Three Ducks got caught in a surprise
typhoon near the Philippines at the end of June.

Ruth and Randal Johnson, 462 #5 were
anchored in a safe location,

Don McIntyre, 462 #6, and Ben Feldman, 382
#2 were both caught out at sea as they were transiting from Hong Kong to Subic
Bay.  Don with crew Dave Nagle, who were closest to the Philippines, put up
all sails and averaged over 9 knots for 20 hours making it to a sheltered bay
north of Subic with two hours to spare.  Ben, his first sail on his new
boat, got caught out and was severely trashed for about 30 hours. He was
very close to the eye of the storm.  No major problems and both boats are
now safely at the Subic Bay Y.C."

Robert Straghan
Diesel Duck 462 #7 Motorsailer - "Belle"

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Should we assume that they did not hire a weather forecaster? Excluding
Admiral Halsey's typhoon, isn't there now an adequate warning system in
place?

Ron Rogers

A few items from reading the blogs of both boats about their 3-1/2 day
crossing of the South China Sea:

1. The storm was not a surprise, but was indeed forecast. However it veered in
   a somewhat unexpected fashion which isn't unusual in the area. This veering
   was undetected until late  because the lead boat, at least, was unable to
   complete a scheduled sat phone/radio call that would have given them more
   notice (also not terribly unusual). There were very experienced mariners
   onboard the lead boat, sometimes *%$# happens. Two small issues (storm veer
   and missed comm's contact) led to a bigger problem.

2. The lead boat (the one with the bodacious sail rig) was safely anchored
   when the storm hit, and reported a night of 30-40 knot winds.

3. The trailing boat (8 hours behind) was caught at sea and reported 50-knot
   winds and being knocked down several times.

4. I didn't see any indication of sustained 9-knot speeds, and tracking their
   progress against their ETA, both boats seemed to be running late, so there I
   couldn't divine anything that indicated elevated speeds to the standard 7-knot
   cruising speed for a DD462. As an aside, I wouldn't be surprised that a DD in
   those conditions would hit 10-knots in between hitting 2 knots. I would be
   very surprised to learn of sustained 9-knot travel in any direction. In heavy
   seas, even if you don't slow down for prudence sake, a boat cork-screws wildly
   and doesn't make great progress, even down wind. But that's just my thinking.

In my mind, this is a good reminder that it taking weather for granted is easy

• I'd hate to have the same series of events happen with a storm that packed
  winds greater than 50-knots, especially if the fetch is great and the storm
  sustained.

Peter
Willard 36 Sedan
San Franicso

Peter,

You have an excellent analysis.

I'm surprised that a 40 knot wind even makes the news on an ocean crossing
boat.  There are lots of those that happen around the world every week, some
not well forecast.

John Harris
World Odd @ Sea
Nordhavn 46

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Typhoon Frank from June 18 to June 26 had a peak intensity of 110 mph.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Pacific_typhoon_season

Mike

Capt. Mike Maurice
Tigard Oregon(Near Portland)