AFTER WINSTON

 

Yup this is Sir Winston

So what have we been up to post SIR WINSTON you ask.  Well the next morning, it was a day of reflection and alot of
OMG.  As you looked around you saw boats all over the place, on rocks, in trees, twisted and broken.  Not a sight any one wants to see.  But as  you look ashore you see the people of Fiji starting the clean up of the town. 

 

A radio call from Curly; our source,  our rock, our go to person ..."calling all cruisers to a meeting to assess damage and to rally the cruiser troops to assist".   We all had a day to see what damage we each had then it was  time for the meeting.  Since Copra Shed Marina  still had a dock and a place to meet the meeting was held there, with all of the marinas present,  even soft drinks where provided by Copra Shed.   So the planning began:  who can diver, who could fiberglass,  who could do do do....just help.  Hands went up. 

We also went with a few email addresses and a short message, saying we were fine, one of the boats volunteered to send off short emails so that friends and family knew we were OK.

The next morning there was a call from Curly wanting 2 strong guys to deliver a battery and hook up a bilge pump for a boat that was taking on water....no one answered the call sooooooo we got on the radio and said we are not 2 strong men but we are certainly willing to volunteer the 2 Interlude girls...thus started the trend.  We ended up in a 2 week period, help move rocks from around keels and rudders,   tie ropes to help re-launch boats, fix or secure broken hatches.  In total we help re-launch 4 boat and involved 3 other boats to prepare for re-launching.  As for the working conditions, lets just say you are either knee deep in mangrove mud or walking on boats with broken glass or twisted rigging and leaning at about a 45 degree angle.  All the prep and all the cuts and scrapes is nothing because when you see that boat move off the rocks or out of the mud, oh what a feeling.  A boat needs to be in the water for sure.  Re-launching the boats was made possible by a  great team including the power by Alistair on Conterband a large powerboat.  It was his amazing boat handling skills and the team work from the dingy drivers who kept Conterband straight and out of danger, and the people on the boats who secured the bridles and made sure the ropes did their job of pulling and not doing any more damage.  It was a super team effort by all.

In our spare time we repaired our own boat,  had our rigging inspected as we got a direct hit to our side right at our side plate for our shrouds.  Plus we tried to  look after Curly, he called us mom 1 and mom 2!  Curly sometimes needed to have 2 Moms telling him that he needs to take his meds and eat as he has an infection and cuts on his legs, but Curly being Curly it is hard to tie down.

One of our little dents....okay a section of our boat missing

We did finally get a hold of our friends on the island of Tavanui,  where we knew they where hit hard. The call was heartbreaking, we had so many good times there, moored in front of their resort, hearing they had lost their resort was difficult. They said there is basically nothing left and their staffs houses in the village are lost as well.  With tears on both end of the phone Allan said they will let us know in 2 days if they are going to rebuild, our response was they are like family and  so are their staff we will come and help any way we can just let us know.  So we sat for 2 days on pins and needles,   watching the weather and planning our departure .  So when we got the call, could we come and help, you bet we said we will be there, what do you need us to bring? 

With a small shopping list of some tools and food for us and finally check on a boat that was Cheryl's project, turn over of keys and responsibility, we said our goodbyes to our cruiser friends. But first we had to get a diver to take the stray mooring line we picked up along the way which was wrapped around our prop and to remove our safety line from our mooring.   We didn't feel too bad about leaving our cruiser friends at this stage as most of the remaining boat need some more pre work by the owners and the super high tide which was in a week.  So off went. 

One thing we would like to say is the comrade and  the new friendship,  the bonding that any disaster does...is truly amazing thank you all

 

Winston came to call 2 versions of our story

Went to sleep on the 19th with the weather reports showing Winston would go between Suva and Kadavu, some 100+ miles from us. Wake up in the am of the 20thFebruary, 2016 to find that Winston has moved only west, no south and will pass very close. Also Winston is now a category 5 cyclone and this news is BC, before coffee.

We had prepared the boat: removed the blades on the wind generator, extra ties on the solar panels on the arch, removed the solar panel on the railing, extra ties on jerry cans on the deck, main is off. Now we took down the enclosure, so we have as little windage as we could.

