HMS Bounty in trouble... - Page 55

mistermizu · #**541** 11-10-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sal Paradise

I found this on sailing anarchy , identified as the last known picture of The Bounty before she was abandoned. From FB
I can't vouch, but no one challenged it. Looks bad. To my untrained eye it looks like the wave is off to starboard and I would NOT want to be at the wheel.

On Facebook it clearly states: "Bounty in high seas sailing from Maine to Puerto Riico in 2010". Just posted to demonstrate Bounty coping with high seas.

The photo shows the ship on port tack, with wind and waves on the port quarter.

Minnewaska · #**542** 11-10-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkofSeaLife

She was in northerlies. (Remember it had been strong northerlies for days!)
Heading south.
90 nms SE of Cape Hatteras.
Have a look at where the Gulf Stream is off Cape Hatteras... you can see it on Passage weather.

She was slap bang wallop in the gulf stream. So those waves were going against the 2knot current of the Gulf Stream. That makes them pile up and fall over like waves breaking on a beach.

I know about the northerlies, but I'm not sure the storm being to the East wouldn't gen waves from that direction.

However, the gulf stream is not that far off NC where there were. I think they were East of it.

smurphny · #**543** 11-10-2012

None of those pictures nor the CG video shows particularly nasty, steep breaking seas. That's one of the things that makes me think something besides sea conditions made her go down.

mistermizu · #**544** 11-10-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkofSeaLife

She was slap bang wallop in the gulf stream. So those waves were going against the 2knot current of the Gulf Stream. That makes them pile up and fall over like waves breaking on a beach.

I posted this earlier:

I'm thinking she wasn't in the stream during the worst of it. She sailed south to cross the stream, and then headed headed SW. She got walloped by the storm, but not while she was in the stream. She might even have got herself into a "back eddy" or favourable current running SW (the small black arrows on the diagram). According to the satellite positions for the 28th Click for position and scroll down the ship covered 58nm in three hours, which puts her speed at an average of 19 kts. This could only be achieved by surfing down large waves in a favourable current ( and even then its scarcely imaginable).

smurphny · #**545** 11-10-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by mistermizu

I posted this earlier:

I'm thinking she wasn't in the stream during the worst of it. She sailed south to cross the stream, and then headed headed SW. She got walloped by the storm, but not while she was in the stream. She might even have got herself into a "back eddy" or favourable current running SW (the small black arrows on the diagram). According to the satellite positions for the 28th Click for position and scroll down the ship covered 58nm in three hours, which puts her speed at an average of 19 kts. This could only be achieved by surfing down large waves in a favourable current ( and even then its scarcely imaginable).

I think you're right. The positioning relative to the center of the storm put her in the dangerous quadrant well outside the center of the storm and also well outside the line of the Gulf Stream. He may well have been in an eddy. Wasn't he reporting waves of 18'? I watched the wave heights of the storm and 30' waves were very close to the center. There were 42' waves near the center but very close. This was a big storm but was not that intense. Making 19 knots is not inconceivable if both diesels were cranking and getting help from the wind and current. Wind direction in this storm was not typical.

mistermizu · #**546** 11-10-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by smurphny

I think you're right. The positioning relative to the center of the storm put her in the dangerous quadrant well outside the center of the storm .

I think they got pretty much run over by the worst of Sandy. If you look at the plots, the track lines intersect sometime between Sunday & Monday. Without a more exact plot of positions & times, it hard to say exactly how close they got to the eye, but they were certainly in the dangerous quadrant, and then got spat out the other side.

Minnewaska · #**547** 11-11-2012

The 19 kts would be speed over ground, not through the water.

Still, surfing down the front of a fast moving wave to begin with and it adds up fast.

MarkofSeaLife · #**548** 11-11-2012

The last big red marker is the location the ship was last seen by the Coast Guard later after the rescue.
the last small red dot appears to be a point of difficulty... for its then they the course change is radical. And that mark is 90 nms se of CH where the other mark is 120 nms.

I think it shows they tried to head across the Gulf Stream and were hit on the eastern edge of it.

They got themselves between the hurricane and the Gulf Stream...

smurphny · #**549** 11-11-2012

That's interesting. I've been trying to find weatherfax wind/wave charts for those days but have had no luck. It looks like they made it well into the navigable quadrant of the storm when something drastic happened. Wish I had saved those wfax charts from those days. Apparently there is no archive.

smurphny · #**550** 11-11-2012

http://www.cruiselawnews.com/uploads/image/Bounty.png

So, after the fact that it would, in hindsight, have been wiser to stay in port, the HMS Bounty did make it well around to the back side of the storm successfully when she had some sort of catastrophic trouble. Unfortunately, with the hull being lost, it may never be clear why she took on water and sunk. Going 19 knots and hitting a shipping container/ dead head? Hitting a whale? Losing a plank? Loosened seams and engine/pump failure?