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07-19-10, 12:48 PM
I had a great weekend this weekend. I did some sailboat racing, both on my I Boat, and my Uncle's E Boat. I also had a bit of an adventure.
We were out about 6 miles from the dock, and had to make a run for the channel racing a big, nasty, severe thunderstorm. By the time we were about 2 miles from the channel and shelter, lightning was hitting the lake (Not a good thing when you have an aluminum mast sticking up in the air 41 feet, I can assure you!), and the thunder was getting pretty intense. We could see the wall cloud approaching with the gust front, as well, and it looked NASTY! No images or video, because, frankly, we were a bit busy at the time trying to get off the lake. We were literally the last bout out there at that point.
We rounded the point and had just entered sheltered water when the gust front hit. The winds were in excess of 70 MPH, and the rain was blowing dead sideways. All in all, it was a good thing we got it in the shelter of the point, or we'd have been swimming after the blowover. Visibility was cut to 50 or so feet, and we were still in gusty, swirly air even in shelter and it was tricky sailing because the channel is really tight.
This took me back to when I was a teenager.....this isn't the first time my Uncle and I were the last sailboat off the water with a storm bearing down, and I'm sure it won't be the last. We've been out early enough in the Spring that you would need a drysuit to prevent hypothermia from the cold water, and late enough in the fall that the boat is busting skim ice sailing it over to load it on the trailer for the winter. :p
We were out about 6 miles from the dock, and had to make a run for the channel racing a big, nasty, severe thunderstorm. By the time we were about 2 miles from the channel and shelter, lightning was hitting the lake (Not a good thing when you have an aluminum mast sticking up in the air 41 feet, I can assure you!), and the thunder was getting pretty intense. We could see the wall cloud approaching with the gust front, as well, and it looked NASTY! No images or video, because, frankly, we were a bit busy at the time trying to get off the lake. We were literally the last bout out there at that point.
We rounded the point and had just entered sheltered water when the gust front hit. The winds were in excess of 70 MPH, and the rain was blowing dead sideways. All in all, it was a good thing we got it in the shelter of the point, or we'd have been swimming after the blowover. Visibility was cut to 50 or so feet, and we were still in gusty, swirly air even in shelter and it was tricky sailing because the channel is really tight.
This took me back to when I was a teenager.....this isn't the first time my Uncle and I were the last sailboat off the water with a storm bearing down, and I'm sure it won't be the last. We've been out early enough in the Spring that you would need a drysuit to prevent hypothermia from the cold water, and late enough in the fall that the boat is busting skim ice sailing it over to load it on the trailer for the winter. :p