Convention transoms in a following sea

Begin forwarded message:

Last month we had to cross the mouth of the Canakkale Straits and due to storms in the Black sea, the seas were CONFUSED, meters tall with winds racing down the Straits at 50+ knots.

There were time when beams were on our beam as I had to turn and due to the seas, the 200 kg tender on the boat deck was bounced out of its cradle and settled on the starboard side, which I did not know until much later! Therefore turns to starboard had more of a list than turns to port.

For much of the time (3+ hours) we were in a 2-3 meter following sea which dumped a lot of water on out aft deck. I could tell a big wave was coming as the stern would rise a little but not much, and definitely not enough to plunge the bow into the water. I did end up putting about 100 liters+ into the Lazarette's bilge which was no big deal. I had FAILED to dog the hatch and water seeped in around the hatch's combing.

I was steering manually as the auto pilot just appeared to be working way too hard.

Steering manually within 5-10 degrees of my chosen course was NOT a problem.

Timing turns was a big issue, and I did not get them all correct as the waves were just soooooooo confused.

We probably took at least one to two 30+ degree roll and plenty of 20's.

After 3 hours, the wind and seas died down and we completed out transit south.

No internet weather forecast site predicted this, BUT had I looked at the GRIB data for the Black Sea the day before our intended passage, I would have seen gale+winds and heavy rains forecasted.

I SHOULD have known that this would translate into a very rough crossing.

And by the way, the commercial ships in the traffic separation scheme were bitching to their chanderlies ashore about the wind, waves, and the beating they were taking. Only one ship had a problem and the Turkish Pilot, Rescue and Tow tugs ( there were 6 just "hanging out") were there to offer assistance.

It is interesting to note that in this area, an authorized anchorage for these commercial ships include some "shallow bays" near to the mouth, but most are 20-50 nm North or South of the entrance.

Once in the Straits, there are a very few places to anchor and even fewer mooring boys but most are encouraged to make it to the Sea of Marmara where there exist many mooring buoys.

Lee
LeeZe is a steel, 44 GT RPH trawler built on a George Buehler 49'+ hull with a square stern with a 1 meter extended swim platform and a 3 meter passarella hanging off the stern of the boat, not the swim platform.

On 2015-11-16, at 1702, Mary via Trawlers-and-Trawlering <trawlers@lists.trawlering.com> wrote:

We sailed our Defever 41 from San Francisco to Panama. We had no problems with the following sea. In fact our Com Nav pilot steered virtually the entire time..