On August 1 and 2, several tornadoes of category F1 swept over Istria, especially the southern tip of the northern Croatian vacation region with Cape Kamenjak / Istria and the region around the port city of Pula / Istria were affected. However, there was no major damage, although in the sky and on the water there was an unusual natural...
The sky darkens, angry gusts scurry across the water, a dull rumble can be heard and the first flashes of lightning twitch on the horizon: a thunderstorm is on its way. If the storm is already within sight and sound, there is not always enough time to reach a safe harbor or a place in a safe anchorage. With proper...
The subject of wind, or the Latin term "Ventus", exerts a not inconsiderable influence on seafaring in the areas of Croatia, Slovenia and northern Italy, depending on the strength measured in Beaufort. For this reason, skippers should familiarize themselves with the peculiarities of the particular area in which they are sailing, because anyone who is not familiar with the harbingers...
The transition from late summer to autumn always brings surprises throughout the Adriatic region in the form of sudden storms with heavy rain, storm, lightning and thunder. Also on the last weekend, October 3, 2020, summer said goodbye with a bang: thunderstorms, rain and a strong Jugo pushed the waters of the Mediterranean Sea to the north. Lignano reported the...
A moderate storm that swept over large parts of the Croatian coast in the night from July 6 to 7, 2020 caused the first large-scale deployment of SeaHelp emergency response boats. It was not until the morning of July 7th that the full extent of the damage became apparent, with a total of eight salvages on the deployment schedule of...
The last thunderstorm, which swept across the Croatian coast from Istria to Dalmatia on Sunday evening, 7 July 2019, was not necessarily marked by record wind speeds in many regions, but came literally out of the blue. A skipper who was right in the middle of the action: "There was the best bathing weather, suddenly we heard a roll of...
The Adriatic region has been hit by hurricane-like autumn storms and heavy rains in recent days. Dubrovnik and Zadar struggled with record-breaking rainfall that hit the region in a few hours. At the same time the Yugo pushed the water towards the mainland. Motorways were blocked around Rijeka, the old coastal road was partially no longer passable. The ferry traffic...
SeaHelp weather warning before storm<\/h2>\r\nAs early as 10.00 a.m. the nautical breakdown service sent out a weather warning and pointed to an approaching storm in the North Adriatic. Northeasterly gusts increasingly to 35 to 60 knots, in the Velebit Channel at peak up to 85 knots in combination with high swell. In addition, according to the SeaHelp weather warning, there is a danger of afternoon thunderstorms in the South Adriatic, and at night in the Central and North Adriatic.\r\n
The balance of the thunderstorm front on the previously so contemplative Sunday evening: A total of 24 operations in a short period of time kept the forces between Istria and Dubrovnik on their toes. Eleven violent groundings, during which the boats had to be salvaged, two free towing operations with light grounding, five towing operations to the next port, two start-up assistance and four general assistance operations were recorded late at night in the operation protocol of SeaHelp headquarters in Punat. The term \"general assistance\" should not be underestimated in terms of the effort involved. In a more than irresponsible situation, an adult with six small children had ventured out from a campsite with an (inflatable) rubber boat into the Adriatic Sea despite a thunderstorm warning and was considered missing. SAR, captainry and SeaHelp participated in the search. Luckily it ended without any trouble, the maritime \"Assumption Command\" had made it ashore under their own power.<\/p>\r\n
SeaHelp had already issued a storm warning early on via the app, warning of thunderstorms and squalls of 35 to 40 kt. \"Obviously the warnings were ignored in view of the beautiful weather,\" a SeaHelp employee suspected.<\/p>\r\n
Already at 7 pm the storm front reached Istria. A team from the Mali Losinj base, which went out for support, had a more than arduous way back: \"Waves as high as houses!\" Stanko Kovacevic reported to the control center, more than three knots top speed was hardly possible. But SeaHelp's emergency crews and powerful rescue boats can handle situations like this.<\/p>\r\n
One more thing was noticeable: SeaHelp had only recently explicitly advised on the Internet that anchor buoys or anchors should be checked to make sure they were firmly anchored. Obviously not emphatically enough, because the majority of the boats damaged during this storm weekend were drifted ashore because the lines of the anchor buoys broke or did not hold anchors.<\/p>\r\n
In addition, this storm Sunday showed once again how important it is to have a SeaHelp membership. 22 assignments were driven for SeaHelp members, only two assignments were for non-members. At the end of the day, this is not only a question of costs, but also a question of costs: According to the General Terms and Conditions, SeaHelp members understandably enjoy priority treatment over non-members for missions of equal rank and pay nothing or significantly less for certain services.<\/p>\r\n