Quote:
Originally Posted by cnc33voodoo
this is a truly sad story and my thoughts are with the crew but.....
in todays age of technology couldnt this have been avoided by proper planning and weather watches?
every now and then i hear one of these stories and wonder how it could have been avoided.
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I am purely speculating, but...
Often times folks that are moving boats south along the U.S. east coast, from New York or New England, wait for a front to pass that will bring north-north-west winds. In summer, these fronts are usually mild enough that they don't pack a huge punch, but provide a nice boost on the way south. In winter, they are generally pretty severe, but fortunately no one is moving boats south at that point.
These unfortunate incidents occur most often in autumn, particularly late
October/early November, when some of the stragglers are making the leap south. Like anyone else, they prefer a tailwind. The crapshoot is how strong will the front be? It could be just a nice strong favorable blow, or much worse. Sometimes they are well predicted, others, the forecast gets it wrong.
In this case, the cold front ended up dumping snow (over a foot in many places) from North Carolina to New Jersey to Pennsylvania to New York and Vermont. In October!! This ended up being a much stronger, colder, longer lasting gale than they had predicted. Nasty conditions to be at sea.