Cruising World - Nightmare On The Exuma Bank

8/16/2019 Cruising World - Nightmare On The Exuma Bank

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A TALE of TWO TEMPESTS

T A M M Y S W A R T

In the fi rs t tw o mo nt hs of 2016 , extrem e weat he r even ts have impa cted the cr ui si ng

fl ee t in Fiji an d the Ba hama s.

B Y S C O T T N E U M A N A N D M E R I F A U L K N E R

Special Report

I

n the following two stories, sailors who are currently on oppositesides of the globe share their wild weather experiences from early2016. First is Scott Neuman’s report from the Bahamas’ Exuma

Cays, where a violent windstorm in January took cruisers by surprise.Meri Faulkner then recounts her firsthand experience with February’sCyclone Winston, the most powerful storm on record to hit Fiji.

Peace before the storm: Sailors in George Town, Bahamas, report that the weather had been settled the day of thederecho. When the clouds came, no one expected the 70-plus knots of wind that swept through the islands.


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NIGHTMARE ON THEEXUMA BANK

Get the ditch bag. If worse comesto worst, we will get off the boat,but not until it hits the rocks,”

Liz Kennell recalls her husband, Bob,shouting over the 60-knot winds thathad plucked their anchor from the sandybottom, and which were now tossing

Arapesh, their Benetau 411, toward a lime-stone-fringed cut near Fowl Cay, in theBahamas’ Exuma Cays.

It was January 6, 2016. Months before,the recently retired Canadian couplehad joined the annual migration of cruis-ers hoping to trade a winter in the north

for the warmth of the Exumas. Like theKennells, many of those same cruisers— spread out along the 130-mile-longBahamian island chain — were now in fullsurvival mode.

Kathy Barth, a Seven Seas CruisingAssociation commodore, and her hus-band, Curt, were anchored off Pig Beachat Big Major’s Spot when the powerful sys-tem overtook them. “In all our years ofcruising, we’ve never seen anything like it,”Kathy says.

For Ken Pimentel, the first sign cameat about 1600, in the form of a cloud bank

with “structure” looming over his eve-ning anchorage at Norman’s Cay, in thenorthern Exumas. Aboard the Leopard 40

Dream Catcher , he and his wife, Beth, andtheir 12-year-old daughter, Jeanette, had

sailed up earlier in the day to meet friends.Norman’s is a popular stop among cruisersfor its beautiful scenery and the nearly all-around protection of the inner anchorage— a rarity in the low-lying Exumas.

Early that morning, Ken had listenedto the synopsis delivered by Chris Parkerduring the weather router’s SSB broadcast:possible squalls, some that could be strong.

Even in the fairly protected anchorageat Norman’s Cay, the powerful windskicked up a chop, and several boatsdragged anchor. K E

N P I M E N T E L


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S P E C I A L R E P O R T

Something to keep an eye on, Ken thought,but nothing to cause alarm.

In the hours before dark, the sky didn’tlook too unusual. “There was something going on there, but it wasn’t somethingobvious,” he says.

Parker says that in the days precedingthe storm, his best-guess forecast calledfor winds out of the south and west with “afew squalls of 45 to 50 knots.”

That’s a possibility that Peter Malloyand his wife, Mary, at Staniel Cay (not farfrom the Barths), say they were preparedfor. “We were expecting squally weather,”Peter says. Even so, what approached themat about 1800 that day “looked no different

than an ordinary squall.”It wasn’t until the following day that

cruisers learned from Parker that theymight have experienced a derecho — a rareself-sustaining storm of intense straight-line winds (rather than circular, as in atornado) that blow perpendicular to themotion of the system. A distinctive shelfcloud often marks the approach of a dere-cho. But even now, Parker isn’t certainthat’s what it was.

“I can’t say for sure,” he says, but henotes that it seems to have “met all the cri-teria” to be defined as such.

One thing that Parker can saydefinitively is that in his 13 years of

forecasting the weather in the Bahamasand Caribbean, he’d never seen a weatherevent like this one. The low that producedthe system also spawned Alex, a highlyunusual January hurricane, the first of the2016 season.

For the Pimentels, three-year veteransof cruising in the region, the wind gradu-ally increased from 20 to 40 knots, accom-panied by a wind-driven four- to five-footchop that pulsed through their anchor-

age. Ken started Dream Catcher ’s engines

and began powering into the waves, hop-ing to stay anchored and steer clear ofother boats that had already begun todrag. During one particularly strong gust,a monohull went beam to and suddenlybegan making sternway.

