On Tuesday evening I was aboard MATILDA, anchored in 3m of water off the small Island of Mathraki near the North West corner of Corfu. It was stiflingly hot and breathless.
I had had the boom tent up all afternoon protecting the cabin from the worst of the sun, but the windscoop over the forehatch did little to send air down below. Nothing was forecast to change for at least 12 hours. Alone on board, I went to bed early. I was woken at 0015 by the sound of wind building fast, and directly onshore….
The boom tent was starting to break loose, the windscoop had gone to the top of the mast on its halyard and the removable solar panel had removed itself and was danging overboard. The noise and wave action was becoming intense…. I battled to get the tent off and chucked it down below. I then started the engine and motored forward into the wind with anchor down for a hour. At 1800 revs I was not making way, just taking pressure off the gear.
The wind was averaging 45 knots with a maximum gust of 62 knots and swinging right the whole time creating cross waves. Massive sheets and forks of lightning lit the sky. When it hit, there were three yachts anchored off the beach.
One ended up on the rocks nearby. The Coastguard came at about 0230 and took the people off but left the boat. I’m pretty sure its a write off. The other, a big 52ft English boat had its centre console dinghy blown off the davits, and then they pulled up their anchor and loitered offshore for the rest of night. The worst of the wind lasted about 90 minutes but the ugly sea state continued until dawn. The next morning we found the Englishman’s dinghy washed up on a rock wall a mile away.
Three lessons learned…
-Get an oversized, modern anchor. This is one area where old school romanticism just isn’t worth it. We love our Rocna.
-Don’t get lazy. If you are not using it… put it away! (eg the sun awning)
-A weather forecast is just that… it’s a prediction, not a account of what’s going to happen.
At the time I was too busy to be scared, but I think I got away lightly this time!
From the team at SWS…
Fair Winds!
