Monday, January 8, 2018

We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust the sails

   The above quote is true for life not just for sailing and it looks like we are due for a big adjustment.

They call it "Irmageddon"  -  a monster storm,  a Category 5 hurricane,  the strongest storm to ever make landfall in this hemisphere.  With sustained winds of 185mph and gusts of 220mph, it blew right over Nanny Cay marina on Tortola, BVI, where Megerin was stored on land in the boatyard for hurricane season.   It was a strange, emotional, and surreal experience to watch on TV the eye of the hurricane pass right over the marina, knowing that everything it's path would be destroyed or terribly damaged.   The beautiful Virgin Islands were devastated,  thousands of lives were threatened and  some lives were lost,  so we consider ourselves very lucky as we were in Pittsburgh safe and dry.

Irma on Sept.6th,  hurricane Maria 2 weeks later, and many days of torrential rainstorms in between means that most of the eastern Caribbean is in for a very long recovery.  At Nanny Cay the docks were destroyed, many boats sank, whole buildings were blown away, and our boat, along with over 300 others in the boatyard, was blown over and demasted.  An overwhelming job of recovery in terrible physical circumstances.  Priorities were saving and helping people first and the BVI was aided by the Royal Navy who sent troops to instill martial law for the protection of the residents.
A curfew was mandated and no one was allowed on the island for two months.  Anyway, the airport was unusable and there was no where for anyone to stay.  Communications were spotty at best for quite awhile so we all were without concrete information re' general conditions and the fate of our boats.

What we do know is that Megerin lost her mast and rigging, has some damage to on-deck structures but the hull (the main body of the boat) has no damage found so far.  Due to the fallen mast blocking the surveyor (he assesses damage) from getting inside parts of the boat, we are not 100% sure of the final damage report.  So.....we are going down to Tortola on Jan.9 to try in person to solve some of these problems.  If we do and get Megerin in the water we will try to live on her until she is repaired, which will take months due to the huge number of boats that need fixed.  We have been told it is chaos down there.   We know many people whose boats have been declared total losses and they will not be back.
Meeting great and interesting people has always been our favorite part of the cruising life, and maybe we'll still do it for awhile.  But maybe it is time to adjust the sails for a new chapter in our lives?