What a storm we hit!!!

We got caught in a doozy of a storm yesterday afternoon and suffered some canvas damage and lost the radar.
We started out about 3:30 for a dinner cruise with GW's 97 year old mother on board. After a nice leisurely cruise up the Columbia we anchored in a fairly well protected cove. There were some other boats in there but it wasn't crowded.
After about an hour we started to fix dinner. We'd been watching a lightening storm that was passing to the south of us and had grown in intensity. There were almost constant lightening strikes coming down and it was exciting to watch. There was a lot of rain failing form the clouds but it was all to the south and west of us. The wind was blowing from the SW so the storm was moving away...or so we thought.
Here's what it looked like before it hit us. Everything was about a mile to the east of us and moving NW ....
We were doing fine and enjoying watching the storm and watching to see if any part of it was headed our way. It wasn't, so I felt fine. Then, all of a sudden there was a lightening strike just to the north of us followed immediately by a loud thunder clap, which indicated that part of the storm was very close. At the same time the wind shifted from the SW to blowing hard out of the north. The boat swung on the anchor but we were OK because it put us more toward the center of the small bay.
Then the wind shifted back to the SW and picked up more (now blowing ~25-30 mph) and we started to drag anchor in the muck bottom. We weren't that far off the shore so I told GW I was going to reposition the boat and drop anchor more in the center of the bay.
I had no sooner fired up the engines and lifted the anchor when the wind REALLY started to blow. This little bay is about 150 yard across and there were white caps forming already. The rain had picked up and was coming down HARD, and blowing sideways.
Over the intercom I told GW we were heading for home and to get things ready down below for getting up on plane. She got everything safely stowed and told me when she was ready. I turned on the radar as soon as I had decided to get underway because visibility had dropped to less than a hundred yards.
I turned to the east to head out of the bay and down the Columbia when we were hit by a huge gust on the stbd side of the boat. It ripped the top bimini loose from the plastic channel that holds it in place and tore out one of the side windows. When that gust hit the boat it tilted the boat about 10-15 degrees to port and held it there a few seconds before it passed by and the boat righted itself.
I pretty much ignored the no-wake speed so I could get out of that shallow cove, traveling about 10 kts as I left the area. As I was leaving the no-wake zone the radar timed in so I flipped it to transmit mode and it quickly picked up a boat about 1/2 mile away that was headed our direction. I couldn't see the boat but did steer to avoid it.
As I got out of the no-wake zone the rain was really coming down hard, the thunder and lightening were very close, and it was really blowing. GW brought me up a foul weather jacket because I didn't have a shirt on and the rain stung when it hit.
I got on plane and headed back to the marina. As we were cruising along I had one eye on the radar and one eye trying to peer through the heavy rain. About half way back to our marina there was a lightening strike on shore just off our stbd side. When it hit I was watching the radar screen, which lit up very brightly then went black.
We made it back to the slip without any further problem. By the time we got back there the storm has moved on and the wind had almost completely died. After we got secured in the slip I had a chance to take a look at the bimini. Here's what it looks like now....



I'm glad we were able to get back relatively unscathed, but I bet my insurance guy isn't going to like my phone call this morning.

Whoa! Glad you got out of it with no damage other than what you described. Which is still too much, of course. Scary story!! And well told, too, so thanks for the vicarious excitement.

John

Wow, goes to show you how quickly things can change out there! Certainly a lesson, or at least a reminder, for us all. Thanks for sharing.

One thing I do now is flip on the radar as soon as I see foul weather. Your first pic is a classic example, but cumulus clouds, particularly tall ones, are another good indicator.

You should be able to see rain pretty far out even with a lower-power radar. The open array shown in the other pics suggest a more powerful set that should be even better. Practice at the dock, you'll be amazed at how well you can predict which way the rain is coming, and especially at how far away you can see it. Isolated rain squalls bring the possibility of strong winds, although no guarantee the two always come together.

I like a little excitement now and then. That's a little too much excitement.
Is there anything you would have done differently? I'd like to learn from your experience.

