It started yesterday in the early morning. Wind was up to 30 something kts in no time. It slowly increased over the whole day, but we had no problems at all to keep the boats together. Queens Way Marina in Gib showed a totally different picture in the early evening hours. Cleats came off the concrete docks, ships banged into each other, in walls and quite a big swell came in.
By 0100 in the morning it started to become really crazy. Our boat was rocking and heeling as if we would be out at sea. The wind hammered into the rig and the hull and was just scary to sit down there. Well, actually we couldn’t anyway because other boats went into trouble. Headsails unfurled itself in no time on three different boats, while the wind was gusting up to 60 kts. Some guy told me that is windspeed indicator even showed a max of over 70 kts.
Slimelines were ripped out of the bottom of the marina and we had to bring long lines across to another concrete pier. In the meantime everybody in the Marina was up to save boats, bring out more lines and try to get hold of ripped sails. Even mainsails came out of their bags.
Now you might want to say – bad seamanship – but most boats were tied up as you would expect it in a storm. The wind simply had such a power, you just couldn’t do anything about it.
We already secured our boat with many lines yesterday. However the close proximity to the other boats next to us was scary as every boat was healing more or less. At some point for 3 hours or so, our stanchions were constantly below the towrail of the boat to our left. Just cm’s and we would have been caught in there.
Well, we made it (without sleep) but we secured the boat. Nothing damaged except for some fenders we have to write off the books.
Exams will be on Sunday now. With no wind predicted. How crazy is that?
Ohh, before I forget. Another tanker went aground off Europa point. 31 people seem to be still on board. So, after The Flame (the wreck is almost gone), there is some new work for the next couple of month.
You all have fun and I will post some pictures of the chaos here next week.
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Tags: gibraltar, sailing, sails ripped, storm, Yachtmaster
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