We’ve all heard the horrible stories that came out of the storm that rocked the Chicago-Mac Race. Now see some of the images of what it was really like to be out there during it, courtesy of edited video from a helmet camera aboard the J/109 Realt Na.
Stunning Footage from the Chicago-Mac Storm
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Reminds me a of storm we encountered sailing from San Andres,Columbia toward Guanaja, Honduras. We blew out or staysail boom and blew out the jib – at least force 8. Forecast: beautiful weather.
I was there in that storm. The helmet cam gives about the best I have seen but the sound, and the rain and water flying……is missing. Lightning striking the water right near the boat while you are on deck holding on to aluminum spar etc handling the chaos. Just seemed that I stopped thinking of what was going on around and put on the blinders to just do what had to be done with the boat and the heck with what the weather was doing. Only lasted about 40 minutes but when it hit it was like someone flicked on the switch for a gigantic fan and winds went from 25 – 30 to over 50 kts in an instant. We got through well, only a small rip in our mainsail which we repaired and continued the race, didn’t do well but finished safely.
We were about 1.5NM ahead of WingNuts when the storm hit, and just to leeward of the Realt Na Mara. I am grateful for the video footage provided above, and agree with Lyn that no footage could really do justice to the ferocity of the storm.
When we on the Elusive, a J-120, abandoned the race to retrace our steps in response to the MAYDAY and the flares…it was one of the most intense few hours of my life. Already tired, and a bit beat up ourselves, we joined about 14 other boats to look for the 2 missing sailors. I applaud the crew of Sociable in their effort to coordinate the scrambled search.
Wish we could have done more…
Tim