A Queensland cyclone.
Discussion
Some of you have expressed interest of hearing some of my experiences cruising in my Morgan Giles Yacht Alyth. With a cyclone again blowing the Whitsundays into the middle of next week, I thought this story of one we experienced there some years ago, may be of interest.
I was running a little fleet of boats out of Shute Harbour, in the Whitsunday Islands, close to a mangrove creek where I holed up with those island boats previously. The skippers looked after the smaller boats, leaving me with the larger one. It was a WW11 Fairmile, a UK navy gun/torpedo type boat, 112Ft by 19'10" converted for daytrip passenger use.
The props on these things were lower than the boat, & very exposed. You could never take them into shallow water as just touching a mud bank would bend a prop or prop shaft. No going up creaks here. I loved this boat. With twin 8 92 GM diesels of about 550 BHP each she did a bit over 20 knots, & had such sweet handling that you had stuffed up your approach if you could feel when you came alongside a jetty.
Cyclones generate south easterly winds as they approach the Oz east coast, so I layed out our 2 large anchors on their 3/4" stud link chain, one to the south of our mooring, & one to the east, with the V joining over the mooring. The boat thus lay to all three. This was it for her, I then went to look after my yacht.
It was too late to get into that creek, as the tide was falling, so I headed for Gulnare inlet on Whitsunday Island, near Hamilton Island, yet to become a major resort.
I was a bit late for this too, as I was crossing Whitsunday passage the wind got up & gusting over 40 knots, with squalls reducing the visibility from a mile or so, to a hundred yards at times. There were too many outlying reefs to get in there with that visibility.
The sea was getting nasty too. Only a bit over 4 or 5 Ft, the waves were very steep, almost square, & were braking over the foredeck continually. I got very wet putting an extra lashing over the dingy, lashed down upside down on the foredeck. Even in the big nasty open ocean, I don't think I'd had as much water over the foredeck.
My yacht, Alyth was great in these conditions. With just the triple reefed main up, she balanced beautifully, & was scooting across the passage at about 8 knots. Still I was running out of options. I could reverse course & get back into Shute harbour easily enough, it had a safe entry but it was open to the south east, & with a 150 boats moored in there, I expected some chaos. In the event quite a few boats were damaged by others that broke free.
Then out of a break in the squalls Cid Island appeared to the north, our left. The area between Cid Island & Whitsunday is a moderately sheltered area known as Cid Harbour. It was the anchorage where the US & Oz fleets combined before going out to meet the Jap fleet in the battle of the Coral Sea, the first ever major aircraft carrier battle, before Midway.
It is a better aircraft carrier anchorage than yacht anchorage, but I was running out of choices, & the approach was steep too, with no reefs to have to avoid. It was our best option.
We sailed into the most sheltered part of the bay, Dropped our big 45Lb CQR anchor, in about 60Ft of water & about 50 fathoms, [300 Ft] of chain, dropped sail, & lashed everything down. Damn we were dragging anchor out of the bay. This was strange as this part of the bay was known good holding ground.
I Started the little 6 HP Petter diesel which struggled to push us back in. The wind even in here was now a steady 25/30 gusting in the bullets to about 55 knots. My wife steered us in as I hauled the anchor up. As it cleared water I saw the point of the anchor had gone through the centre of a large, 8" diameter shell. No wonder we'd dragged.
The rain was really pouring down now, & the wind was now above 40 knots, with gusts to about 60. These came in anywhere from south west to south east, catching the boat, with its tall mast at anything up to beam on, as she sailed around the end of the long chain. She was getting healed to about 20 degrees in the stronger ones.
I was worried about windage, as the wind increased, so decided to get the dingy off the foredeck, & launched it on a long doubled painter. It sheared around wildly in the wind gusts, but in 15 minutes the rain had filled it, with only the buoyancy keeping it semi afloat.
After night fall the wind really got up, but I can only guess what it was blowing. The yachts rigging was shrieking, much louder than it did in 70 knots in the Solomons. There was a constant roar of wind through the trees & constant sound of rain water cascading through the deck scuppers into the sea. South Mole Island, the nearest resort about 8 miles away, received 26 inches of rain between 4.00 PM, & midnight, & it rained until about 4.30 AM.
It was hard to hear the radio, to get any weather information so we went to bed.
Next morning at first light, about 5.00 AM or so, we could still hear the roaring, but realised the sun was coming in through the skylight, the boat was not rolling to 20 degrees in the gusts, as it had all night, & then we realised it was not raining.
On deck we found a beautiful clear sunny day, with not a breath of wind, it had all gone. The roaring was still there, but now it was water, about 3Ft deep, cascading down the side of the island, & this continued for another hour or so.
We had no interest in doing anything. I emptied the dingy & we just sat in the cockpit with a coffee, watching the water rush off the island, & marvelling at how clean everything was after such a washing. We noted that the trees still had leaves, so the wind had not got to 90 knots, where most trees are stripped.