“That boat was coming toward us,” Kensays. “I couldn’t get to my anchor becausehe was right over it.”

A trawler grounded on the sandbar nextto the narrow channel. More chillingly,Channel 16 crackled with a Mayday fromHighbourne Cay, just north of Norman’sCay. “A woman came on and she was fran-tic,” Ken says. She could barely explainthat the engine on her and her husband’s26-foot sloop would not start, and thatthey were about to go on the rocks. Anearby marina was able to dispatch a boatthat made a harrowing rescue of the cou-ple as their tiny sloop was left to drift away.Discovered a few days later, Rum Belly wasdescribed by the skipper who found it aslittle more than a debris field scattered onan adjacent cay.

“The radio was alive,” says Bob, of Arapesh. “You could hear so many anxiousmoments from sailors who had their ownproblems to deal with.” Amid his family’s

own concerns, he admits, the VHF becamemostly an unwelcome distraction.

By the time things started to settledown for Dream Catcher , which had man-aged to stay put and avoid everyone else,things were just beginning for the Kennellsaboard Arapesh at Fowl Cay and dozens ofother cruisers at Big Major’s and StanielCay. At those locations, darkness and tor-rential rain were added to the mix.

Arapesh was pulling hard at her rode within a few hundred feet of the razor-sharp rocks that litter the Exumas. Likenearly everyone else battling the storm,

S C H O O L O F H A R DK N O C K S

For the full derecho Q&A withMarine Weather Center forecaster

Chris Parker, and to read the les-sons the Bahamas’ sailors learned

from their derecho experience, go tocruisingworld.com/1605derecho.


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forward as best as I could.”As the possibility of dragging onto the

beach became a probability in her mind,Ziga contemplated how she might maneu- ver Bamboo in for a soft landing.

Suddenly Triumph, owned by a longtimecruising buddy, smashed into her bow.

According to accounts from severalcruisers, a skipper trying to repositionhimself had apparently panicked and was motoring full-throttle through thecrowded anchorage, snagging anchors ashe went along. Triumph, an aging MorganOut Island 41, and another boat, Anania, were cinched into a scrum, choked upon their rodes and squeezing Bamboo

between them. The middle boat was pum-meled. Eventually rodes were severed, anda badly battered Bamboo limped onto amooring just downwind.

Weeks later, Ziga sat aboard Triumph asshe readied to fly back to the U.S., leavingher irreparably damaged boat behind. Shesays the rogue skipper’s insurance companyhas denied her claim because the two boatsdid not actually make contact.

“I’ve lost my most valiant friend, Bamboo. She was the coolest boat. Smarterthan me. She took care of me on manyoccasions,” she says wistfully. “Still, I didn’texpect it to end so horribly.”— Scott Neuman

Bob had tried to motor into the wind tokeep his 44-pound Bruce (attached to 110feet of 3/8-inch chain) from tripping. “I was mostly successful, but when the boat would fall off the wind, there was an unbe-lievably tremendous tug on the anchor,” hesays. “Eventually it let loose.”

As they drifted toward a rocky cut, Lizsays she recited the Lord’s Prayer. Theflukes on the Bruce snagged the sand oncemore. Arapesh held firm.

Others not far away weren’t as lucky. Acatamaran broke a bridle, went abeam tothe wind and waves, and plowed ashore.Miraculously, it washed up on a dock, butnot without considerable damage. Twomonohulls ended up on the rocks nearby;one of them caught fire and burned a fewdays later. Both were declared a total loss.The Barths’ hefty anchor rode snapped, butCurt and Kathy were able to keep Five &

Dime, their Beneteau First 42, off the beach.Bahamians, of course, were also in the

thick of it. Despite dealing with their ownproblems, many managed to help out thecommunity of cruisers, who contributea vital boost to the local economy. At theheight of the storm, Bahamians set out insturdy center-console runabouts, goingfrom boat to boat to make sure everyone was safe. When the electricity failed atBlack Point settlement, residents pointedtheir cars at the broad anchorage andturned on headlights to provide shoresidereference points.

As the derecho moved south and eastthrough the islands, it intensified. By thetime it reached the cruising mecca ofGeorge Town at about 1900, winds werereportedly in the 70-knot range, with gustseven higher. Its approach was also pre-ceded by a distinctive sky.

