Joseph Golden is a retired National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologist who is said to know more about waterspouts than anyone else in the world. So I decided to call a few experts to get their thoughts on the subject. None of the fellow cruisers I spoke with could help either. Virgin Islands.Įven so, I had no idea of which conditions are conducive to waterspout formation, how dangerous they are, how long they typically last, or, most importantly, how to avoid them when sailing. In fact, we were to encounter two more of them weeks later, off the south coast of St. Later, as I did more research, I discovered that tornadoes at sea are not at all unusual and are actually quite common in tropical waters. Ultimately, our efforts proved unnecessary, and the funnel disappeared into the squall line as quickly as it had formed.Īt the time, what we experienced seemed like a freak occurrence. The next several minutes were spent in full-throttle maneuvers aimed at skirting the waterspout, which had thickened somewhat and taken on a more ominous vortex shape. I put my wife, Noi, on the helm and went forward to douse the main. Suddenly, a dark funnel descended from the sky several miles ahead. A wall of cumulus clouds stretched to the east beside us, looking only slightly menacing. With barely enough breeze to fill the sails on Symbiosis, our Tayana 37, we ghosted south through the Caicos Passage, heading toward the Dominican Republic. Tornadic waterspouts thrive on warm, humid conditions that would normally spawn thunderstorms. Tornado Seacoast Cool air plus warm water can spell waterspout.
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