The area is totally wild, no human habitation, but we had seen flashes of a light during the night. Now we saw another yacht about a mile along the bay. The couple came rowing down to compare notes on our experience. Their anchorage had been a bit rougher than ours.
Suddenly we saw their boat dragging out into the bay. They were anchored off a creek, & the huge run coming down it had washed the sand away from their anchor. The thing had sat through a huge gale, but was drifting away in total calm, with the flow of water.
I threw the outboard on our dingy, & went & fetched their boat. We were somehow totally washed out. The 4 of us did nothing all day, not even turning on a radio.
Next day it was back to port, to help in the clean up. Within a few days the tourists were appearing again, & it was back to carrying them around gods own country.
I've been through a few cyclones. This was not the strongest, biggest or most dangerous, but somehow it was the most exhausting I've experienced.
Hasbeen
I was running a little fleet of boats out of Shute Harbour, in the Whitsunday Islands, close to a mangrove creek where I holed up with those island boats previously. The skippers looked after the smaller boats, leaving me with the larger one. It was a WW11 Fairmile, a UK navy gun/torpedo type boat, 112Ft by 19'10" converted for daytrip passenger use.
The props on these things were lower than the boat, & very exposed. You could never take them into shallow water as just touching a mud bank would bend a prop or prop shaft. No going up creaks here. I loved this boat. With twin 8 92 GM diesels of about 550 BHP each she did a bit over 20 knots, & had such sweet handling that you had stuffed up your approach if you could feel when you came alongside a jetty.
Cyclones generate south easterly winds as they approach the Oz east coast, so I layed out our 2 large anchors on their 3/4" stud link chain, one to the south of our mooring, & one to the east, with the V joining over the mooring. The boat thus lay to all three. This was it for her, I then went to look after my yacht.
It was too late to get into that creek, as the tide was falling, so I headed for Gulnare inlet on Whitsunday Island, near Hamilton Island, yet to become a major resort.
I was a bit late for this too, as I was crossing Whitsunday passage the wind got up & gusting over 40 knots, with squalls reducing the visibility from a mile or so, to a hundred yards at times. There were too many outlying reefs to get in there with that visibility.
The sea was getting nasty too. Only a bit over 4 or 5 Ft, the waves were very steep, almost square, & were braking over the foredeck continually. I got very wet putting an extra lashing over the dingy, lashed down upside down on the foredeck. Even in the big nasty open ocean, I don't think I'd had as much water over the foredeck.
My yacht, Alyth was great in these conditions. With just the triple reefed main up, she balanced beautifully, & was scooting across the passage at about 8 knots. Still I was running out of options. I could reverse course & get back into Shute harbour easily enough, it had a safe entry but it was open to the south east, & with a 150 boats moored in there, I expected some chaos. In the event quite a few boats were damaged by others that broke free.
Then out of a break in the squalls Cid Island appeared to the north, our left. The area between Cid Island & Whitsunday is a moderately sheltered area known as Cid Harbour. It was the anchorage where the US & Oz fleets combined before going out to meet the Jap fleet in the battle of the Coral Sea, the first ever major aircraft carrier battle, before Midway.
It is a better aircraft carrier anchorage than yacht anchorage, but I was running out of choices, & the approach was steep too, with no reefs to have to avoid. It was our best option.
We sailed into the most sheltered part of the bay, Dropped our big 45Lb CQR anchor, in about 60Ft of water & about 50 fathoms, [300 Ft] of chain, dropped sail, & lashed everything down. Damn we were dragging anchor out of the bay. This was strange as this part of the bay was known good holding ground.
I Started the little 6 HP Petter diesel which struggled to push us back in. The wind even in here was now a steady 25/30 gusting in the bullets to about 55 knots. My wife steered us in as I hauled the anchor up. As it cleared water I saw the point of the anchor had gone through the centre of a large, 8" diameter shell. No wonder we'd dragged.
The rain was really pouring down now, & the wind was now above 40 knots, with gusts to about 60. These came in anywhere from south west to south east, catching the boat, with its tall mast at anything up to beam on, as she sailed around the end of the long chain. She was getting healed to about 20 degrees in the stronger ones.
I was worried about windage, as the wind increased, so decided to get the dingy off the foredeck, & launched it on a long doubled painter. It sheared around wildly in the wind gusts, but in 15 minutes the rain had filled it, with only the buoyancy keeping it semi afloat.
After night fall the wind really got up, but I can only guess what it was blowing. The yachts rigging was shrieking, much louder than it did in 70 knots in the Solomons. There was a constant roar of wind through the trees & constant sound of rain water cascading through the deck scuppers into the sea. South Mole Island, the nearest resort about 8 miles away, received 26 inches of rain between 4.00 PM, & midnight, & it rained until about 4.30 AM.
It was hard to hear the radio, to get any weather information so we went to bed.
Next morning at first light, about 5.00 AM or so, we could still hear the roaring, but realised the sun was coming in through the skylight, the boat was not rolling to 20 degrees in the gusts, as it had all night, & then we realised it was not raining.
