February 12-13, 2022
In my previous post, I described our wait for Cyclone Dovi, headed our way from the tropics. It would dissipate into a tropical storm by the time it reached us, but this “milder” system would still have considerable winds, forecast to gust up to 60 knots in our area. We’d enjoyed a calm day in an anchorage that we hoped would protect us through Dovi, and now that storm was due to arrive.
It wasn’t yet windy when we woke up the morning of the 12th, but we were seeing the first signs of Dovi. The weather was hot and tropical, with passing rain showers that forced us to close our hatches, reluctantly, as they passed over. As soon as the rain stopped those hatches were immediately opened up to catch any breezes. Aside from obsessively checking weather forecasts, all we had to do now was wait.
The wind speed remained in the teens all morning, but we started to get some stronger gusts that would cause the boat to swing around at anchor. There wasn’t much noticeable about this except if we happened to look out thorough our cockpit as this happened, the land would be going by at a pretty good clip.
Around noon the wind picked up to around 20 knots, and we started to hear it pretty consistently. Normally it’s not a sound we’re fond of, but today we welcomed it–it meant air was blowing through the boat, providing relief from the heat!
As the day went on, I enjoyed the wind yet felt ill at ease. I made brownies, always a great comfort food, which we needed when we got a look at the 4pm forecast that had an unnerving visual of Dovi descending over New Zealand.
In the evening we both had wine, a great comfort drink. I know that doesn’t sound like the best idea for cyclone preparation, but the wind wasn’t really due to get strong until the dead of night; so any wine buzz we had would be long gone.
I did have a wonderful moment when the wind was blowing but not yet terribly strong. I went outside and stood in the breeze. The wind felt cool and refreshing and not threatening at all. In fact it felt incredibly invigorating and uplifting, and I felt a sensation of being truly alive. I knew it was going to get stronger, but for now I enjoyed this moment with the wind.
By the time we went to sleep, the wind was well into the 20-knot range and getting into the 30s. We were now accustomed to the howling noise so that didn’t bother us, but we’d get these gusts that would make the boat lean, and I kept feeling like I was going to get rolled out of bed. I finally stuffed a big pillow between me and the edge of the bed, but not surprisingly, I didn’t sleep well at all.
I was up a few times during the night, and I eventually went to sit in the cockpit. It was very dark and I couldn’t see anything, but I did run the video camera to try to catch the sound of the shrieking wind gusts. The wind was now in the 40 knot range, although I’m not sure it ever got up to 50.
After getting more sleep, I was up again at 3am. Having just finished one book, I needed another. For some reason, maybe the scary wind noises, the mood hit me to read The Haunting of Hill House. So, I got on Amazon, ordered it, and downloaded it onto my Kindle. I have to say it’s a pretty amazing world when, in the middle of the night, I can be sitting through a tropical storm at some remote island, and with the magic of the internet, download whatever book suits my mood. Soon, I was reading the book and not paying so much attention to the wind.
The next morning it seemed so much calmer, but now looking at the video I took it looks rougher than I remembered. Still, as the morning went on, the wind did calm down continuously as it backed to the west. I’d been worried we might have to pick up and move closer to the other side of the channel; so what a relief when it seemed to die off so much!
Naturally, we wondered what happened to cause the change from what was, even now, still in the forecast. We decided to look at weather observations in our area and were shocked to see Great Mercury Island still had wind in the 50s gusting to 62, and a rock island east of us was seeing 68 knots gusting to 76! So how was it our wind was barely in the teens? We had no explanation.
Naturally we worried the wind might suddenly pick up again, but it never happened. By 11:30am, the wind was so light I could have gotten on the paddle board or gone swimming. Rich, noticing me sitting outside rather somber, asked me if I was happy with the weather. I was thrilled but also uneasy because I didn’t understand what was going on, and not understanding made me uncomfortable with the situation.
As it turned out, the storm was through and the day remained cloudy but peaceful. It was nice to hear from a few friends asking if we made it through OK, that nice feeling of people looking out for us.
Below, some video clips starting with the wind picking up on Saturday, the wind noise in the middle of the night, and the conditions on Sunday morning as they were dying down. I would like to give a shout out to our Rocna anchor, which once again really came through for us. –Cyndi
