Enroute Report- Passage Borneo to Belitung - Anyone for a Water Spout?...NOT!!!
Sea Mist > Sold to New Owners July 2016
John and Cheryl Ellsworth
Thu 11 Oct 2012 01:26
03 13.12 S 109 44.20 E
We have been fortunate to have sailable wind for about half of the first 24 hour stretch; presently motoring.
Well....BIG NEWS !!!....the dry season is over (not a drop of rain on Sea Mist since June 2nd at Magnetic Island, Townsville, Queensland, OZ....but now the rainy season has arrived...according to locals, it is about a month late in its arrival.
We got a rude awakening about 6 am today as nasty clouds were present all around us at day break....and then >>> there it was: a water spout off our port beam...and coming right at us...>FAST!....we got sails all down as fast as possible and tried to figure out what direction to steer to have a best shot at having it miss us. We were trying to go at 90 degrees to its path of travel...but it decided to start to turn in the direction that our course was taking us. Then we saw another water spout taking shape directly ahead of us....now what....anyway that 2nd one did not touch down on the water surface...it dissapated in the air. The first one had one heck of a lot of action where it was meeting the water...but good fortune was with us and it very suddenly lost its energy and rather quickly dissappated...and then disappeared.
The spout looks just like a tornado except their funnel clouds were both much thinner. They reached a seemingly LONG vertical from their root in the clouds to their touchdown point.
OK...so we get the point....there are only 2 seasons in this part of the world...DRY SEASON...and WET SEASON...and their start and finish is not on any calendar!
Cheers.....the Sea Misters
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