Plymouth Mayhem
19 August 2008 | Plymouth, MA
Ahmet
It is 2 pm and we are sitting on a mooring in Plymouth
Our original plan was to leave around 11 and sail to Onset.
But when I saw the weather pattern approaching I decided to stay put.
AN that was a good decision.
Around 11:30, a rainsquall came by, it was as if someone was pouring buckets of water out of the sky.
It was the strongest rain I had experienced in a long time, stronger that what we experienced in the BVI last year as we ran across Hurricane Noel.
But that was nothing..
The rain squall passed us in about 10 minutes, the sky cleared up for a while, but there were dark skies out west.
We were all covered up and waiting.
I turned on the instruments to read the wind speed.
It came ... black skies, some rain, and wind.. 30 .. then 35.. then 40..
At this point Nomad was swinging around the mooring about 150 feet off the seawall..
then the big one came .. it grabbed Nomad, heeled her over about 45 degrees to starboard, swung her 180 degrees, then heeled her to port.
As we were swinging, I read 94 knots of wind.
I started the engine, just in case, and was on standby to try to power into the mooring, should we start dragging.
I was happy that I had bridled the single line mooring ball with one of my dock lines.
Then it dropped to 60 and stayed at that for a minute or two before dropping down to 40 and eventually dissipated.
So we will be in Plymouth for tonight, and move on to Cuttyhunk tomorrow morning.
Danielle said that it was the scariest she had been on a sailboat.