Commander #65 "Lucky Dawg"

[Lucky Dawg]

We spotted and sailed around this lady yesterday. The 185' Europa from The Netherlands - headed for Chicago for Tall Ships 2010 taking place this week. We'd missed the fleet at our home port while vacationing in Chicago.

Really remarkable to see up close - and a bit intimidating to round her bow!

more pix of this beautiful ship at http://www.google.com/images?q=Europ...w=1259&bih=606

[Lucky Dawg]

...about not much weather. They were expecting things to be a little more critical, hence Weather Channel folks on the beach this morning at Lucky Dawg's home port of Muskegon, MI. Saw this on TWC while at the gym:

http://www.weather.com/outlook/video...ecast-4276#464

Sustained storm force winds at 50kt forecast and building to 10-15 footers until tomorrow evening. http://www.wunderground.com/MAR/LM/848.html

Even since this AM, the waves are getting more impressive - http://surfgrandhaven.com/640cam2.php (4 rotating views) (for perspective, the outer and inner lights are 36 and 56 feet off the pier - and the pier is about 8' off flat water.)

I find all this wind and water power pretty amazing.

[CapnK]

Talking about weather -

We had a storm about 3-4 weeks ago, when that tropical system was down by Cuba with a band of moisture streaming all the way up the East Coast. Worst I have *ever* seen it here, in ~7 years of living aboard. Started around 1AM, and in no time at all, we had honest 4-5' swells running through the marina.

My boat was in the slip next to the Walker Bay dinghy, below. The end of that dock *should* be attached to the dolphin behind it, about 8' feet away. Within 15-20 minutes of the storm starting, that had given way and so I had nothing to attach Katie to. If you look close, you can barely see a black hook on the dolphin at the point where the 2 lower pilings meet the taller. There is another black hook on the solo piling, mid-point of the power boat in the background. Those hooks were under the tops of the waves.

The wind was coming straight across the Bay thru that gap you can see in the background, sustained at over 50, gusting I believe to hurricane strength. The airport 8-10 miles inland registered a 64mph gust.

When I was on top of waves, I saw others that were nothing but a wall of whitewater completely filling that gap, and the keel of that old Cris Craft more than I ever care to again. At the bottom of the waves, that view was completely hidden from view by water. Just sitting in the cockpit, I frequently had to hold on with two hands, because the boat was bucking so bad, getting slammed when the dock lines would catch her up (but she never, not once, shipped water over the stern! Even with all that was happening, I was amazed...). It was about then that I realized being onboard would soon become seriously hazardous to my health, and that there was absolutely *nothing*, nothing at all, that I could do about the situation; it was, in a word, overwhelming.

I never ever thought I would say this, certainly not while berthed in a marina but - I abandoned my boat, clutching a small duffel bag of what I could grab fast that would help me earn the money to buy all-new stuff, including a boat. I thought she was gone. When I came back on deck, I found that the dock had literally broken into pieces while I was packing that duffel. Took me 3 attempts to get from my boat to the dock, then had to make it across the pieces pictured below, in the midst of all the above. Craziness. In the end, Katie made it out just fine; the storm laid down really fast in 10-15 minutes after I left her, before everything broke *all the way* loose, and boats were actually banging against and sinking each other...



Here's the view from standing next to the stern of the Hunter in the above picture.



I hope I never go thru that again, and that nobody else has to, either!