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Michel
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 966
Location: Norway
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 Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 11:14 am Post subject: (off topic) The experience of sailing |
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On Aug 25, 2006, at 7:51 PM, Richard Rabbers wrote:
| Quote: | I had experienced the western edge of 'The Perfect Storm'. This was in
November 2001
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.. T ... Th ... The Perfect Storm, Richard? ? ?
Fellow pilots, sorry this is off-topic, you don't have to read it but I
MUST write it:
Richard, you have certainly seen the movie "The Perfect Storm,"
so-called "Based on a true story," of the storm of October 1991, when
the name was invented by a meteorologist. In the movie, a fishing
vessel leaves harbour ... to never return. The entire movie is based on
.. no witnesses and Hollywood calls it "based on a true story!" Ok,
let's move on.
In the movie, you see a yacht with its skipper and two female
passengers on their way to Bermuda. Hearing about the storm, the
skipper decides to go for deep water and ride the storm there, rather
than in the shallow waters of Bermuda, something that worries the
passengers. Later, the ship goes into a B2-knock-down (mast under the
water) and the two women want to call for help. The skipper refuses,
they call anyway and the US Coast Guards come to their rescue with two
helicopters and a cutter.
That is a true story. I even got a photo of the real sailboat, taken by
the Coast Guards and given to me by Bob Makowsky, a Coast Guard pilot
stationed in Puerto Rico. ( I used it in a training module on SAR).
Where I get very angry is when the movie shows the two female
passengers as the "right" people and the skipper as a fool.
It is true that any sailor with a bit of sense shall seek deep water in
a storm. Look at all the wrecks around Bermuda! It is true that only
the skipper (a.k.a. Ship Master, the equivalent of PIC) can send a
Mayday signal. Those women had no authority to do so. The result of
which: a servicemen lost his life, while the sailboat was still
floating the day after and was even towed to harbour by a passing
vessel. So, Hollywood is wrong!
This being said, the super warm and humid air from the Gulf, meeting
the super cool and dry polar air ... then passing over the shallow
water of the Great Banks, yes, it can create freak waves as the one
shown in the movie. And such a single wave was registered from a
meteorological buoy on the Banks.
BTW, I have also been sailing single-handed in snow. Brrrrr! The most
horrible wet and cold moment in my life!
Cheers,
Michel
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Richard Rabbers
Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 114
Location: Benton Harbor, MI - USA
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| Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 3:28 pm Post subject: Re: (off topic) The experience of sailing |
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| Quote: | | .. T ... Th ... The Perfect Storm, Richard? ? ? |
Right Michel, it was late October. I arrived at my destination in November heading out again after things warmed up a bit.
Yes, I've seen the movie. I didn't hear of or connect 'my' weather until much later in reading about the weather that fed the 'Perfect Storm'. I was clearly on the fringe.
A couple other sailing stories your message brings to mind...
The sailboat near Bermuda you mention, reminds me of a delivery an old(long ago, not age) girlfriend made. Male skipper and two female crew.
They were south of Bermuda - weather came up. I knew only one on board. I was told that the skipper was concerned, but maybe inexperienced, didn't manage the boat too well and demanded the crew stay below with him. I didn't know the boat, and for many other response can't comment on that approach other than things didn't work out all that well. They rolled and then pitch-poled, lost part of their rig and waterlogged the motor. They were eventually able to get a tow to the Carolinas.
Another friend was part of a delivery crew on a sailboat owned by well known American newscaster 'Walter Cronkite'. This boat ran into bad weather north of Bermuda, rolled, and lost their deck stepped rig. Walter was able to initiate a rescue and tow.
To a comment you made a while back about 'staying with the ship' I agree completely. I once salvaged a 60 foot steel hull sailboat that had been abandoned by it's owner 3 weeks prior.
We're still at sea... Sorry for this long message.. but ..... memories surface and connections are made.
Someone may ask if a load of ping-pong balls would have boosted the confidence of the owner. Nope, I don't think so. Beyond containment of the balls, it would be pretty tough to add enough buoyancy to float a displacement hull with tons of lead for a keel. This particular owner should not have attempted the trip without experienced help. Sadly it's not uncommon for boaters to head out.... a good radio is their number one, and often only safety device. This guy (the equivalent of a 2 hour pilot, fired a hired skipper in Nassau, Bahamas. He managed to clear the Bahamas on his way to the USVI, but ... one thing led to another and he 'used his emergency device (radio) to call a passing freighter to request assistance. ... This is a true story and could be a movie  , he dropped his sails, was unable to start his engine... the tow boats drifted together - he was dismasted. (main mast stood to the lower spreaders, deck stepped mizzen, gone.)
Now on to insurance topic. [this could/would NEVER happened to a pilot] - He boarded the freighter, called his insurance carrier Lloyds' of London for hours... They finally told him to, or he heard, he was to stay on the freighter and leave his boat behind. (3 weeks later, after hearing about this incident and hoping a pilot friend would come along, (yes an airplane pilot) having gotten positions from passing freighters, we banded resources together and - got lucky... found her rolling along east of the northern Bahamas.
- I've got to stop this story.... it's not over but would be too long. I learned to fly a couple years after this.
Anyway... what topic are we on? Oh, the sea.
A variation of ping-pong balls - I've heard of a concept where an inflatable tube is installed inside the hull below the deck, which could be inflated with hope of keeping the boat at the surface of the sea, but only an option for a very light hull. (would work for a plane if you could manage to keep from popping the air chamber along with keeping the weight down.
Back to the sea.
99.9% of the time the sea is a wondrous place. Thankfully only about .1% of the time.... other words would be used to describe it.
Smooth sailing / safe flying
Richard
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Michel
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 966
Location: Norway
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| Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 12:40 pm Post subject: (off topic) The experience of sailing |
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On Aug 26, 2006, at 9:16 PM, Michael Gibbs wrote:
| Quote: |
> ... although I still have to see an aircraft calling pan-pan.
That's because things go south a lot faster in an airplane, Michel. We
usually go directly from hunky-dory to "Mayday, mayday!"
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Indeed, Mike. And for a F-18 or a B-737, there is no "pan-pan"
situation. But I feel that if I had to land my Kitfox in a field, after
an engine problem, it would call a "pan-pan" and not "mayday." Just a
thought.
Cheers,
Michel
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Kitfox 3 - Jabiru 2200 |
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Michel
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 966
Location: Norway
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| Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 1:14 pm Post subject: (off topic) The experience of sailing |
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| | - The Matronics Kitfox-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Kitfox-List |
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Kitfox 3 - Jabiru 2200 |
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