Microburst Aftermath AKA "The Scariest Day Of Her Life" | Sailboat Story 137

At 5am we awoke to an intense, flashing white light coming from outside the boat. We looked to the West and saw a small, but extremely angry looking thunder cloud moving rapidly toward us. The cloud was pure black and menacing with non-stop lightning occurring from within it. Right about the time the cloud went overhead the wind speed instantly went from 5 knots to 80 knots. We were deafened and blinded by torrential, wind-driven rain. The boat violently heeled over 90 degrees to port and our anchors began to drag.

We were hit by a microburst.

The cabin was immediately in disarray. All manner of previously stored items were tossed about cabin from the boat whipping back and forth from one extreme to the other. I glanced at our chartplotter and saw that we were dragging BOTH of our anchors at well over 2 knots. Thankfully we were being blown in the only safe direction there was. Any other direction would have put us onto an unforgiving rocky shoreline. The 14:1 scope we set the 2 anchors at only served to slow the boats speed a little. We held onto each other and tried to stay calm as I monitored our drag path.

Then, just as quickly as the chaos began, all was still.

The experience was truly horrifying, but lasted only 5 minutes. We’ve been through some scary experiences during our time traveling aboard our sailboat, but this was the worst because we were completely helpless and fully at the mercy of the weather.

This video was shot immediately following the microburst.

Enjoy!

Ben, Tambi, & Molly | S/V Sandflea | “SAILBOATSTORY”

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