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One of four waterspouts we escaped, one came within 100 ft in front of our boat
During a harrowing 45-minutes, we desperately dodged 4 random tornadic waterspouts while sailing with our mainsail and jib near the coast of Croatia. This is the only time in my life I literally thought we were going to die. All I knew was that just a couple weeks prior, a mega yacht (The Bayesian) sunk in one minute in a waterspout while anchored near Palermo, Sicily and killed 7 out of the 22 passengers on board. A tornadic waterspout has winds over 100 mph and is often accompanied by rough seas, frequent lightening and hail.
The minute our guest, Gail, spotted the first waterspout, we ran and strapped on our life vests and then quickly took down our sails to reduce the effect of the wind on our boat and maximize our maneuverability, before gunning our engines on full blast. We had absolutely no warning and no knowledge of where to navigate ourselves out of danger. It seemed like every time we headed in one direction, another waterspout would form, forcing us to change course on a dime repeatedly. As you can imagine, we were all panic-yelling at Dale to go in different directions. The last waterspout that we spotted came within 100 ft. of the bow of our boat.
In the end, we sailed out to sea at a 90-degree angle to the storm, which turned out to be what you are supposed to do in a tornado at sea. Kudos to Captain Dale for his good judgement and for keeping us from harm's way!
Video of Gail keeping an eye on a tornadic waterspout
Chartplotter Screen Showing our Diversion
The thin black line going from the SE to the NW represents the path we sailed and the rapid course changes we made after spotting each tornadic waterspout. Normally, we sail in a straight line.
Anyone who does not believe in global warming has it coming to them! Besides escaping 4 tornados near Croatia while at sea, we experienced many unusual weather events while sailing the Mediterranean, which leads the world in the most devastating impacts of climate change
Extreme temperatures for an extended period of time
We had weeks of over 100+ degree weather, such that sailing in the open sea did not provide any relief
Increased drought which increases risk of wildfires
Daily closures of the Acropolis in Athens, protecting safety of tourists and staff with significant impacts on tourism
Warmer water is affecting the delicate coral eco-environments and bringing in more invasive species such as lion fish further north
More unsettled weather
We experienced some violent thunderstorms with winds exceeding. 40+ knots
In Croatia, it would rain for days at rate of 4-8" per hour! No need to clean the boat's exterior!
Severe flooding in Valencia, Spain and Austria this summer
This was a typical weather pattern we kept experiencing in the Adriatic Sea. The blue dot indicates our boat location. We were woken up at 2am in a horrific storm where Dale had to turn on our engines and steer while at anchor to avoid running into other anchored boats and a swim line and to keep us from blowing towards a cliff.
Weather forecast for Kalamata, Greece...note the 107 deg. high on Friday