Mondays 12/28/2009 Question and boating safety tip

[CaptainScott]

Safety Tip:

Know your crew. Know your weather and crew capability before you leave the dock. . . . . . or . . . . You may render your crew useless!
I left the dock in my 28' race sailboat! 5K lbs wet total on this boat. Yeah, light weight and REDICULOUSLY FAST! I loved that boat! But I love my wife more. Thats another story for another day though . . . . . . .

We stood on the dock. Three of us. Me and two crew. One an ex Coast Guard and very good friend. The other a co-Worker and full of confidence and stories. I clearly dictated FOUL WEATHER GEAR for this trip. Coast Guard buddy was better outfitted than me and I was extremely well prepared. WOW. The co-worker with all the stories showed up in a wool coat from neck to ankles. I seriously questioned him. He claimed all was well and he was ready. We left the dock with a Small Craft Advisory in effect. Some serious sailing was due to us and we were there to collect! Yeah baby! All we flew was a storm jib and a DOUBLE reefed main!! We made some serious headway beating to wind leaving Port of Everett. Our final destination was Lake Washington about 8 hours away and a set of locks to go through! What a day! What fun! We were in Admiralty Inlet. I looked West and South. All I saw was a wall of BLACK! Litterally! It was BLACK. Could not see the shoreline about 4 miles away. Where in Gods name was Kingston??? In that BLACK somewhere??
Suddenly the sky lit up and there was an almost instantanious CRASH of lightinging and thunder! OMG! That was between us and where ever shore was! The wind was blowing about 30 kts steady all afternoon. Since I have a natural fear of lighting on a sailboatr I told the guys we were headed for the leeward shorline. Run from the squall and pray lighting would not hit us. We turned into a beem reach and headed for shore. All I wanted was to get into the wind buffer zone and make shore my mast was not the highest point around. Then the wind hit. I've screamed but I've never befor heard my boat scream. The rigging was literally wailing! I've read it before and have never experienced it until then. We were not knocked down but we healed more than I have ever heeled before in that boat. We were dragging at least a third of the boom in the water. My feet were planted on the leeward sette, both hands on the tiller and me straining. The tiller was dramatically bent and we were partially cavitaing the rudder as "Spirit" tried desparately to round up. I would not let her I wanted that wind buffer and shore line CLOSE! We were desparately over powered by my patches of sail I had up. I looked back to check the status of my 8' dinghy and was shocked I had to look UP! We had dropped into a trough and the dinghy was on the breast of a wave ABOVE ME!! The dinghy drop behind the wave and the painter snapped. It was gone. I told my crew the jib MUST come down. NOW!!!!! The Coast Guard buddy asked for specific instructions on how and headed forward. MY Co-worker FROZE. OMG! You've got to be kidding! He flat would not move. I told him he had to help my buddy. He sat frozen. I then demanded he go below and lay on the floor. Just stay down and low. He did leaving me and my buddy to handle "Spirit" on our own. My Costa Guard buddy managed to drop and secure my storm jib. The front blew over and the wind dropped to a leasurly 35Kts. We got into the buffer zone on the shoreline and the wind subsided to 18 kts. My Co-worker stayed on the floor below. We motored back to Port of Everett. My co Worker was a self proclaimed Athiest. He admitted to others that he prayed that day on my boat but he never really spoke to me again. I later recalled the top speed of spirit and found she hit 11 knots everal times as we surfed the waves. I forget her water line but she was only 28 overall. We had her on a plain several times! NOAA indicated 50 kts steady withs gusts over 60 kts. WOW.
an unexpected squall hit us badly. I lost my dingy and a friend that day. I know now that he had told me he was an experienced sailor. I trusted his word and ignored all the red flags. I took an unexperienced sailor into small craft advisory. Weather changed into a gale and I was suddenly one man short right exactly when I needed him to help safely handle my boat. My wonderfull good friend and ex Coast Guard guy did his job and more. I can not imagine how it may have turned out had not my buddy stepped up and did the work of two. Yes we all had life jackets. Yes I had interviewed my crew. I however ignored my gut feeling that one of my crew was a bit of a braggart and had severely over exagerated his experience. That'll never happen again.

Question:
Is this old weather saying generally true? IS it just another one of those things you here that holds no meaning? If true, Why??

"Red Sky at night, Sailors Delight. Red Sky at morn, Sailor be warned!".

[lecker68]

I say it is true because weather systems tend to move west to east and when the sun reflects off the bottom of storm clouds is when you get the red sky.

[tgentry]

It's true. I once read the scientific explanation, but I don't remember it exactly. It has to do with red sky being caused by a front if I recall even that much correctly.

[slane1124]

I have VERY limited experience. My Chrysler 22 is not water worthy yet, but I got a chance to go with a friend (a less experienced sailor than me) in his 24 (or 26) foot sailboat to Jeckyl Island off the east coast of GA. We set out one day to sail around the island, counter clockwise. When we headed back in from the open sea we faced this same front line described above. we were trying to sail into it, or at least that general direction because the other option was "out to sea". the wind was so gusty that we were not able to sail, and the boat was blowing sideways. we both had vests on, and we could see land on both sides, so i was not afraid of drowning, but i had several hundred dollars worth or electronics below that i was worried about losing. i had to go forward and lower the jib, tucking it into the forward compartment, which just happended to be the overhead opening over my sleeping compartment!! we eventually got his boat close enough to shore, had to get out in chest high water and keep it off of the beach! learned several things during that mishap. have to store EVERYTHING in watertight storage. I have started saving every peanut butter, coffee, protein jar. Anything with a screw on lid. was later told we should have sailed with the wind to the leeward side of the island. FUNNY STUFF!!

[Alanhod]

[Capt. Bondo]

Great story Scott!
I have found the best sailing partners are the ones are "tested and true", and hopefully you have opportunities in less critical conditions to evaluate a crew.
After all you may need to entrust your life in these folks.

"Red sky at night" is generaly correct.

[lecker68]

How true Capt Bondo
If you don't you may have extra bodies and end up single handing anyway

[CaptainScott]

ANSWER:
Red Sky at night sailors delight, red sky in morn, sailors be warned . . .
This is a generally true statement.

We all must keep in mind that there are better ways to predict weather but this is a good `ole saying for a quick insight to what lies ahead!


Two things you must know to understand this old saying.
The first is how light refracts through our atmosphere. Red being the longest visible wavelength, it stays visible the longest. As the sun drops in the evening or rises in the morning the light is passing through the thickest part of our atmosphere causing the most refraction.
The second is that the weather generally travels West to East in our hemisphere.

Now, knowing that, when the sun rises or sets if it is over clear skies the light will penetrate our atmosphere. If there are lots of particles or water droplets in the air it will reflect the red light giving you a brilliant sunset or sunrise. IF the sun is setting in the West and you can see the brilliant red sky it generally indicates high pressure is that direction or West of you. Since the weather pattern genreally flows West to East you can generally assume the high pressure system or good weather is headed your way. ON the other hand if the sun is rising and you see the brilliant red sky that implies the higher pressure is East of you and likely moving away from you taking the good weather with it!!

Hope this makes sense and helps you remember . . . .
Red Sky at Night Sailors Delight!!!

Scott



Click to enlarge


Or here
http://www.captainscottsailing.com/gall ... 000&page=0#
for some of my own favorite sunset photos I've taken!!
Enjoy!

[skyking]

I would agree that its true...after 8 years in the in Navy, I'm a believer...