We had the two lines to the mooring, with chaffing gear and had put a safety line to the mooring, in case the mooring line itself broke. Also before the season started the moorings had been inspected by a prominent dive shop owner and he had pronounced our mooring sound. Cheryl dove it to, to inspect and put on the safety line. Cheryl went down almost to her armpit, to try to reach the mooring, felt nothing, but ucky, mucky oooge! Yuk, but good from a holding perspective.

So we are ready!? The winds start to pick up around 10am, but no big deal, except the winds they keep increasing! Then the calls on the radio start: Karma is lose, Heritage is lose, Chululu is lose...We had removed the remote for the radio so could only hear when we went below deck. This didn't really matter as you couldn't hear in the cockpit the when the winds increase.

When Chululu broke lose she was the first boat to hit us, she was a big windage wooden dive boat, and she started us dragging! Engine on and for the next four hours we drove, using the engine to slow our drag, avoid boats, and keep us in the wind as much as possible.

At the very beginning, Cheryl was steering, when we got the phone call from Hiedi, on Huck. Friends to wanted to know if we were OK, what a boost! As the winds picked up, Cheryl needed clothes, we had agreed to wet clothes in the sink, but Karen couldn't find them, so took the helm so Cheryl could find clothes to stop the pelting of 1000 needles.

Then fashion statement on Interlude was dive masks and foul weather jackets. The rain was so hard there was no other way to look into the wind . You couldn't hear a thing, except the wind. Driving, I switched from side to side so the helming was less effort. After a couple of hours I would drop an arm to let the water run out of my sleeve, also gave us a laugh.

Cheryl took the helm several times so that Karen could go forward and check that we were still attached to the mooring. The winds and waves were just pelting, Cheryl could only see Karen occasionally.

We danced for many hours with one boat. Afterwards we found out that she had broken her Helix mooring, had put an anchor down to slow her movement and was driving. While we actually kissed several times, we both managed to keep those as nudges.

Trust in yourself, trust in your boat, trust in yourself, trust in your boat. I kept repeating this to myself.

At some points the gusts were so strong that we were toe rail in the water, something we don't think we have ever done under sail!

The waves at the height of Winston were substantial, at one point Cheryl was looking back and saw the bow of a boat off our stern above our davits, which are 12 feet above the water. That boat missed our solar panel on the davits by inches.

We held the same position for an hour or two, with the mooring and the engine slowing our drag. While visibility was very limited, we could see the Fiji pearl farm dock every few minutes, so knew we were not moving. I went forward several times, against Cheryl's protest, to check the lines to our mooring, they were fine.

Then the eye went through and we had a 90 degree windshift. We started to drag again. But the same thing, switch from side to side at the helm as we heeled. I don't know that we have ever put our tow rail in the water on our boat under sail, but certainly did with the wind gusts.
Cheryl went forward to rescue the spare halyard, and was horizontal due to wind gusts, needs to eat more ice cream, or wear lead boots!

I told Cheryl to go down and prepare a ditch bag. She took the helm while I prepared a ditch bag with our passports, as Cheryl had noted that she didn't have them. Cheryl saw a pile up of boats on the shore behind us. She said, I don't want to be part of the carnage.

Cheryl had gone down stairs to check the engine, bilge, barometric pressure and the time, 2:30. Figured that Winston had hit Taveuni at 9am, 40kn from us, was moving at 12 knots, he had to be moving away and things would settle down soon.

At one point I said to Cheryl "do you realize that you can hear me?" The wind was dying and where we had drug to was sheltered by Nawi Island. We looked down the creek and could see how the mangroves stopped the wind and rain. We could see the hill in back of the town of Savu Savu, but not the boats down the creek. Now you can see white stallions in a snow storm running towards you, as you steer towards them, to try to keep the boat stable. Before we couldn't see anything, no reference, you couldn't see the bow of your boat!

Cheryl had gone down stairs to check the engine, bilge, barometric pressure and the time 2:30. Figured that Winston had hit Taveuni at 9am, 40kn from us, was moving at 12 knots, he had to be moving away and things would settle down soon.

Cheryl ordered me downstairs to get warm and put on dry clothes. I did not realize how much I was shivering, she did! I got on dry clothes, including a polar fleece, yes, I know we are in the tropics? I checked the weather, a beautiful satellite photo, showing that the eye had passed us!

All Cheryl saw was this grey mass coming down full tilt, like a bullet with, feeling helpless, not able to avoid the hit. She shouted, Hold on Kar! We were hit mid ships by an aluminum boat, going full tilt! Hits and slides down our side!