If in internet range with a hotspot...I pull up wundermap on weatherunderground to see where the bad stuff in relation to my position...also check the wind input that tells me a lot too...dodged some bad stuff last year whle underway in NC and SC (tornado warnings) by slowing down or speeding up and ducking up a river off the ICW if necessary to miss the bad cells.

psneeld said:

If in internet range with a hotspot...I pull up wundermap on weatherunderground to see where the bad stuff in relation to my position

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Seems to me you didn't need all that. This picture shows a pretty good weather radar unit right on your boat:

Ran into this storm a couple of months ago. Had zero visibility so I hung just outside the channel for about 45 minutes until it blew by. We ended up about 1/2 mile down the channel because it was blowing so hard.

CaptTom said:

Seems to me you didn't need all that. This picture shows a pretty good weather radar unit right on your boat:

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Except if you are in a bad cell...often your radar picture is masked by heavy rain and can't see the possible tornado "hooked radar image" or just a worse cell coming your way/heading you off.

Even Weather Radar sites get masked by heavy activity.

That's desert weather. We basically never get stuff like that in western Washington.

What kind of anchor do you have?

Interesting and frightening story. Glad you are OK. I would suggest, that should you have a situation like that in the future, that running on plane in poor visibility is a really bad idea. Even at 10 kts, and I doubt your boat will plane at that speed, you are in no position to stop in time for something in your way. What if some poor soul got caught out there in a rowboat fishing, or a kayak. Although frightening it might have been better to let out more anchor rode, or at the very least, proceeded slowly at a speed commensurate with visibility.

Hope you take this in the spirit in which I offer my comments. Again, glad you are OK.

Capt. Howard

I got interested in thunderstorms after reading this, and did a little research. It was kind of spooky to find out that my State has the most thunderstorms:

Q: Which state has the most thunderstorms?
A: The answer is Florida, says Brent McRoberts of Texas A&M University. Florida has all of the right ingredients for thunderstorms – especially warm, humid air and heat. “Because of its large coastline and its warm temperatures, Florida has more thunderstorms than any other state,” McRoberts explains. “National Weather Service data shows it has more than 100 thunderstorm days each year, the most in the United States. It is also one of the most frequent places for lightning strikes in the world.”


I also found that downdrafts can produce gusts in severe thunderstorms up to 160 MPH. Whoa! That would tear an anchor loose in a minute, or even several anchors.


So I think that instead of going out on the boat during this thunderstorm season, I may just stay at home and watch Duck Dynasty.


John

psneeld said:

Except if you are in a bad cell...often your radar picture is masked by heavy rain and can't see the possible tornado "hooked radar image" or just a worse cell coming your way/heading you off.

Even Weather Radar sites get masked by heavy activity.

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All true. But the discussion was "what would you do differently next time." I was focusing in on the lack of an Internet connection to predict that the storm was coming.

manyboats said:

What kind of anchor do you have?

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(Sorry, Eric...I couldn't help my self.)

JW, Down here at the South end of the state thunderstorms like those develope almost every afternoon. Luckily they usually stay inland over the Everglades.

I once saw three water spouts side by side walking north in Biscayne Bay. They were full of sharks!

No wait, the sharks were in a movie, the water spouts were real.

HopCar said:

JW, Down here at the South end of the state thunderstorms like those develope almost every afternoon. Luckily they usually stay inland over the Everglades.

I once saw three water spouts side by side walking north in Biscayne Bay. They were full of sharks!

No wait, the sharks were in a movie, the water spouts were real.

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So a water spout is like a tornado in the water? With the same kind of windspeeds? I knew there were reasons why I wanted to be up here in redneck country rather than in Miami, but I always thought that it had to do with my not being able to speak in a New York accent and so feeling like an alien in that part of the State.

John

CaptTom said:

All true. But the discussion was "what would you do differently next time." I was focusing in on the lack of an Internet connection to predict that the storm was coming.

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Maybe what should be done differently is have an internet connection and/or satellite weather from Sirius (or similar)...boat radar while OK at helping with weather is far from the ultimate tools that are available now...they are nothing compared to real weather radar available from multiple sources...

