You probably heard that 2 people are confirmed dead and 4 still missing (I think)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJF7i5z9lQ4

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I wasn't out on the water but I feel for those who were.

We got three or four inches of rain and really flaky winds, trees down. I had damage to a car and an enclosed trailer.


Boaters Missing After Storm Strikes Regatta in Mobile Bay

Squalls can be brutal. Offshore if we see one we spool up the radar, the big ones really show up, so we reduce sail. If you feel the temp drop ahead of one reduce sail quickly. The rule of thumb is when in doubt reduce sail.

If your caught with your pants down in 60mph winds your pretty much going to just get knocked down, or break something.

Now if your racing like the Volvo guys you try to sail towards these things.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fqqkr7IjnY

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Some line squalls are so vicious there is no time to think even. I remember in one the guy with me asked what if one of those lightning bolts strikes us? You could smell the heavy ozone.

We were lucky as I had decided to drop the main and jib and tie them down as it was getting very, very dark not far from us on a very sunny day. Plus approaching fast. You know you have the real thing when it blows all the waves around you flat in only a minute or so.

Just as soon as we got the boat squared away my friend froze and could not do anything. I even snapped the aluminium spinnaker pole on the back stay to add additional grounding and it was skipping along the water when running off downwind quite nicely.

I could not guess the wind velocity but you could not face into the rain as it hurt. It also seemed to be going horizontally. What I saw in that video posted was almost nothing in comparison.

The only think good about line squalls is they do not last long. If my boat had been caught at night with the main and/or jib up about the only chance we would have had then is if the mast snapped off. Otherwise I suspect the boat would have been either laying flat on the water or worse.

Incidentally because it was so vicious I thought it just a line squall. It was also thirty miles to the lee shore. So I thought if this continues the waves are really going to build and I had better get some kind of drag device together to put over the stern to slow us down.

Earlier we had to get into the running downwind position as well. We heeled over quite far even being just under the bare pole during the transition. We had also started the engine and where just motoring along when it hit us.

There are two things I remain in the dark about even today. How long where we in this and how high was the wind velocity. I had been in 40-60 mph winds before but that time was or it seemed a much higher wind velocity was present. Being caught unprepared by something like this can sink a boat. Or put someone overboard easily enough.

They found another body and identified some dead and missing.

Dauphin Island Regatta disaster update: Another body found, another victim ID'd | AL.com

Car club breakfst wednesdays at Burger Master on US45.

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