Steve writes:

Simon Brooke , wrote:

Steve writes:

If you experience this sort of difficulties at your level of skill,
don't you think a course in boat handling would actually be useful to
you?

"Seriously, could I have done any better while holding a
certificate?"

Seriously, you could have done a lot better if you'd known to get into
shelter earlier, which the course you so deride would probably have
taught you.

No-one would have "known to get into shelter earlier", there was
no warning, whatsoever.

Rubbish. A sea doesn't build from nothing to dangerous in no time. It
happens quickly, but not in no time. A lot of energy input is
required, and the sea surface is a relatively poor transducer of
energy. And you can see the weather coming in on the windward horizon,
especially with sudden squalls.

You either think I'm not being truthful about the circumstances
at the time, perhaps you didn't understand me or you think a
certificate [read: course] would endow me with psychic abilities.
Either way, you are not being reasonable about this.

I'm a reasonably skilled small boat user, and I've been knocking about
in waters a lot more dangerous than the eastern mediteranean for forty
years. I'm not a great believer in bits of paper, but I am a great
believer in knowing how to read the sea state, how to read the
weather, and how to plan a passage so that you know what you're going
to do in every eventuality of the weather. A good course will teach
you some of this, although experience will teach you more.

On the day in question a *lot* of people were caught out, the
forecast had suggested the opposite of what happened

That's normal.

and the turn
in the weather and wind direction happened within a few minutes.

That's not uncommon, but when it happens you will see it coming if you
know what you're looking for. Large chunks of atmosphere moving around
fast have tremendous momentum - if they didn't they wouldn't be dangerous -
and the effects of that are visible.

The boatyard owner was worried as he too had been caught out and
it was even discussed later that evening in the restaurant we
attended. No-one, I repeat *no-one* could have predicted what
happened more than a few minutes beforehand.

I don't believe you.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; all in all you're just another click in the call
;; -- Minke Bouyed