It doesn't matter whether you are good or not at using a boat Radar...they can't see what's on the other side of bad cells like the internet or any composite Radar picture can give.

jwnall said:

I knew there were reasons why I wanted to be up here in redneck country rather than in Miami

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Your woods are not out of the woods.

Louisiana coast:

jwnall said:

So a water spout is like a tornado in the water? With the same kind of windspeeds? I knew there were reasons why I wanted to be up here in redneck country rather than in Miami, but I always thought that it had to do with my not being able to speak in a New York accent and so feeling like an alien in that part of the State.

John

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A waterspout IS a tornado on the water...there are also lesser weather phenomenon like dust devils on land...there is an equivalent on the water and in the Caribbean...VERY prevalent under cumulous buildups. When flying CG helos we constantly would be scanning for them at the surface...you wouldn't see anything going up to the cloud but if you flew through it...is would spill you coffee for sure

We don't get powerful tornados like they do out west. When on land some trees get knocked over and screens around pools get torn up. I've never heard of anyone being killed by a tornado in South Florida.

John, you only need to talk Yankee over on Miami Beach.
On the mainland you can talk redneck or Cuban redneck.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/media/mlb/pdfs/florida_tornado_deaths_graphs.pdf

Florida killer tornados

probably more in the panhandle than south....

Man bites dog!

We hit storm!

Weather, when you're in it, is natures way of reminding you that you are still alive.

It is not as interesting from a window of a nursing home or a hospital, enjoy it and be safe.

psneeld, I'd never seen that.
It shows 7 tornado deaths in my area since 1882.
I'll bet there are more lightening deaths.

HopCar said:

psneeld, I'd never seen that.
It shows 7 tornado deaths in my area since 1882.
I'll bet there are more lightening deaths.

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Most of the Atlantic Seaboard is protected from severe storms because once they get close enough to the coast...cooler air from the ocean tends to collapse/diminish the Cumulonimbus clouds that have to be pretty intense and have the correct wind shear to create tornados.

Yep lightning and a few other things like hurricanes can get you in South Florida...but we were always taught that Miami is pretty well protected by the islands and upper atmosphere currents from many canes.

The radar WAS (with much emphasis there) a decent one that I used frequently. When running at night or in fog or heavy rain it is a godsend.

Any weather service is only going to be able to provide a delayed weather update (Sirius is 15 minutes delayed). I grew up on Lk Huron so I'm used to watching the weather and seeing some pretty powerful storms. I used to sail when I was younger and loved sailing in heavy winds. This storm developed to the north of us so fast that radar wouldn't have shown it coming. I've watched lots of storms develop on the screen and know what to look at but this one just took about 2 minutes to do a 180 degree wind shift and winds picking up.

Manyboats, I have a huge Danforth. I had it well set in the muck but when the wind shifted 180 degrees we were basically pulling the anchor out of the muck. Where we were positioned after the wind shifted, we were took close to the north shore of that little bay. The bay is shallow and the bottom slopes up toward the north bank. When I started up the engines to reset the anchor I was in about 5' of water below the boat and about 25 yards from the shore. Too close for comfort.

hmason said:

Hope you take this in the spirit in which I offer my comments.

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Absolutely! You're spot on with your comment and normally I wouldn't have done it. In this situation, once we got about 1/2-3/4 mile downstream the rain had let up enough that I could see (except for the rain on the plastic windows). The wind was still howling and the waves were about 1.5' so I felt pretty safe staying on plane after the radar went out. The boat planes real nicely at 22kts and that's about what we were running. At 10kts I'm just above hull speed and that's where I run quite a bit.

jwnall said:

I also found that downdrafts can produce gusts in severe thunderstorms up to 160 MPH. Whoa! That would tear an anchor loose in a minute, or even several anchors.

