Hunkering Down for the Storm

The forecast from the French Met service in New Caledonia, South Pacific, was for a deep low to form to the north of the island that would develop overnight into a tropical storm or even a hurricane as it moved south and east over the island. It was headed right for us. We were heading south from Noumea to the Isle of Pines when we got the forecast and quickly decided to find a hurricane hole where we could hunker down. We chose the Bay of Prony on the island’s southern tip because it has a long winding river and high hills around it that would offer good holding and plenty of protection from wind and waves, we hoped. We motored a mile up the river and found a good hole in the river’s western branch in which to anchor. We got three anchors down in a triangle pattern and then we waited. Next morning the storm arrived snarling and with teeth but it was not a hurricane. The rain was torrential and the wind gusted into the fifties. The bends in the river kept the waves in our hole to a minimum. The anchors set in the river-bottom mud held as we bucked back and forth in the gusts and then it was over. The storm rushed away into the wide South Pacific and did become a hurricane the next day. But it was long gone and left us with a majestic rainbow. It took us all the next morning to retrieve and clean the anchors and rodes from the thick mud. They had done their job well, so it was a pleasure to look after them.  We rode the clearing breeze across the great lagoon to the Isle of Pines, happy to have dodged a weather bullet and confident that we were as prepared as we could be if the worst had happened. It was just another 48 hours in the unpredictable life of world cruisers.