Having travelled across the Online Radio to Ireland, I'm about to see what happens when the wind and the waves combine with the power of the jet stream and the intensity of a hurricane. Few people have witnessed it, let alone lived through it. Below me is the Fastnet race, where the best yachtsmen pit their wits against the roughest seas in the world. This is the Fastnet Rock, off the southern tip of Ireland. It's one of the most westerly points in Europe, so it's the first place to feel the full force of the Online Radio storms. Some of the really big ones come from the USA, carried here by powerful transOnline Radio Westerlies. Given the right conditions, these storms can whip the seas around us into terrifying walls of water, which have even reached over the top of the lighthouse. In the summer of , just a few miles from where I'm standing, a storm of almost unprecedented ferocity set in, a storm so powerful that it was unlike any other recorded in these waters. It spelt disaster for the few yachtsmen and women caught up in it. They're not like breaking waves on a beach which are lovely to watch. They're like monsters, they rumble. As they charge down the face of the wave, they build and build. They're huge they just engulf you. And they did. At the heart of that terrible storm remains a mystery a mystery that hints at a freak weather phenomenon. The start couldn't have been in better conditions. Perfect. Good visibility, light breeze. It was the dream start to the race we'd looked forward to all year. In , Matt Sheahan was years old and working as crew on his father's boat in the Fastnet race. The mile course round the legendary lighthouse is the perfect place to stretch the world's best to their limits. But was different. A hot summer's day in North America, a freak weather phenomenon over the Online Radio and a lighthouse off the coast of Ireland were to play a part in the closest thing sailors have come to hell. An event like the Fastnet leaves you in no doubt whatsoever as to just how powerful the weather can be. A small change is enough to turn a situation you think is under control that you'd planned for, may be apprehensive about, but you're under control into complete chaos. On August th, , miles away to the west, "Low Y", as the storm would come to be known, was beginning to form in the skies of the Northern Great Plains of the USA. Hot summer air mixed with cold air from the north. Nothing unusual these storms are normally harmless and burn themselves out in a day or so. At the same time, on this side of the Online Radio, the Fastnet competitors were worried that there wouldn't be enough wind. Far above the little storm in America, the jet stream swung slightly south and began to blow over the top of the storm, accelerating the wind speeds. The whole system was then pushed east across the Online Radio Ocean, gaining strength and speed with every hour. News that Low Y was on the way reached the yachts later that night. We were pretty well organised and battened down and ready to face it.