Reader's Digest

54 | July• 2018

RACING THE STORM

everything was white. We couldn’t

see land. We couldn’t even see the

bridge.”

Farther north the Gaston broth-

ers were getting closer to the Bucca-

neer Yacht Club on the bay’s western

shore.

Lightning crackled. “Don’t touch

anything metal” Ron told Hana. hey

huddled on their boat’s trampoline –

the fabric deck between the two hulls.

Just over three kilometres behind

Shane along with Shane’s son Con-

nor disappeared behind a curtain of

rain.

Within moments the rain caught up

with theKyla. It came so fast and so

dense that the world seemed reduced

to a small grey room with no horizon

no sky no shore.

Then without warning the winds

rose to 117 kilometres per hour – hur-

ricane strength. Ron and Hana never

had a moment to let down their sails.

he front of theKylarose up from

the water stood for an instant on its

tail then flipped sideways. The bay

was only two metres deep at that spot

so the mast jabbed into the mud and

snappedintwo.

Hana lew of hitting her head on

brothers decided to sail home assum-
ing they’d beat the storm; others made
the same choice. he brothers headed
north along the bay’s western shore.
Shortly before 3pm Ron and Hana
watchedasstormcloudsrolledto-
wardsthemfromthewest.“Wemay
get some rain” he said with charac-
teristic understatement.
By now the storm which had first
come alive in Texas had crossed
three states to reach the edge of Mo-
bile Bay. At the NWS oice in Mobile

meteorologists watched it advance
on radar. Jason Beaman the meteor-
ologist in charge of coordinating the
oice’s warnings noted the unusual
way the storm rather than blow itself
out quickly kept gaining in strength.
“It was an engine like a machine that
keeps running” he said.

UNDER THE DAUPHINIsland Bridge
a nearly ive-kilometre span that links
the island to the mainland 17-year-
old Sarah Gaston struggled to control
a small boat with her sailing partner
Jim Gates a 74-year-old family friend
as wind and rain came over the bay.
“We just were looking for any land
at that point” Sarah said later. “But

AstheboatblewawayRonfaced

adecisionthatseemedsurreal:

he could let go of the boat or Hana