Here (in the Atlantic about 100km west of Shetland) about 1pm yesterday it suddenly went as dark as night, very heavy rain and lightening and the wind went from flat calm to 70kn in a matter of seconds.
The wind caught under the helideck and, in trying to keep us on location the positioning system overcompensated and the rig listed enough to make all the chairs fly across the room. Back right again within a minute but for a few seconds there were all kinds of bad thoughts going through my head!
That is the third time I have seen a massive wind change nearly instantly, it would be truly terrifying in a small boat.