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Well, no Freefalls listed in the USCG documentation database for the East Coast... so no idea what the boat is. According to this story off the coast guard news site... it was a 44' sailboat.
It was an almost new 44 foot Swan that was recently purchased. These boats are tanks. Must have been just horrible conditions. It was being delivered by an extremely experienced crew, including the gentleman that perished. It just goes to show that it can happen to any boat and crew in the wrong kinds of conditions. The Coast Guard press release said 40+ knots of wind and 40-50 foot seas.
My most sincere gratitude to the USCG and most sincere condolences to the gentleman's family.
The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
T'was the witch of November come stealing.
Not off the mid-Atlantic or New England coasts of the United States. This time of year and continuing through the winter, we get freight train cold fronts that come down from Canada. They are not swirling low-pressure systems, but rather straight line winds that persist for several days from the same direction (north-north-west).
Complicating this is that the Gulf Stream current is pushing it's way north in this patch of water at a speed of several knots, so the wind and current are contrary. They can pile high and tight very quickly -- best to be no-where in the vicinity during these conditions.
Next time we get a good norther, check some of the readings at these off-shore buoys. It's sobering.
It's extremely unfortunate - but worthy of note - that the man perished by leaving the boat (for perfectly valid reasons obviously) for his rescue - even though it was sinking. I recall from the Anti-BFS thread several people talking about how even a beat down boat can typically withstand a hell of a lot of punishment - even in insane conditions like this. Seems to prove that point once again as the others waited out the next attempt. What a lousy way to go, man.
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.
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.
I leave (weather permitting) to take my boat from the Long Island Sound to Annapolis on November 7th. Even though I'll have three experienced crew, one daysailor and myself on board, reading about situations like this makes me stress even more about the trip. We'll be running close to shore and taking the "inside" route from the sound through the East River, but mother nature can have a foul temper this time of year so we'll be monitoring weather and sea conditions very closely. In big seas and winds, entering Manasquan, Atlantic City or Cape May can be almost impossible. We'll see how it goes. Moving a boat is not worth your life.
You got that right Labatt. This time of year it is wise to keep a weather ear out and stay within a days run to a good inlet. Don't let time pressure you to go when your gut says no!
Here's more info about the rescue:
Do you think the rogue wave that rolled FreeFall might be related to the tidal problems they had up in maine??? the dates and times look about right for that to be the case. On Tuesday, parts of Maine had seven tidal swings... in a very short period of time.
Dawg/Bubb...I don't know about the Maine stuff...want to read more on that. My initial reaction is that a tsunami type wave would have not even been noticed well out to sea and I can't sea storm driven waves doing the rapid rise and fall reported in Maine. I would thing the two are thus unrelated.
But I have read that a wave TWICE the size of prevailing conditions occurs once in every one thousand waves. So...if the waves are 30 feet with a period of 10 seconds, you will see a 60 foot wave once every 10,000 seconds...or about once every THREE HOURS...less if the period is shorter. Truly gigantic rogue waves are quite a bit rarer though more frequent than previously thought...but the idea of a 60 foot wave occurring once every 3 hours in a real storm at sea is pretty intimidating in and of itself.
Cam, you are right a 60 footer is big enough for me and to think if you survive that one you might have another coming in 3 hours. Like I always have said, there is no such thing as atheist on a small boat in a big storm!!!!
Bubb...you got that right. I've been looking at what CAUSED them to be out there in that weather as that is the real question. These were experienced sailors so one would assume that they had done their homework on weather given the time of year and the north atlantic. Ocean Prediction Center - Product Loops
If you look at the individual maps on this last 14 day loop of offshore wind wave forecasts you will note that the forecast made on 12UTC the 26th looks rough for the 28th but nothing a good boat and crew can't handle...30-35kts on a reach with 10-15ft. seas. By the next forecast on 00utc on the 27th...the two day forcast called for 40-45knots from abeam and 15-20ft. seas...higher gusts and waves of course to be expected. By then it was too late to seek shelter and the expected conditions are what the coast guard reported.
In summary...the weather forcast deteriorated rapidly while they were out to sea and I can't see any lack of judgement based on the evidence at hand. The Atlantic can sneek up on you quickly at this time of year...and in this case, it appears that despite having a premium blue water boat...the boat did not stand up to the sea as welll as the crew. Of significance it that is was a bilge pump that let them down on a new to them boat. Lesson: Never go to sea without multiple bilge pump backups and a LARGE manual pump.
These kinds of statements are what I'm talking about. They are truly perplexing in light of the starting place of judgement for other SAR events we've discussed. I'm just saying this kind of sentiment is not at all objective. Will the USCG (or other maritime orgs) begin investigations of such incidents with this kind of initial bias? I certainly wouldn't think so. But I'd love to hear from a coastie about that if there are any around here.
Another specific example is in Skip A's story. As a newbie, I've read here in many places that tethering to a rail is a very bad idea. Jody got a bit of the old dressing down for that one. Yet Skip did so in a serious storm according to his ship's log.
There just seems to be more nuance to all this than is being presented.
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