I connected with an old colleague recently, and we got caught up on what he’s been doing and where he’s been going. Capt. Stuart Reininger, who keeps his boat in Connecticut, travels a lot for pleasure and for work as a marine journalist, charter skipper and delivery captain. When the conversation moved to cruising and weather he asked, “Have you ever seen a white squall?”
I have not encountered this rare weather phenomenon—a sudden and intense windstorm that’s often unaccompanied by the black clouds characteristic of a conventional squall. Stu had been caught up in one while running a 65-footer near Montauk Point, New York, and the experience tested his seamanship mettle.
On that day, NOAA had predicted possible thunderstorms with high winds, lightning and hail, so Stu was watchful. “Then the land became obscured by a white haze, and white caps rose up on the sea’s surface. Conditions weren’t alarming, but the boat’s motion was becoming uncomfortable,” he said. Stu decided to call it a day and headed for the inlet at 12 knots. About 10 minutes later, while running in following seas, the stern began fishtailing as the winds and seas rose. He throttled back, surprised by the size of the waves, which didn’t seem consistent with the thunderstorm he thought was about to strike.
“I didn’t see the squall coming, because there was no anvil-shaped cloud. If anything, the experience taught me to pay more careful attention to changing conditions as they can indicate the strength of an approaching storm. I now know that the haze produced by a white squall can suddenly darken, and that the air temperature can drop 5 degrees just before a storm hits,” said Stu.
More unusual, though, was the change in the sea state. Waves were short, steep and close together. For that reason, Stu didn’t try to outrun the storm. It would produce heavy seas, he reasoned, but when the weather moved on, the rough waves would diminish.
“The seas began building before the actual storm struck, and when it did it was intense, with fast-moving, wind-driven water,” he said. “By then I had the boat at idle speed with the bow into the seas, just as we got hit by hail and a 40-knot gust. There was no visibility, just shrieking wind.”
Even so, he was able to ride relatively comfortably, taking wind and seas a few degrees abaft the bow. The wind blew at 20 knots for another three hours, during which he drove slowly and continuously monitored his position. Eventually, he maneuvered around Montauk Point and into calm water.
Handling a boat in a gale is a topic of concern for most boat owners.
“My best advice is to determine how your boat rides most comfortably in a storm,” said Stu. “If you’re concerned about being set too close to a lee shore, place the bow into the weather so it takes the seas with the least uncomfortable motion. If there’s adequate room downwind, run ahead of the seas, but always slow enough for the seas to outrun the boat. Don’t let the boat exceed the speed of the seas, because that can result in loss of control. Most important, though, is to always be ready to transmit your exact location in the event of an emergency.”
Jeanne Craig
[email protected]
