Dennis, I have to take issue with your prediction that it is the skippers fault to be caught in severe weather. Storms are not as predictable as one would like--and this is demonistrated every year all over the world. If one sticks to the trade wind belts, in the right times of the year--this is generally true--but if you start going to higher lattitudes--all bets are off--no matter how good your weather prediction is, when you start crossing oceans. Bob Austin

Hi Bob, you are right about the weather. We can NEVER speak too soon, can we? We made ( Chris and I) a 2 day passage last summer from Alicante to Toulon in the Med on a 2 day weather window and, in the middle of the worth place possible (Golfe du Lion) for the weather turn on us, it did and the Mistral came earlier making the havoc that it is famous for. To make matters worse, at 3am on the of my watch, our auto pilot decided to lock us on a circle (?) for over 1/2 hour !!! In the midst of me throwing up on the side and trying to keep myself sane with the boat going LITERALLY in circles and making me not only seasick but dizzy, I was at the same moment trying to help the captain to get the manual steering wheel to work, which it fails for some reason or another. WE HAD A LOT OF FUN, TRUST ME! The same have happened to our Nordhavn Rally in 2004 when we were supposed (?) to get the so famous Atlantic High for the whole duration of the Rally. YES it came for one day only! The rest of the trip was a mixture of this and that but not at all what we expected. There were a moment o the Rally when we were having the roll calls in the morning and somebody asked the captain of a certain boat about his news on the weather and, in a kind of joke, he said: " when I want to know about the weather, I look out of the window!" I thought that it was funny and so true sometimes... The truth is that weather does today what the weather does TODAY. Or we take our risks or we leave it! Of course it is not THAT bad YET but I am not holding my breath. Sonaia Hermida Goleen's first mate Nordhavn 5729 Ps-We have brought our boat from Seattle all the way to Gibraltar on our bottom and this last summer we have done about 4.000 miles on the Med until Croatia and Back to Sotogrande where we are at the moment. We have done that mostly on our own and I feel that I have one or two things to say about 'the weather', you know. On 3/18/07, bob Austin <thataway4@cox.net> wrote: > > Dennis, > I have to take issue with your prediction that it is the skippers fault to > be > caught in severe weather. Storms are not as predictable as one would > like--and this is demonistrated every year all over the world. If one > sticks > to the trade wind belts, in the right times of the year--this is generally > true--but if you start going to higher lattitudes--all bets are off--no > matter > how good your weather prediction is, when you start crossing oceans. > > Bob Austin > _______________________________________________ > > Passagemaking Under Power and PUP are trademarks of Water World > Productions, formerly known as Trawler World Productions. > > To be removed from the PUP list send an email with the > subject "unsubscribe" (no quotes) to the link below: > > mailto:passagemaking-under-power@lists.samurai.com > > Passagemaking-Under-Power Mailing List