ft of snubber. Did I drag? Maybe a little while resetting in the wind shift but we were pretty close to the other boat to begin with, as is typical in anchorages like the pond on Block Island. A change of wind direction changes boat orientation a lot. The substrate here is mud/clay and is generally very good holding.
If you have HMPE lines, chaffing will absolutely shorten life span as these wonder fibers get all their advantages at the cost of a unusually low melting point. The first tell is that they will start to shorten as the friction causes them to shrink via melting.
In parachute rigging, we replace Spectra lines at around 500 openings because the friction shrink can add up to 3-4 inches of length on a 10-12 foot line, and we depend on correct line length to maintain the proper shape of the airfoil. Extreme situations can dramatically speed that up. I personally had a new canopy that that a subtle factory defect that increased chaffing. I returned it after less than 20 jumps and their master rigger found that the lines getting chaffed the worst had shrunk 12 inches.
Hi John,
I have never heard of that. Perhaps it’s prevalent in very light and heavily shock loaded lines? Anyway, I can’t think of a lot of scenarios where we would use Dyneema in riding out a storm.