In my last post I commented on how glad I was that Pandora is in Trinidad and generally safe from hurricanes. As I continue to follow the effects of Beryl, the strongest recorded storm to hit the Eastern Caribbean so early in the season, it has driven home to me something that I have long believed, that it is just not prudent to store a boat anywhere in the Caribbean in an area that is at risk of being struck by a hurricane.
A few days ago I talked to Chris Parker about Trinidad and how safe it is/or isn’t as it relates to a hurricane strike. His comment was that the risk of a direct hit from a hurricane in Trinidad, in spite of warming seas, still remains relatively low. He went on to explain that as Trinidad is so close to the equator that a storm is unable to spin up as the Coriolis effect is so week and absent at the equator itself. As Trinidad lies at 10 degrees north of the equator, it is very rare for a hurricane to be able to sustain itself. And while there can be storms, hurricanes are generally not a threat. However, just short distance north, in Grenada for example, things can be much different.
For a description of this effect, and why hurricanes do not occur close to the equator, check out this link.
Prefer a video example of why?
He went on to say that had Beryl tracked even 30 miles south of her swath of destruction, that Grenada would have seen devastation on the scale that ravaged islands to the north. We have all seen photos of wrecked homes and jumbled boats but nothing could prepare us for some of the images that have emerged. It is worth noting that the big island of Grenada sustained terrible damage less than a decade ago.
I have been looking for footage that gives a good feel for what the storm did to home and boats and came upon a segment from a popular video series, Sailing Fair Isle, produced by a couple that are cruising the world on a Hans Christian heavy displacement cruising sailboat. You may enjoy watching their programs which can be accessed from this link.
I can not say that I have been following them but when I was hot on the trail of the story of what happened when Beryl struck the SE Caribbean, I found one of their segments that seems to capture the impact on the islanders as well as cruisers that found themselves in the eye, literally, of the storm. What follows is a series of screen shots from that post and at the end is the segment that I found so moving.
All of the images that follow are from this segment and are attributed to them and those that they interviewed.
Some years ago we passed Dominica after a hurricane decimated that island and we were struck by the fact that the mountain looked like New England in February, with no green at all. This is what things looked like in Carriacou in the wake of Beryl.
This is what the island looked like prior to Beryl.
It is conventional wisdom that the best place to put a boat during a hurricane is in the mangroves and dozens sought shelter in what was widely believed to be a safe “hurricane hole”. The eye passed right over the island and swept all the boats into a jumble. After the eye passed, all the boats were then swept to the other side of the mangroves. What a mess.
In the video segment just after the storm they included footage taken by a cruiser who was aboard his boat at the height of the storm. It must have been a harrowing experience. Interestingly, the owner is interviewed in he second segment below and his boat is well on the way to being seaworthy again. Sadly, his experience does not represent the norm at this point.
This little pink boat was totaled and in the second video her owner talks about what has happened since this image was taken.
Perhaps the nicest boat that they featured sustained a lot of damage. This image is heartbreaking.
She was raised within a fairly short time and refloated.
She is now in Grenada and undergoing repairs. The owner was interviewed for the second segment and to see the footage of the boat and her condition makes me wonder what it will take to make needed repairs. There is little left in the interior worth saving and that doesn’t begin to describe the condition of the electric and engine systems. It is hard to imagine it ever being right again.
Virtually nothing survived in Beryl’s wake. Even commercial ships were swept up on the beach.
The boats that were on land did not fare any better and just about every one tossed about. I received a report that at least one member of Salty Dawg had their boat there and it was badly damaged.
Catamarans had their own special ending, flipping over from the ferocious winds.
Within days aid began to arrive from nearby islands and Trinidad in particular.
However, much of this aid was directed at the shoreside residents and not the cruisers. And, I have heard that a ship with a crane showed up and was demanding $15,000 just to lift up the damaged boats. As most if not all of the owners were basically self insured, as insurance generally does not cover hurricane damage, this sort of cash payment isn’t realistic for many.
In those cases it comes down to cruisers helping each other, patching things up enough to allow a powerful pump to raise the boats.
There is no doubt that the destruction caused by Beryl will have a profound effect on the yacht insurance business already working to adjust to a changing climate and surely the restrictions on yachts will only get more difficult in the coming years. As careful as owners may be, the cost of insuring a boat, regardless of how focused owners are on keeping their boats safe, will continue to rise.
I do fear what this might mean to the cruising community and their ability to even head to the Caribbean in the coming years.
I encourage you to view these videos, the first filmed a few days after Beryl’s passage and the second taking a look at the salvage efforts of owners who’s boats were damaged in this powerful storm.
Subsequent to their initial segment, they just published a new, and shorter episode, that details some of the boats that have been salvaged and are on the road to recovery. While it is heartening to see the progress being made it is overwhelming to imagine having to address such a mess aboard Pandora.
In the wake of Beryl, it is even more clear that to keep a boat anywhere within the hurricane belt is increasingly risky and only time will tell what effect this will have on cruisers who wish to roll the dice during the hurricane season.