As many of you have read and heard we recently sailed thru a tremendous storm….this is my account of those events:

Upon leaving a beautiful Island named Isle Maupiti on a wonderful Thursday morning we set voyage through the Passé Onoiau. This pass comes together with the ocean on the outside bringing 6 ft. waves and on the inside pushing a 3 plus knot current against it thus creating  rough water and turbulent seas. Shellette pushes her way across the waters with out any concerns as she is a great ship.

We set our coarse for the next Island of Rarotonga about 450 miles, a three day sail under normal conditions. The first two days are non eventful. Good seas, strong winds of 15 to 20 knots and Shellette moving calmly at 8 knots. We do our standard shifts that we agreed upon before leaving port at Maupiti. As time goes by it is now Saturday morning the sky begins to darken with clouds not of the ordinary for the Pacific Ocean nor of what we have experienced in the past 8000 miles of passage.

During the day on Gary’s shift about 2:30pm we find that the water pump for the refrigerator went puff and the temperature was rising to 55 degrees. I take over for Gary as he prepares to tackle the project at hand and gain our cold temperature back to keep from losing our food supply. During this time the winds begin to strengthen to 25 knots and the seas at 10 to 12 feet in height. Gary finishes his project about 4pm at which time his shift would have ended. I stay at the helm to do the next four hours of my shift. Gary begins to prepare dinner of pot roast, potatoes and carrots. The time is now 4:30pm. Gary retires to his cabin. Marnie’s up next on shift at 8pm . Dinner about 6:30pm.

Around 4:45pm the clouds begin to darken quickly. The sail is reefed at one reef which means less of the main sail is exposed to the wind to slow the boat down. Then all hell lets loose, the seas begin instantly to 12 to 15 ft and the winds blowing 35 knots and no sign of letting up. I take the helm off auto pilot to steer the boat to lessen the stress. The winds become stronger, the seas more violent soon we have winds exceeding 46 knots and seas at 20 plus feet. I grab the helm with all my strength to keep the boat from going sideways which could cause the boat to role over. After an hour of holding on I have Marnie get Gary up from his rest and takeover the helm. I am at wits end of stress and exhaustion. Gary grabs the helm again hanging on for all of ours dear LIVES. The waves are now reaching 25ft and the winds peaking at 50.9 knots . We are no longer sailing we are surfing the waves. The speed when we hit the wave increases from 10 knots to 20 8 knots . The boat begins to shake, rattle and nearly role over. Marine attempts to reach someone on the radios.  Yes two, one being the SSB and the other VHF. She puts in a distress call to anyone that can hear. We need to report our location incase we do not make it through the storm. Marnie’s shift was suppose to begin but no way were we going let that happen. The boys could hardly keep Shellette upright.

As the storm shows no sign of letting up Gary and I shift the helm control every 2 hours for a break. We are simply exhausted. The radar indicates that we are in the nucleus of the storm . It has adopted Shellette as the focal point and has no intention of letting her go. As tough as Shellette has held together she too is tried and finds the strength to continue on and bring us to a safe place .

This storm carries throughout the night. I  have fear in my eyes and I see fear in Marnies.  Mind you, fear is not a bad thing it reminds you to think about what you are doing to gain control of the problem at hand.  She carried about her duties of keeping contact with the outside in case we needed assistance. We did make contact with an island who in turn contact Rarotonga for us.  They remained in contact with us thru the night and were ready to send help should the need arise.

As the boat continued to scream across the surfing wind and waves, Shellette would make sound as that of a jet engine as she purged through the seas at speeds She should not be doing at her age or any age. We continue to hold the helm tight steering down wind which is all that could be done until the seas and wind subside. Finally, as the early morning of Sunday arrives we begin to see a relaxation of the two elements. Wind blowing 20 knots and the seas at 10 ft. Off in a far distance we see our destination Rarotonga and none to soon as we are all exhausted and spent of any energy to sail much more.

We reach land and do the duties of anchoring the boat and sit and finally reminisce of the turmoil we just experienced and hope never to have that event again.

As for each of the crew, we all took something different from this event. For  myself I prayed hard and steadfast for the seas and wind to subside and promise to become a better version of my self. This will be hard yet I need to do what I said to the good Lord. The only thing I know that Marnie promised was if she arrived safe at land she would exit the boat and take a break.  As for Gary, I believe I saw a little bit of fear on his face yet he claims he only thought it was “awesome” now that we are safe on land.

Note; This event is not be tried at home or on any other vessels. Disney World does not have this ride yet nor should they ever.   Mike