Thunderstorms. Having spent over 20,000 hours flying general aviation and commercial aircraft domestically and internationally, and many many flights in the Miami and Bahamas, I have seen my share of thunderstorms. From the air, they can be very defining and you can see what they do easily to those on the ground and water. Circumnavigating them in a jet (aircraft) is just a seconds out of the way for small ones and maybe minutes for larger areas, but maybe many minutes for regions or lines of weather that are severe in nature. In a boat, even a small cell can have wind gusts near it that will build multiple walls of water and push them out in all directions from the downburst center. Many times, in the tropics, there is so much abundant moisture, that they don't have to grow too big before they literally dump all of their energy at once and even maintain that state for hours in the same spot. The hard part in boats the size of ours, is that you just can't navigate far enough out of the way of these to be effective. Your average speed should be north of 20kts, yet the sea prevents you from maintaining that, going 10 miles south of a storm to avoid the downburst surface conditions will add over an hour to your fuel burn and maybe 20 extra miles to your trip. To have to avoid several on a 50 mile trip could easily double the distance. Without radar to look out far enough to anticipate, you are just disadvantaged beyond being able to deviate effectively. A single cell is one thing, multiple or general area thunderstorms are just impossible to navigate around in our craft...without much extra fuel. It then makes it necessary to just ride it out. I think
@Julian has hit the nail on the head. Without a departure window of multiple days, that could not ever be open, it is just a risk to property and life, to force a bad position.
I am so glad that everyone is ok. It is easy to say "things can be repaired", and they can. I for one, would not put my boat in harms way intentionally. It would be such a hard decision, to say no, when I traveled so many miles and have set days to vacation. I know the feeling, as we have had the motorhome break down and ruin a vacation for us. It is hard for someone that has no ocean experience to make this decision, as they have no experience to gauge their decision making on. Plan B, must be a higher value option in the equation. We need to learn from our mistakes and experiences, and make our future plans safer...for everyone. I could go on and on, and what do I know? I'm just glad everyone is ok, and pray for a safe return for all of you.