Hail on the sea

May sound silly, but do you get hail on the sea ?

We had a bit of an ice downpour a couple of days ago, some house roofs got damaged couple of leaves lost and some cars that was cought now are more streamline than what they were. My solar panels survived, they are up almost in line with the hail's direction, phew !

This got me thinking, if you can get hail or big hail on the sea it can have some consequences...

 

Yup free ice for spoek and diesel

 

Hail at sea--bad juju

If you're caught in a hailstorm at sea, the hail will likely be the least of your problems, unless it takes out your windshield with the seas breaking over the bow.

My worst storm was when navigating with big, long rollers of 6 to 8 feet, then hit by an hour long squall wind on the starboard side. In a 22 foot powerboat it was no fun, even if we were completely closed in under the hard top. I should have never been out there in the first place, but with a following sea, I figured I could make it, but no one was predicting the squall.

All I could think about is, don't fail me now steering cable or throttle cable.

In hind sight, it was fun!

Another time in the Keys, we ran from 2 water spouts that came down at the same time. That was really cool, since they missed us.

Crazy Stu

 

simply put yes, you get more at sea, more lightening , more hail and stronger winds, wind tend to dissapate as they near land, , but lightening and ice falling is scary,, so wear your crashelmet(plastic)

 

He he... crash helmet and life jacket, safety glasses and gloves, safety shoes and

So I'm putting the 50mm pespex windows on my boat instead of the 10mm If everything breaks apart, at least the windows would stant up to it

I've never been at sea and seen hail there, just lucky I guess.


Stu, there wasn't time to get seasick was there

 

when you are skipper, you just think of holding the boat, rig up, meanwhile the crew terrified, those black thunderheads, somettimes there is no wind and sometimes 60 knots

 

If I skip, I'm ok, if someone else skips, I'm terrified too Never know when the other guy is going to take shortcut through the wave. Almost like when the wife drives, just like a woman

Shame, I crapped my one friend out last time we were out on a windy dam with a bit of chop for making water. Later I tried my hand, it wasn't him, it was the boat.

Wow, 60 kn sounds like fun, you can sail without sails. I bet the kite surfers like it despite some of them mysteriously disappearing

 

exciting for 5 mins, if the wind blows that speed over a 500 mile fetch for 3 days the waves can be 80 feet high, , it is not fun at all, it is survival, I have crossed the TASMANat 80 knot wind for 3 days in a liner, the chairs were smashed , only two of us went to dinner, but there was none, the rest were all ill and frightened, I had just finished my time on anchor handling tugs North Sea Ecofifield so I was used to gales, but have nver sailed in more than 50 ,

 

Ok, that's it, I'm not going out with you, I can see now that bad weather is clearly following you around

During the hailstorm we were running around frantically to save what was to save, the shade net was bust with hail and hung about a meter off the ground, The hail made a nice wall of ice guiding all the water into the house ( I could see us sleeping on floating lilo's), worried about the car under the port, the ice was so thick on the roof it just dams the water up and started leaking all over. This wasn't snow, those hails could hurt one seriously.

Then afterwards I looked at a tree outside, and in it sat a teeny weeny little bird and it's mate chirping away excitingly (probably had a roof leak too ) but the thought that one hail could kill a bird like that so easily, yet I found no birds dead outside. Where were they and how do they survive something like that.

I guess it's the same thing if you don't have a choice and ends up in a storm.

It must be awefull at night eh

 

Fanie, no sea sickness

It's funny, if I'm at the helm, I never get any sea sickness. But if I'm down below or looking off the stern, I can develop one of those sickening head aches. But never if I have the wheel.

I'm sure there's a logical reason for that, but damned if I know what it is.

I sure prefer calm seas. After we were hit by the squall in the Keys on that rolling sea, the next morning the water turned dead calm. It was like glass, all day. Amazing how fast things can change out there.

The flying fish seemed happy too. Hundreds of them flew along with us off and on throughout the day as we ran up the Keys well outside the reef. I could have reached out and touched them on either side of the boat. Those things are just plain amazing creatures.

I hope I get a chance to see that again someday.

Stu

 

Just watched (half asleap) a nice "doco" on ABC (aussy Govt therefore not fully bought out by commercial interests) TV on lightning and its structure & efects and as part of explaining the "self-repair" of part of the neutral area where satellites are put was a map showing where lightning strikes are - MOSTLY OVER LAND..... it was a year long record.... Not much over mid-ocean regions....

 

I've often met it but never heard of anything being broken by it. I wonder about solar panels??

It's always novel to have it fill the scuppers and damp the sea surface. The radar returns a strong signal from a hail cloudburst the radar is also a useful tool to see if there is a rain/squall coming up when you can't see clearly.

Had thunder hail then a massive waterspout with counter rotating vortices that passed just in front of the boat once was scarier than I thought it would be, then it rained salt water... deluged .

I've been in over 50 knots average in a small yacht, It's miserable.