12 November 2017
Caribbeans fight back
against Irma and Maria
Despite two Category 5 hurriCanes in quiCk suCCession, the
Caribbean will be welComing sailors baCk. helen Fretter reportsdirectly over Barbuda, destroying over
90 per cent of buildings and leading to
a wholesale evacuation of the island’s
1,500 residents to neighbouring Antigua.
The French-Dutch island of St Maarten
(St Martin) was also among the worst
hit, with at least 14 people known to have
died and hundreds more missing after
220mph gusts battered the island. Much
of the island’s infrastructure was badly
damaged, including the airport, further
hampering the relief effort.
Two weeks after Irma passed one
marine insurer told us they had still not
been able to get any surveyors onto thewo Category 5 hurricanes –
the strongest type of tropical
storm – hit the Leeward Islands
in the Caribbean in just two weeks in
September. Hurricane Irma, the most
powerful hurricane on record to make
landfall, pounded islands including
Barbuda, St Maarten and the British
Virgin Islands as well as areas of Florida,
leaving around 70 dead. Two weeks later
hurricane Maria followed along and swept
over Dominica, St Croix in the US Virgin
Islands and Puerto Rico.
The devastation is comprehensive on
many islands. The eye of Irma passedT
Winning skipper scores
again in Clipper Race
Lively Lady, the 36ft wooden sloop
famously sailed solo round the world
by Alex Rose in 1968, has returned
to Hayling Island, Hampshire for a
seven-month restoration programme.
It will be complete in time for the 50th
anniversary of the voyage.
The yacht, which was built by
SJP Cambridge in Calcutta in 1948
from paduak wood, now belongs to
Portsmouth City Council. Sir Alex
Rose (as he became when knighted)
had been a greengrocer and was from
nearby Southsea.
The yacht has remained a historic
icon with strong local connections. In
2009 Lively Lady was leased by the
council for 25 years to charity Around
and Around so it could be used and
maintained for sail training.
Lively Lady to get refit
Wholesale
destruction at
Marigot shipyard
on French St
Martin in the wake
of Hurricane IrmaOn the wind
Australian skipper Wendy Tuck has
won the first leg of the Clipper Round
the World race, a huge 6,400-mile
stage from Liverpool to Punta del
Este, Uruguay. This was the longest
individual leg in any of the 11 Clipper
Races to date.
Tuck, 52, is doing her second
consecutive Clipper Race. She is a
hugely experienced skipper with ten
Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Races
under her belt. On getting the best
from her crew on Sanya Serenity
Coast, she commented: “The crew
have developed by leaps and bounds.
We have a mixture of those who
had sailing experience before and
they helped to coach those with less
experience. We had so many different
situations, it’s just amazing how far
they have come on.”
HELENE VALENZUELA/AFP/Getty Images