On deck we found a beautiful clear sunny day, with not a breath of wind, it had all gone. The roaring was still there, but now it was water, about 3Ft deep, cascading down the side of the island, & this continued for another hour or so.
We had no interest in doing anything. I emptied the dingy & we just sat in the cockpit with a coffee, watching the water rush off the island, & marvelling at how clean everything was after such a washing. We noted that the trees still had leaves, so the wind had not got to 90 knots, where most trees are stripped.
The area is totally wild, no human habitation, but we had seen flashes of a light during the night. Now we saw another yacht about a mile along the bay. The couple came rowing down to compare notes on our experience. Their anchorage had been a bit rougher than ours.
Suddenly we saw their boat dragging out into the bay. They were anchored off a creek, & the huge run coming down it had washed the sand away from their anchor. The thing had sat through a huge gale, but was drifting away in total calm, with the flow of water.
I threw the outboard on our dingy, & went & fetched their boat. We were somehow totally washed out. The 4 of us did nothing all day, not even turning on a radio.
Next day it was back to port, to help in the clean up. Within a few days the tourists were appearing again, & it was back to carrying them around gods own country.
I've been through a few cyclones. This was not the strongest, biggest or most dangerous, but somehow it was the most exhausting I've experienced.
Hasbeen
I was in CID harbour for a night or two last year. Glad I wasn't there during 'Debbie', it's pretty open for smaller boats (and too shallow in the enclosed North end if memory serves me right).
PS, what happened to the PT boat?
PSS, did you all see the pictures of the Moody 45DS and 42 Rivieria washed onto the seawall in Hamilton Island Harbour?? Pretty sad stuff.
PS, what happened to the PT boat?
PSS, did you all see the pictures of the Moody 45DS and 42 Rivieria washed onto the seawall in Hamilton Island Harbour?? Pretty sad stuff.
Edited by robm3 on Wednesday 5th April 07:59
Hi robm2, we were snugged right down into the southern corner of Cid. Not too pretty & pretty big bullets in close to the hills, but no fetch. The other yacht was at the beach, & had a lot more fetch, & a fair chop going through.
My biggest worry was if the eye went over us. The swing to North West winds at the same speed can be quite quick. We were totally exposed to the North West. We would have to move during the lull, but would we have time. As it was it passed to the north, with no change of wind for us.
Yes the northern bay is all shallow coral, with no anchorage.
The Fairmile, Challenger, was a beautiful thing, all alloy superstructures, & well set up by the Freemantle Harbour authority who converted her. She was squeezed out of the Whitsundays by the island resort owners who thought they could make a fortune running day trip boats. She ended up in Tasmania.
Yes Hamilton, Shute Harbour & Airlie are no place for a boat in a cyclone, just not enough protection. It has to be a mangrove creek, where the friction to the wind generated by the tops of the trees, dramatically reduce the wind speeds down amongst them. I have no idea what happens at much over 90 knots, when most trees are stripped of leaves, thank god. Unfortunately there are not enough mangrove creeks for all the boats up there these days.
I ended up running the South Molle Island/Hook Island fleet of big cats later on. They were losing over $1.5 million a year after forcing the privateers out. Very few people understand running tourist boats. They try to sell romance. What you have to sell is seats, & like a picture theatre, you have to find a way of selling them at least twice a day or you are going to go broke.
I got them up to making a couple of million a year, before I’d had enough of tourism, & got out before I went as crazy as the rest of them.
Had a few more cyclones before that, & believe me, I never want another.
My biggest worry was if the eye went over us. The swing to North West winds at the same speed can be quite quick. We were totally exposed to the North West. We would have to move during the lull, but would we have time. As it was it passed to the north, with no change of wind for us.
Yes the northern bay is all shallow coral, with no anchorage.
The Fairmile, Challenger, was a beautiful thing, all alloy superstructures, & well set up by the Freemantle Harbour authority who converted her. She was squeezed out of the Whitsundays by the island resort owners who thought they could make a fortune running day trip boats. She ended up in Tasmania.
Yes Hamilton, Shute Harbour & Airlie are no place for a boat in a cyclone, just not enough protection. It has to be a mangrove creek, where the friction to the wind generated by the tops of the trees, dramatically reduce the wind speeds down amongst them. I have no idea what happens at much over 90 knots, when most trees are stripped of leaves, thank god. Unfortunately there are not enough mangrove creeks for all the boats up there these days.
I ended up running the South Molle Island/Hook Island fleet of big cats later on. They were losing over $1.5 million a year after forcing the privateers out. Very few people understand running tourist boats. They try to sell romance. What you have to sell is seats, & like a picture theatre, you have to find a way of selling them at least twice a day or you are going to go broke.
I got them up to making a couple of million a year, before I’d had enough of tourism, & got out before I went as crazy as the rest of them.
Had a few more cyclones before that, & believe me, I never want another.
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