1996

HURRICANE

So it’s the 2nd Fri in July, ’96, I remember it clearly, I was working for Necol and just finishing up a large holding plate installation. It was early morning and the boat owner tuned up Mistine’s weather report “Hurricane Bertha will hit St Marteen on Sun, she is currently a category 1 hurricane>” intoned David’s dulcet tones. “Did you hear that” asked the frenzied dock bound boat owner. “Sure, but its 3 days out, they can’t possibly that accurate” I said sagely, grunting with a poorly bent 5/8” flare connection. “But?” “Relax, we’ll be fine, it’ll miss us” I stated firmly, getting a few threads on the flare nut.

By Sat, it was looking like we would get hit, the job was finished and I was officially an unemployee. There was no time to run, the bottom of Thalia was foul, so I cleaned the prop and we limped off looking for an area with more swinging room. Since Luis had devastated St Marteen the year before there was a lot of room in the lagoon, we took refugee under the “Witch’s Tit” the highest ground in the lagoon. As we cleared the decks and removed the sails, dodger, bimini, etc, Ulla my unbelievable crew/mate of 6 yrs asked “So which hurricane shelter do you want to use?” “I’m planning to stay with Thalia, Bertha is still only a cat. But if you want to go ashore I’ll take you, I’ve still got lots of time to pick up the dinghy” I replied. Ulla was quiet for a little while and finally rejoined “Well, if you’re staying, so am I” What a woman.

Bertha struck in the wee hours of Sun Am, at the time it was walking away the most wind I’d ever seen and crawling around on deck wearing a mask and snorkel was an odd experience. It was blowing 70 – 80 kts sustained. I’d elected to put down a single anchor, a 75lb Luke-a like fisherman style that I’d always referred to jokingly as my “Deep S**T” anchor c/w 50’ of chain and 200’ of ½” nylon rode, pretty soon I had all of it out. The decision was based on the Luis stories I’d heard about the hundreds of boats getting their anchor gear tangled and hitting the shore in convoy. So I had 2 other anchors on deck ready to go in case I had to slip the fisherman. The crawling was to check the chafe gear. The rest of the time we huddled in the cockpit trying to watch for dragging boats. It took me a while to realize Ulla was huddled behind the wheel, she’d removed the steering lock and was attempting to hold Thalia on a steadier course as she sailed wildly at anchor. “Ulla, that can’t work, there’s not enough water going over the rudder to give you steerage” I Yelled. She thought about it briefly and replied “Yeah, I know you’re right, but it makes me feel more in control of events.” What a woman. Somewhere right about dawn the eye arrived, David’s prediction was horribly accurate. It was amazing, in a flash it was calm, no wind, we could talk without screaming and I could hear an odd hum. I looked over the port side and both bilge pumps were going flat out, the diaphragm pump discharging through a ¾” hose I could live with, but the high mounted Rule 3500 discharging through a 1 ½” hose scared me badly, couldn’t believe it would throw that much water that far. I opened up the floor and looked at a very full bilge. “Ulla, get on the manual bilge pump, we may be sinking.” She started pumping mightily and I could see the water level going down with all 3 pumps working. Pretty soon we were empty and no more was coming in. “Going to have to find where that came from” I resolved, but not now, we knew we were in for the other ½ of the hurricane. We had a 20 min eye and when the wind filled in it was from 170 degrees, almost a perfect hit. This was my 1st hurricane and certainly my 1st eye of one, but I’m still amazed at how quickly the wind accelerated from 0 to 70 – 80 kts as the other wall hit us, 5 – 10 maximum. Thalia snapped around on her her long rode and hit the end like a puppy hitting the end of its leash. “Look” yelled Ulla “the wind instrument is only showing 40 – 60 kts” We later found out that the transducer had lost a cup. The anchor held and we hunkered down for the 2nd half, Ulla continuing to steer. What a womn.

At the height of the 2nd half a radio call came “Thalia, Thalia, Zest” Brian, my colleague at Necol “Yeah, man” “You see that old refrigerator tumbling over the waves at you?” “Yeah man” I replied “Well, I think it’s your work coming back for a warranty adjustment” “Up yours” was my reply. The 2nd half was just as terrifying and fortunately less eventful than the 1st, ½, no water in the bilge, thank God. It finally dropped to 30 kts and we went to bed. As it turned out the water had come down a 1 ½” pipe I’d shrewdly installed in the anchor locker so I could direct about 100’ of anchor chain to a cavity under the mast step, the anchor locker drains had plugged, with barnacles from hoisting a filthy chain, Thalia was pitching so badly in the 1st half that the locker filled up and I’d stupidly neglected to seal the top of the anchor chain hose, which was at a very high level and filled the bilge. How to lose a boat.

I don’t think that any boats were lost, it stayed a cat 1, several boats went ashore, but I believe they were all refloated fairly easily. The only damage we suffered was a tweaked anchor bow roller chute. I still think we got off light. George and Thalia

“If I’m lyin’…”