What about the storm?
It’s the first and the most popular question.
The thing is that we imagine the storms according to the films. Most of the films about sailing are disaster movies 🙂 In films they show epic waves, yachts sink and everything looks like we take huge risks every time when we start sailing, as if our chances to return back home are 50/50.
Maybe you even saw some YouTube videos with big ships in severe weather, in huge waves when the containers and freights are washed overboard.
As soon as I started with the big ships – let’s continue. Firstly, the ships go a whole year round: during the calm season and during the storm season. Secondly, these situations are not typical. If they lost freights every time, sea delivery would be extremely ineffective.
There are definite seasons in oceans. There’s a calm season when you travel without any problems, with stable winds and fair current.
There’s also a season of storms and hurricanes when the weather is always bad, sailing on a small sailboat is dangerous during this season.
Seasons usually change once in several months, please pay attention to the seasons if you are preparing for the ocean passage.
Most likely you will sail in Europe or close to it and your passages will be foreshore (this is also named cabotage).
This means you can watch the forecast before starting your passage. 1-2 days forecasts are usually quite precize, just watch it carefully!
In the modern world 4G internet covers the distance about 10-20 km from the shore so mostly you can watch the forecast even when you are already in the sea.
The storm itself is not as dangerous and critical. The main thing is to observe the safety measures, get mind right and take off the sails in time. You can use jib only for safety (if it has a furler) but if you feel scared – you can take all the sails off and use the motor.
Sailboats are much more safe than cars or motorcycles. It’s the statistics 🙂
А как же шторм?
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