White Out (rain) - lessons learned
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 10:24 am
So Gents, I had a new and quite scary experience yesterday (Sunday) on Lake Anna in Virginia. My girlfriend and I were on the southerly (dam) end of the lake enjoying another beautiful day on the water. We had watched the skies get a bit darker after lunch, but we were only 15 minutes from the ramp, so all was good. Hmmmmm. Around 3p we saw a larger cell up near the north end of the lake, and I checked my phone (weather radar) to see the direction. It looked like it would stay clear of us, so we stayed put. Mistake! It did miss us, but another cell formed off of it. After another 30 or so minutes, it looked like the storm had changed directions - coming more in our direction. I confirmed with the weather radar. At that point I decided to pack up and head to wards the ramp.
At this point I will say a bit more about my girlfriend. She is a lifelong sailer, sailed competitively off of Long Island as a youth and at the collegiate level and owns a 23' dual console and a 42' sailboat. Turns out she had been in four white outs before. I am a lifelong boater, but have precious little storm experience - by design. Also worth noting I am a student pilot and have about 10 solo hours including stalls. The white out felt like flying with a hood.
Back to the fun... As we were running up the lake the wind picked up and several boats went by us quickly going down lake - away from the storm. Very quickly the winds grew to approximately 30+ knots - blowing straight down the lake. The wind was blowing hard enough to make the rear seats flow up and down from the wind. I was quite surprised by the wind. White caps were half of the waters surface and I wondered what I was in for. Then I saw the wall of water 500 feet away and closing fast. At this point I was in the middle of the lake and no one was close. I slowed to an idle as I only had my Bimini up (better than nothing - although useless for this weather). The only thing we could do is hide behind the glass and the rain stung to the point where I could not see. Note that we closed the center window - a good call. At that point I could not see the shore (no more that 250' away), and I would guess visibility was easily less than 125'. My sun glasses were useless and my reading glasses were not at hand. I had to have my girlfriend read the depth gauge to me so I knew I was in the channel. My 232 is stock - no compass or GPS. At this point I was not using enough throttle to keep the bow in the wind which really surprised me. The waves had grown to a real 3'+. As I got the bow back in the wind, we took a wave over the bow. It was not terrible, but I guess we took about 25 gallons, as I quickly felt it at my feet. I turned on the bilge pump. As my girlfriend is an old hand with the sea, she giggled and just reminded me to keep the bow into the wind as she read out the depth gauge regularly. She offered me a sun visor hat which I declined, but then accepted. It helped a bit if I squinted and used the bream to offer shelter from the stinging rain. The white out lasted a solid 10 minutes, but it felt much longer.
After 10 minutes I could begin to see the shore - we really had not moved much, as I think I circled once or twice. As we headed through the remaining rain the skies cleared quickly. Once at the ramp we stowed the bimini and chatted with another boater that was ahead of us. They looked about as tattered as us. Their biggest fear was getting run over by another boater. I had that fear along with taking on another wave and sinking the boat. Seriously.
Lessons learned. In a new/frightening situation ones focus narrows. I failed to turn on the navigation lights - forgot where the toggle switch was. I could have used my phone as GPS (Google Earth) but didn't. I didn't keep the bow in the wind effectively - the white out freaked me out as it was totally unexpected. I did turn on the docking lights. Monitoring the depth gauge did give me some confidence I would stay away from the shore. I did turn on the bilge in anticipation of water inside the boat. The water we took over the bow splashed over the front cushion (storage area was dry), and ended up going through the ski locker. NOTE - the drain hole for the ski locker is very small and could easily get clogged. Mine did not clog, but in a storm that could really weigh down a boat. While I don't know how much water we took on from rain, a storage bin (like a square bucket) I keep in the floor ski locker was completely full at 5 gallons. Needless to say everything was soaked.
Big picture was that I could have taken out before the storm hit, but I chose to wait it out. Mistake. The boat survived fine and is drying out now - less carpets and the cover. I also learned a valuable lesson on how to mentally prepare for white out conditions. All said, you want to avoid whit outs at all cost. I wish I had my GoPro on and going, but I did not.
Best,
Chris
At this point I will say a bit more about my girlfriend. She is a lifelong sailer, sailed competitively off of Long Island as a youth and at the collegiate level and owns a 23' dual console and a 42' sailboat. Turns out she had been in four white outs before. I am a lifelong boater, but have precious little storm experience - by design. Also worth noting I am a student pilot and have about 10 solo hours including stalls. The white out felt like flying with a hood.
Back to the fun... As we were running up the lake the wind picked up and several boats went by us quickly going down lake - away from the storm. Very quickly the winds grew to approximately 30+ knots - blowing straight down the lake. The wind was blowing hard enough to make the rear seats flow up and down from the wind. I was quite surprised by the wind. White caps were half of the waters surface and I wondered what I was in for. Then I saw the wall of water 500 feet away and closing fast. At this point I was in the middle of the lake and no one was close. I slowed to an idle as I only had my Bimini up (better than nothing - although useless for this weather). The only thing we could do is hide behind the glass and the rain stung to the point where I could not see. Note that we closed the center window - a good call. At that point I could not see the shore (no more that 250' away), and I would guess visibility was easily less than 125'. My sun glasses were useless and my reading glasses were not at hand. I had to have my girlfriend read the depth gauge to me so I knew I was in the channel. My 232 is stock - no compass or GPS. At this point I was not using enough throttle to keep the bow in the wind which really surprised me. The waves had grown to a real 3'+. As I got the bow back in the wind, we took a wave over the bow. It was not terrible, but I guess we took about 25 gallons, as I quickly felt it at my feet. I turned on the bilge pump. As my girlfriend is an old hand with the sea, she giggled and just reminded me to keep the bow into the wind as she read out the depth gauge regularly. She offered me a sun visor hat which I declined, but then accepted. It helped a bit if I squinted and used the bream to offer shelter from the stinging rain. The white out lasted a solid 10 minutes, but it felt much longer.
After 10 minutes I could begin to see the shore - we really had not moved much, as I think I circled once or twice. As we headed through the remaining rain the skies cleared quickly. Once at the ramp we stowed the bimini and chatted with another boater that was ahead of us. They looked about as tattered as us. Their biggest fear was getting run over by another boater. I had that fear along with taking on another wave and sinking the boat. Seriously.
Lessons learned. In a new/frightening situation ones focus narrows. I failed to turn on the navigation lights - forgot where the toggle switch was. I could have used my phone as GPS (Google Earth) but didn't. I didn't keep the bow in the wind effectively - the white out freaked me out as it was totally unexpected. I did turn on the docking lights. Monitoring the depth gauge did give me some confidence I would stay away from the shore. I did turn on the bilge in anticipation of water inside the boat. The water we took over the bow splashed over the front cushion (storage area was dry), and ended up going through the ski locker. NOTE - the drain hole for the ski locker is very small and could easily get clogged. Mine did not clog, but in a storm that could really weigh down a boat. While I don't know how much water we took on from rain, a storage bin (like a square bucket) I keep in the floor ski locker was completely full at 5 gallons. Needless to say everything was soaked.
Big picture was that I could have taken out before the storm hit, but I chose to wait it out. Mistake. The boat survived fine and is drying out now - less carpets and the cover. I also learned a valuable lesson on how to mentally prepare for white out conditions. All said, you want to avoid whit outs at all cost. I wish I had my GoPro on and going, but I did not.
Best,
Chris