Cruising World - May 2016

34

may 2016

cruisingworld.com

SPECIAL REPORT

Tropical Cyclone Winston (above) was

the most powerful storm on record to

strike Fiji, and the damage both to the

cruising and local fl eets (top) and to

homes ashore was substantial.

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WEATHERING WINSTON

O

n Sunday morning, February 21,

2016, my palms felt sweaty as my

husband, daughter and I drove

past Savusavu Bay, located on the south

coast of Vanua Levu, Fiji, and saw rows of

sailboats heaped in mangled piles on the

rocks. The three of us sought out Hotspur,

our 41-foot Tartan Of shore Cruising

Ketch, among the wreckage. “There she

is!” said Carolyne, our 16 -year-old. She

pointed to our mooring. “I don’t believe

it,” said Jim. There in the midst of what

remained of the fl eet, Hotspur bobbed

gently right where we’d left her. With

the exception of a wayward solar panel,

Fiji’s strongest cyclone ever recorded had

spared our boat.

We’d expected Tropical Cyclone

Winston to hit Savusavu late Saturday

night and prepped our boat the day

before. Winston was ranked a Category

4 storm, and I’d felt uneasy when we’d

decided Jim would remain aboard while

Carolyne and I stayed at a house our

Fijian friends of ered us. But Friday

night, when Winston was upgraded to

a Category 5, I panicked. “Please don’t

stay on the boat,” I asked Jim. “If we lose

Hotspur, we can replace her. I can’t get

another you.”

Saturday morning, we’d fi nished adding

extra chafe gear to our mooring lines

when a light sprinkling morphed into

a downpour. Hotspur began to buck in

protest against building winds. Winston

wasn’t scheduled to arrive until after dark,

but the cyclone had caught us of -guard

by making an early grand entrance. We

barely made it to the house in time.

The power went out. Water blew

sideways through windowsills. Agitated

winds transformed rain into a thick,

atomized froth. The milky atmosphere

masked our view of the outdoors except

for the palm trees closest to the house,

which were snapping back and forth