This weekends plan was to sail from my home port of Gibralter Point on the north coast of the Wash in my BC23 Equinox, south east to the very pretty harbour at Blakeney on the north Norfolk coast, there take the evening tide up Blakeney quay for the night. Direct distance of about 25 miles. With detours, and tacking maybe 30 or so. The forecast wasn't the best, beating against 15 mph or so and it would have been sailing against a spring tide too.
But it was all do-able, especially with the pointing ability and speed of my BC23 Equinox.
The wind was as predicted for the first 4 hours or so and we made reasonable progress.
I was aware of a bank of clouds moving slowly from the west, which very quickly blackened with rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightening from some distance to the south.
Very quickly though we were hit by a squall and torrential rain that I rode out by running downwind of it. This did clear quite quickly and the wind moderated to a southerly, lighter than even before the squall.
We then reasoned that our destination was (without resorting to motoring) unachievable and decided to return to our own side of the Wash for some day sailing before the evening HW at about 8 pm.
During the return, about 2 pm, the wind changed to SW increasing in speed to the upper 20's mph. I reefed down with two reefs in the main and continued NE.
The wind continued to increase to over 30 mph over the next hour as we approached the coast - but there are no 'safe haven's' before HW to get safely into.
I furled the genoa and we carried on under double reefed main resorting to sailing on a reach, going about through the strong wind about every 3 miles, doing about 6 knots. The wind continued to strengthen, now consistently in the upper 30's mph, F7. Equinox was behaving very well - despite me beginning to get very anxious as the sea state was deteriorating with some 4-5 foot waves.
There were some sand banks to our NE that are exposed at LW, which was the case at that time, so we decided to head behind one - to it's North side to try and get shelter from the waves.
This meant entering a 'channel' about a mile wide, less in some places, initially we found some slighter water, but the wind was still building - and we still had about three hours before there was enough water to make an entrance into our haven at Gibralter Point.
My crew and I made the decision to drop all sail and use the motor to enter the channel.
This decision proved to be badly wrong, the sea state in the channel as we entered it was quite appalling, the wind then was now reading 40 mph on my anemometer and had became extremely dangerous with short waves I estimated at 9 - 10 feet. The wind had hit 42 mph. A full force 8 gale.
I genuinely thought then that we could be lost as it was as at that point survival conditions.
We put Equinox about and started to exit the channel with the wind behind, now at gale force and against a strong spring tidal flow. It was almost impossible to control Equinox to prevent broaching as we rode down the back of the waves - but two of us working together and using the engine to 'steer' with timely revving we slowly worked our way back to the relative safety of the open sea where I released a small amount of genoa to give us a working sail to help control the boat, which did work very well. I was able to run before the wind, heading north - the wrong direction but at least we were safer.
We made an assessment of our situation and decided if necessary we would run before the wind until we could reach the shelter of the Humber estuary, about 30 miles north where there are some sheltered anchorages I know of.
We then became aware now of all the activity on Channel 16 with the spanking new Shannon class life boat at Skegness being deployed.
I ran down wind for about 6 - 8 miles following the coast line north when, almost imperceptibly the wind moderated to the upper 20 - low 30 mph, still F7, but better. The sea state was decreasing too so I furled the genoa and under engine went back south, hoping that by now the sea state would moderate with the higher tide and decreasing wind, waves about four feet ish - for once this decision was the right one.
With the strong tide and using the engine - and with the wind continuing to moderate, I made south towards my 'safe haven' knowing there would be enough water at about 6.30 - 6.45 on Saturday (27th May) to get safely in.
Once there I was called up by the RNLI lifeboat who asked me for assistance with a yacht they had recovered and taken the whole crew off with guidance into our drying 'haven' which of course I was happy to do.
I moored up safely at about 7.45 pm and was able to check Equinox over and found her undamaged, apart from some wear on the top of the spray hood caused by the boom scraping over it - which was already damaged and I have the material to repair it anyway - and I lost a boat hook. Two of our club mates had to have the assistance of the RNLI.
Lessons learned? The forecast wind was nothing, not in the slightest, like anything we actually had. Despite checking on all sources up to just hours before departure so I don't think I can be blamed for that. This happens. There were even trees blown down in our local area on land.
When I saw the wind increasing to 'dangerous' levels (the BC23 is a cat C boat) I should have then run downwind, even trailing ropes (?) under a reefed genoa. Later, it occurred to me that there is a very slight headland about a further 6 miles north that I could have gone around which would have, I think, maybe given me shelter from the waves, and the wind may have been slightly less severe, than remaining in the open sea.
We should never, ever, have considered entering that channel. I can't believe now in retrospect, we did even considered it. As I say I genuinely thought we were almost lost at that point.
Should I have called the coastguard to let them know of our predicament? My crew said not. I'm still unsure - but we did get ourselves out of a potential, quite possibly, fatal disaster, and there was nothing any one could do at the crucial point anyway. If I had broached, I'm reasonably confident Equinox would have righted, whether or not we would be in the boat is another question and she would probably be dashed to pieces on a sandbank anyway.
Navigation of any kind was virtually impossible in those conditions. I have a chart plotter in the cockpit that proved totally indispensable - how anyone could read a chart in those conditions is beyond me.
And, of course, a good, tested and working vhf with a mast head aerial is more than essential.
My hand held only worked to other vessels that were close by. I could hear my friend calling on his HH and the coast guard could not hear him.
Equinox was very good - we did manage to keep her just about under control - albeit using the engine to 'steer' down the side of the waves and hanging onto the tiller for literally dear life and this is not any criticism of the boat, on the contrary. Any boat would have done just the same and she sailed magnificently in these appalling conditions that she was just not designed to do.
So many thanks for that Matt. She quite possibly saved my life.
Sorry this is a bit lengthy but I felt I need to share this, in the hope no one else gets into this situation and for advice on what others would do if they did.
Any thoughts or advice - even criticisms of my actions would be welcome to benefit us all.
Andy and Equinox..
