SPECIAL REPORTlike giant bullwhips. The
world roared outside, and we
huddled away from the glass
windows. The neighbor’s tin
roof screamed through the
air and fl ew past our porch in
a crunching metal ruckus. I
reached for Jim’s hand. “I’m
so 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 — during
the cyclone wasn’t an easy one.
Jim felt there were things he
could do to save Hotspur by
remaining on board. If our
mooring dragged, he could
deploy anchors. If boats
dragged down on us, he could
fend of or motor away from
them. If lines chafed, he
could invent a solution before
breaking free.
But we weren’t alone.
Other cruising friends
also opted to stay on land
during the cyclone. Heinz
and Andrea Bichl of Ya b
Yu m prepped their sailboat
and left for higher ground
with crossed fi ngers, as did
singlehander Johnny Byrne
of Cirripedia. Like us, the
Bichls returned to fi nd Ya b
Yum virtually undisturbed on
her mooring. But Cirripedia’s
lines chafed through, and she
dived headfi rst toward the
mangroves, stopping short
when her keel dug deep in
the muck. Still, Johnny feels
fortunate. “My boat will be
fi ne,” he told me in his rolly
Irish brogue. “There’s no
damage I can see.”
But other friends risked
riding out Winston on their
boats. Canadian cruisers
Karen MacFee and Cheryl
Dawson stayed aboard their
Morgan 39, Interlude IX. Even
though their mooring dragged
during Winston’s worst, their
biggest challenge was fending
of vessels dragging down
on theirs. “We couldn’t see
them until they were right on
us,” Cheryl says. The women
acted defensively, and Interlude
IX suf ered only minor hull
damage. “The wind and water
made visibility terrible,” Karen
says, “but if Winston hit us
at night like projected, we
wouldn’t have been able to do
anything in the dark.”
Good News, a 36 -foot
Pearson belonging to Ohio
native Lonnie Rupert and his
girlfriend, Bona Gordovez,
sustained serious damage when
the boat was pinned between
three dragging vessels, eventhough the couple revved
the engine to try to break
free. Their only option was
to fend of from the deck.
“The rain hurt, hitting us like
sharp pins,” Bona says. When
Lonnie thought the eye of
the storm might be passing
over, he and Bona made a
daring decision. Though Bona
isn’t a strong swimmer, they
climbed 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 additional
damage if the cyclone switched
around and winds came from
a new direction. They swam to
shore in strong currents, and
good Samaritans of ered them
shelter for the night.
Our Hotspur was lucky. For
the villagers and the 22 boats
grounded in Savusavu, it will
be a long haul, though recovery
ef orts have begun.
— Meri FaulknerScott Neuman and his wife, Noi,
are cruising the Bahamas and
the Eastern Caribbean aboard
their Tayana 37, Symbiosis. You
can follow them at svsymbiosis
.blogspot.com.Meri Faulkner has been cruising
full time with her family since- Follow their adventures at
hotspur41.blogspot.com.
HELP FOR
FIJI
Based in Fiji and the
United States, Sea
Mercy is a nonprofi t
organization that uses
boats to reach remote
islands in times of
need. For more infor-
mation on how you can
help the relief ef ort in
Fiji, visit Sea Mercy’s
website (seamercy.org/
FijiRelief ).