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If I had to put a number on the speed of that one real strong gust I'd say it was in the 60-70mph range. Understand that we live in an area were we get a LOT of wind and some pretty horrific wind storms. We had one last January where the local weather station reported a gust that exceeded 100mph. I grew up on Lk Huron so I'm accustomed to high wind storms. Fortunately for us this was just one long blast that only lasted about 10 seconds.

When I come through something like that and am relatively unscathed I always try to look back to see if I should have done something differently. My biggest concern was getting out of that shallow bay. I was watching the storm when we pulled in there and anchored and it was well to the south of us and moving east. Only after we'd been anchored about an hour did it really turn dark and nasty. At that point the lightening strikes started and they were coming about every 10-15 seconds, but they were still a long way off.

Even though I'd been watching 360 degrees for storm action, the first thunderclap to the north of us caught me off guard. I'd guess it hit within 100 yards of where we were. That's when the wind shifted and turned the boat around so we were pulling the anchor out of the muck. At that point my goal was to reset the anchor, then decided to hit the river and head home.

It's a tough call as to which was the better decision (leave or stay). We could have reset the anchor toward the south shore and used a lot of scope. We'd have been somewhat protected by the buildings on that south shore, but that's the direction that HUGE blast of wind came from so the buildings didn't provide much protection.

On a somewhat humorous note, my MIL got a great kick out of the storm. She couldn't stop talking about it. We cooked dinner on the boat after we got back in the slip and she kept saying how exciting it was to be out there with all that lightening. She's quite a trooper and is fun to have around. At 97 years old, GW and I both know her time with us is somewhat limited but we hope she makes it to at least 100!

I went to the canvas shop this afternoon and we're meeting tomorrow afternoon at the boat so he can take a look at it and see what is needed. I think it's more a case of putting things back together rather than repairing it. The problem is going to be getting the radar fixed. I tried to turn it back on when we got to the slip and it comes on but won't time in and won't transmit. There's nobody this side of Portland who can fix it so I'll have to see what the insurance company says about that and how they want to handle it.

Sorry this got to be so long. I've never been accused of being brief in my writing, but I hope it's at least understandable.

GFC said:

... I've watched lots of storms develop on the screen and know what to look at but this one just took about 2 minutes to do a 180 degree wind shift and winds picking up.
...

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An anchor that stays set or quickly resets itself during large wind/tide changes is to be valued. Danforth and its like is not what I'd choose first to handle wind/tide changes.

markpierce said:

An anchor that stays set or quickly resets itself during large wind/tide changes is to be valued. Danforth and its like is not what I'd choose first to handle wind/tide changes.

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That may be.. but in the muddy bottom conditions on the Columbia and the Snake the Danforth has a LOT of surface area and works well when it does reset.
I had a similar cell move through when we did the Columbia/Snake trip a few years back... but with much less punch than GFC experienced and when my anchor and all chain rode reset we were close enough to the now lee shore that I was less than comfortable. I chose to stay put and use a bit of power to lessen the strain so we didn't drag, ( that time )
The weather in the Columbia Basin can change in a very short time and still catches the prudent and experienced mariner from time to time.
I count this as a good experience ( except for the fried radar ), GFC learned where his comfort level is, learned how the boat handles this type of situation ... and he gave a awesome experience to a 97 year old that she was thrilled with!
HOLLYWOOD

I met with the canvas guy this afternoon. $495 to repair the damage and do a couple of other small canvas things on the boat. That's about what I figured, so no big surprises there.

Tomorrow we're headed to Portland, OR to meet up with some friends. The place I'd have do the work on the radar is down there so we'll stop by and talk with them to see what they have to say.

Haven't talked with the insurance company yet. I wanted to get some figures lined up before I talk with them.

GFC. Where were you on the Columbia when you had this fun time?

If you were to look at a map of the Tri Cities it's the small bay at the intersection of Columbia Park Trail and Columbia Drive, near the west end of Columbia Park Trail and between Bateman Island and the Kennewick shore. Locally it's known as McDougall Bay for its proximity to a bar of the same name on the shore.

It's normally fairly well sheltered from SW breezes, but apparently not from the blast that rocked us so badly and ripped the bimini loose from its channel.