From then on things started to calm down. We looked not too far behind us and see a pile up of boats on shore, about 8 boats aground! Over time we find out that 23 or 50 boats went aground, one is a write off, or more from an insurance perspective.

The eye of the storm went about 25 miles south of us. We had winds of 140 to 185 knots. depending on who you listen to, as we do not have an anometer!

Being part of history is something, but something that we can do without!!!

2nd Version - A DAY WE WILL NEVER FORGET!

On February 20th, 2016, a category 5 cyclone hit Fiji, in fact the strongest storm ever in the South Pacific.

Here is the story from the perspective of Interlude, Karen and Cheryl:

On the 19th we prepared the boat for a cyclone.  We removed everything we could from the deck and double tied everything we couldn't, even the wind generator blades.  That evening Winston was forecast to pass 90 nautical miles south of us, between Kadavu and Suva.  At 2:30 am,  Cheryl checked the weather again and Winston's path had changed, it was now forecasted to pass quite close to us.  At daybreak we secured trouble (our dinghy) upside down on the foredeck and removed bimini and dodger and their poles, we had little windage left.

By 10am, the winds and rains started.  They got serious by noon.  The first boats broke free of their moorings, and the fun began.  The VHF became active as boats started to drift onto each other.  We got on the VHF around noon as the boat beside us drug down on us.  This started us dragging our mooring.  We then had another interaction, now there were three!  We got free from the two boats and started what felt like the longest passage of our lives, which was really only a 1/2 nautical mile down the creek.    We danced with the wind and waves, roughly in the same spot for an hour or hour and a half.  Then another boat joined the dance, a boat that had broken her mooring, was driving like us and anchor down to slow her passage.  We passed each other bow to bow, stern to stern, side to side, every which way until the end.  We did interact a few times.

At the height you could not hear, the noise was too much, worse than any rock concert!  you had to be inches from an ear so that maybe they could hear you.  We had dive masks on, but sometimes could not see beyond the bow of the boat the wind and rain was so strong.  We had sheets of rain and waves whiting out everything.  For those who have been in a serious snowstorm, you will understand the lack of visibility.

The dive masks certainly made a fashion statement, the accessory to  the outfit of the day on Interlude!  As we were driving to slow our drag, keep in the wind and avoid boats coming down on us, we needed the masks.  The driving rain and seas where amazing.  The boom is basically sandblasted from the water.  In actual fact we feel that our faces were exfoliated!

At some points the gusts were so strong that we were toe rail in the water, something we don't think we have ever done under sail!

The waves at the height of Winston, at one point Cheryl was looking back and saw the bow of a boat off our stern above our davits, which are 12 feet above the water.  That boat missed our solar panel on the davits by inches. 

Then the eye passed, the wind direction changed and drug to the south a little.  We were still dancing with the same boat, some awesome driving on both sides to have not had any serious interactions with them.  After the fact they found out that their anchor was caught in the wreck of a boat, stopping their drag!

With the change of wind direction and where we were located, somewhat behind an island we could see the wind funnel down the creek like sheets of snow.  But it wasn't as sever for us as it was for the others who were more exposed.

Karen turned to Cheryl and said, do you realize that you can hear me?  The worst was over.  The shore and its building started to appear.  Then we could see the hill in behind the town, you could still see the walls of rain as they came through gaps in the mangroves further down the creek.  It was probably an hour later before we could see Savu Savu marina at the end of the creek, they are so exposed to the north.

Somewhere out of the white sheets of snow came a grey mass, an aluminium boat had broke its mooring and was heading straight for the side of the boat.  Cheryl yelled "hold on Karen" as we were really and truly struck.  She hit our starboard shrouds and then ran down the boat and then joined the boats ashore on the rocks!

By six o'clock we turned off the engine, gave each other a hug and started to breathe again.  Then we looked around us.  There were approximately 50 boats in the creek, 23 had gone ashore.  Not to mention the local boats that sunk, or were turned upside down.  The town was without power and water, the roads were filled with debit and rocks that had to be cleared with front end loaders.

The town was mostly spared as it was tucked in behind a hill, at least from the direction the wind was coming.  The eye had passed less than 25 miles south of us and we are alittle bruised, dented and scratched put so very happy to be here.