SW Borneo - Worst storm yet...
Digiboat's "Product Testing"
Simon Blundell
Wed 1 Feb 2012 07:00
02:42.48S 109:45.49E
1/2
0700LT
Approaching the turning point around the "corner" of Borneo. Expect to get there around sunrise. There's a narrow channel through the reefs close to the coast which is well chartered and will cut about 50 miles off the trip rather than sailing around outside of the reefs.
An hour before dawn and conditions perfect for
"cutting the corner". 8-10kn SW wind an ideal sailing angle.
Best laid plans! At PRECISELY the wrong moment -
committed to the narrow channel and, still dark, a few fishing boats can be seen
by lights and RADAR anchored in the channel - and hit by a thunderstorm of
incredible intensity. 40kn+ on-shore winds, lightening and torrential rain.
Visibility cut to zero. Confused seas with big waves trying to drive us onto the
shore. In fact doesn't need to work that hard as shoals at E side of channel
only metres away. Spent the next hour motoring against the storm at barely over
1kn avoiding the shoals and fishing boats. Very hard to hold course at this slow
speed, but eng overheating because needs oil and coolant top up - jobs that were
waiting for dawn when I could leave the helm station - so not wanting to run at
high revs and risk losing the eng altogether which'd put us on the reef within
seconds.
Dawn breaks, wind eases slightly, and we finally
motor past the dog-leg that had us smashing directly into the storm. Now can get
some sail up and give the engines a rest which are desperate for some oil. Still
a narrow channel and have to sail very close to the wind to stay in the deep
part.
After some anxious knocks taking us into the
chartered shallows (but depth sounder still reading safe), we finally break free
and tack over and sail away from the coast.
An extremely tense past few hours. The storm simply
could not have chosen a worse time, nor angle/direction to hit us. Any problems
or mistakes would have had us on the reef in under a minute.
Time to hand over to Sam while I get some overdue
rest.
SJB