Looks altogether too familiar
This was one of the few times I got lots of warning that things were about to suck.
Wasn't a great picture to start with, but you can see the dark line of cloud. When pic was taken, it was blowing around 30 knots. Not a big deal.
Had plenty of time to put up a tiny storm sail.
When cloud bank hit, the anemometer maxed out at 99 knots, and the boat laid over on it's ear and broached with the equivalent of a t-shirt up for a sail.
at which point the old man and I looked at each other and said, " well, ****"
And people wonder why sailors swear a lot.
Only lasted a few hours at that level then backed off to 50 knots which felt pretty manageable afterwards.
This was off south Africa, couple hundred k north of Durban.
With the hot continent of Africa right there and Antarctica not that far away, they get crazy weather. I've never seen a barometer tie itself in knots like it does down there.