“It was a really calm night. We were get-ting the grill set up,” says Cathy Kreyling,of White Bird , a Saga 43. She and husband,Peter, had just made a pitcher of rumpunch, thinking they were in for a peace-ful evening on the hook at HoneymoonBeach, off Stocking Island.

Cathy describes the sky as “incrediblydramatic.” “There was a wall of thunder-clouds to the south. And if you looked

to the north, it was just black,” she says.“There was actually a rainbow with light-ning behind it. I had never seen anythinglike it.”

In the adjacent anchorage, 52-year-oldsinglehander Ziga York looked up fromher book and realized that the wind hadpicked up. She saw that the transom ofher Pearson 33, Bamboo, had swung towardVolleyball Beach, dangerously close to where it becomes shallow close to shore.

“By then it was dark,” Ziga recalls. Soon,she says, “The winds were so high that you could barely do anything. I powered


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Tropical Cyclone Winston (above) was the most powerful storm on record tostrike Fiji, and the damages to both

the cruising and local fleets (top), and to homes ashore, was substantial.

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like giant bullwhips. The world roared outside, and wehuddled away from the glass windows. The neighbor’s tinroof screamed through theair and flew past our porch ina crunching metal ruckus. Ireached for Jim’s hand. “I’mso glad you didn’t stay on

Hotspur ,” I told him.He was quiet a moment and

said, “I’m still torn.”The decision to leave our

boat — our home — duringthe cyclone wasn’t an easy one. Jim felt there were things hecould do to save Hotspur byremaining on board. If ourmooring dragged, he coulddeploy anchors. If boatsdragged down on us, he couldfend off or motor away fromthem. If lines chafed, he

could invent a solution beforebreaking free.

But we weren’t alone.Other cruising friendsalso opted to stay on landduring the cyclone. Heinzand Andrea Bichl on YabYum prepped their sailboatand left for higher ground with crossed fingers, as didsinglehander Johnny Byrneon Cirripedia. Like us, theBichls returned to find YabYum virtually undisturbed onher mooring. But Cirripedia’s lines chafed through, and shedove headfirst toward themangroves, stopping short when her keel dug deep inthe muck. Still, Johnny feelsfortunate. “My boat will befine,” he told me in a rollyIrish brogue. “There’s nodamage I can see.”

But other friends riskedriding out Winston on theirboats. Canadian cruisersKaren MacFee and CherylDawson stayed aboard their

Morgan 39, Interlude IX . Eventhough their mooring draggedduring Winston’s worst, theirbiggest challenge was fendingoff vessels dragging downon theirs. “We couldn’t seethem until they were right onus,” Cheryl says. The womenacted defensively, and Interlude

IX suffered only minor hulldamage. “The wind and watermade visibility terrible,” Karensays, “but if Winston hit usat night like projected, we

wouldn’t have been able to doanything in the dark.”

Good News, a 36-footPearson belonging to Ohionative Lonnie Rupert and his girlfriend, Bona Gordovez,sustained serious damage whenthe boat was pinned betweenthree dragging vessels, even

though the couple revvedthe engine to try to breakfree. Their only option wasto fend off from the deck.“The rain hurt, hitting us likesharp pins,” Bona says. WhenLonnie thought the eye ofthe storm might be passingover, he and Bona made adaring decision. Though Bonaisn’t a strong swimmer, theyclimbed over the starboard vessel sandwiching them and jumped into the churning sea.“There wasn’t anything else we could do,” Lonnie says. He was worried about additionaldamage if the cyclone switchedaround and winds came froma new direction. They swam toshore in strong currents, and good Samaritans offered themshelter for the night.

Our Hotspur was lucky. Forthe villagers and the 22 boats grounded in Savusavu, it willbe a long haul, though recovery

efforts have begun.— Meri Faulkner

Scott Neuman and his wife, Noi, are cruising the Bahamas andthe Eastern Caribbean aboardtheir Tayana 37, Symbiosis. Youcan follow them at svsymbiosis.blogspot.com.

Meri Faulkner has been cruising full time with her family since 2008. Follow their adventures at hotspur41.blogspot.com.

H E L P F O RF I J I

Based in Fiji and theUnited States, SeaMercy is a nonprofitorganization that uses boats to reach remoteislands in times ofneed. For more infor-mation on how you canhelp the relief effort inFiji, visit Sea Mercy’s website (seamercy.org/ FijiRelief).

Cruising World - Nightmare On The Exuma Bank

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