Cyclone Pam - looking down the barrel of a gun
15 April 2015 | Kiwiriki Bay, Great Barrier
"Cyclone Pam tore through Vanuatu early Saturday, March 14. 2015 packing winds of 168 miles per hour, and leaving a trail of destruction and unconfirmed reports of dozens of deaths.
Two people were confirmed dead in the capital, Port Vila, with another 20 injured there, said Paolo Malatu, coordinator for the National Disaster Management Office. Earlier, Chloe Morrison, a World Vision emergency communications officer, said Vanuatu's disaster response office told her agency that at least eight people died. She had also heard reports of entire villages being destroyed in more remote areas."
We knew Cyclone Pam was going to be bad and we had hoped to miss cyclones altogether here in New Zealand but it was not to be. Thankfully, the max winds were only 55 knots but we still put out 3 anchors and prepared for the worse. Here's how Scott described it:
What a night! The wind built all day yesterday and the rain came down in sheets. We were in a white frothy spindrift bay and all the sky above was a tapestry of scudding shades of grey. We had a treat just before sundown as the little blue penguins were swimming in the bay and around the boat because the huge wind and seas offshore drove even them to find shelter. The wind all night was 35 gusting 45 and built after 3:am to 45 gusting 55. As the big gusts hit the boat would heel and everything not already secured would go flying. It is now just getting light and its great to be able to see what's going on outside. The wind has shifted to the South and West, we now have longer periods of relative calm followed by crazy fast hard gusts. Its like Randy Johnson is pitching condensed hard fast wind balls at the boat, some are like curve balls and hit Celestial from one side or the other. This is almost worse and we still have another day of storm force winds predicted. So far my 3 anchors are holding and I shudder to think what will happen if one or more chafe through or drag out of the bottom. Thank the Lord, they didn't and we lived to tell the story.
Be sure to see the mess of tangled lines in the gallery from the 3 days of twisting about.
From there we explored Smokehouse Bay, a great yachtie friendly stop with tables and benches, a small stove that keeps the hot water tank warm for showers and TWO tubs. It has a great story.
Onto Tauranga where we left the boat on a mooring so we could take a bus to Wellington to see the free museum, Te Papa with 6 floors of exhibits. Also we visited Weta Cave, the location where most of the weapons for the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit were made.