Tahira - TAHIRA ARC BLOG D-Day 17 [07-Dec-23]

TAHIRA ARC BLOG
D-Day 17 [07-Dec-23]
Location: Open Seas - Atlantic
Lat: 14.18N Long: 52.17W

THE PERFECT STORM
And just when it was all going so well! :. This is a brief summary of a lively night's sailing a few days ago where we were able to fully test Tahira and her crew in a lightening storm and 40 knot winds. We are now safety heading to St Lucia with just 3 days of easy sailing, so thought now would be a good time to tell the story.

18:00 04-12-2023:
It is 6pm on 4-Dec when we receive a warning of squalls in our area. These are small localised rain-dense clouds that start at the surface of the sea and extend high into the sky. They can strike with a degree of intensity before passing over within 10 minutes. Our watch was briefed and ready - 'try to dodge the clouds if possible, and if you can't, then expect increased winds and expect to get very wet'! Whilst very intimidating, the fresh water from these rain clouds is often welcomed as it allows crews to rush up on deck, strip off and apply shampoo, and have their first meaningful shower of the trip. There was none of that here!

19:00 04-12-2023:
John briefed the crew over dinner and then turned on Tahira's radar to conduct a crash refresher course on how to use it (pretty straight forward) and how to check for squalls (not quite so easy...). This is as much an art as a science, but the radar can be a useful instrument to give us advanced warning at night time when visibility has been lost.

22:00 04-12-2023:
Watch 1 (Bryan & Andy) noticed the early signs of lighting and alerted the skipper Chris.
Unfortunately, even though the weather forecast and the radar did not show anything too sinister, it was clear that we were going to find ourselves in the middle of a storm unless we took evasive action.

Chris gave the precautionary order to take all electrical equipment, including the satellite comms gear and PCs, tablets and phones and put them in the oven. No - he hadn't lost it! It turns out that electrical storms can destroy electrical equipment if the boat is hit, and if we had not taken this action and the boat was struck, we would have been without any method of communicating or navigation. The oven is apparently a Faraday cage that blocks all electrical signals from getting through, and so would protect electrical equipment.

It was going to be a long night.

24:00 04-12-2023:
At 12pm for Watch 2 (Chris & Tony), all hell broke lose. 3 things happened: 1) darkness had fallen and the moon had not yet come out to play making it much much more difficult to spot the squalls before they 'spotted' us, 2) the relatively tame forecasted squalls turned into a full-on lightening storm - not ideal if you are in a boat in the water, and 3) sailing conditions became much more volatile in terms of wind and rain - throwing the boat around at random.

01:00 05-12-2023:
By 1am there was some relief at the moon coming out to give light that would indicate the direction and strength of the storm. Unfortunately the picture was not good. It was clear that there was a likelihood we would be hit, and could only hope to minimise the impact when the storm struck!

01:30 05-12-2023:
The Watch then turned off all instruments and lights as these would have been damaged, but it also meant we were navigating blind! We then woke up John (not easy to find him in the pitch black) to discuss options and to reef the sails - turning North, the only open part of the sky, to try to get out of the path of the storm.

02:00 05-12-2023:
At 2am the storm covered at least half the sky, and so we dropped all the sails - motoring on 'bare poles' i.e. without sails, and we then used the engine to try to dodge the worst of the storm. This tactic worked well enough but we could not outrun the storm altogether, and at one point, Chris was on the helm covering his face with his arms as the driving rain hit us. We understand now why some boats have goggles to be worn by the helmsman in the event of a storm.
For the next hour, lightening struck all around and whilst Chris was helming, John and Tony were spotting where the lightening was striking. The really scary thing being the blackness of the sky and the speed with which the storm was moving at will.

Tony loved it - I've never seen him so excited, and he insisted on staying up even though he was off watch. Apparently he had never been in an electrical storm in the middle of the Atlantic before, and found it very exhilarating!!!

Eventually we managed to outrun this initial storm and the immediate threat from the lightening had been averted. But the crew were soaked and very tired, the sea was still very very angry, and there was chaos down below - 'as if a ghost had gone through every cupboard and thrown stuff on the floor'.

03:00 05-12-2023:
From 3am Watch 3 (John & Peter) continued to fight the storm - ducking and diving to avoid the worst of the black squalls and any sign of lightening.

06:30 05-12-2023:
The lightening storm had passed, but local squalls were still all around us - hoping to mop up any survivors like us no doubt. The Tahira Watch 1 was back on, and it was now their turn to be on the receiving end. We managed to avoid the worst of a large squall, but when it hit us it was not messing about. Wind speed increased to 39.4 knots and the surface of the sea appeared to have a soft blue moss growing all over it - such was the quantity and ferocity of the rain. It was beautiful - I have never seen a sea like it.

Again Tony decided to join the watch to get the best seat in the house, and had a big grin on his face from start to finish.

09:00 05-12-2023:
The seas were still lively, but it was essentially all over. Tahira had performed brilliantly, proving she is more than capable of handling pretty much any sea condition. Tahira's crew survived the night - coming out the other side tired and bruised, but more exhilarated and more knowledgeable and most importantly in one piece. What a night!

The biggest winner was Tony - our elder statesman and tuna 'dispatcher', who enjoyed the 24 hours experience with such relish that he increased his score of this voyage to a straight 10/10 experience... He described the 'sheer joy of helming - like riding a bucking bronco' or as Andy says 'like playing space invaders on your mobile whilst snowboarding down a black run in the dark'.

Blog author: Andy Bruce