Riding a Hurricane Off Cape Cook

It had been a perfect Indian summer and a hurricane was the last thing on our minds. We had been having some awesome fall fishing for about a week. We were off Cape Cook on the westcoast of Vancouver Island where a nice run of large spring salmon came by every year and this was one of the rare instances when we were allowed to fish them. Most of the other fishermen had already called it quits for the year and my friends Rod and David along with myself had the spot pretty much to ourselves. Day after day we were hauling in nice catches of the big springs and some nice fall coho as well.

The weather had been flat calm the whole time we were fishing this spot and we had become a little complacent when it came to monitoring the weather reports. Usually the routine was to listen to the weather at least once in the morning on the 20 minute run from the anchorage to the fishing spot, but with the way the weather had been we spent this time bragging to our partners about all the big fish we had caught the previous day.

It was about 11 o'clock in the morning when I first noticed a breeze picking up and coming off the beach. This was an unusual direction for the wind to be coming from and it made me take notice. Almost as soon as I started to wonder what was going on, the wind then switched 180 degrees and doubled in intensity. I then realized that something was up and went to check my barometer and found that it had taken sharp drop. Just then Rod called to say that he had listened to the weather report and that a Gale Warning had just been posted. We decided that we would continue fishing as the wind wasn't that bad yet and we would keep monitoring the weather reports in case they upgraded the gale warning.

The wind steadily increased through the afternoon and by 2pm Rod and I had enough pounding and decided to head for safe anchorage and cook supper. David was a little tougher or a little hungrier than us and decided to stay a little while longer. We had only been running a short time when the weather office upgraded again to a Storm Warning and we were thankful to be heading in to anchor but began to wonder about our choice of anchorage. We were heading into Klaskish Inlet on the northwest side of Brookes Peninsula and this anchorage had a terrible reputation when the wind was blowing from the southeast which was the direction of the wind in this storm. But we had left too late and had also gotten the weather report too late to make any other anchorage so we decided to take our chances with this spot.

We finally made it behind the island and were surprised to find the water smooth as glass. Rod had cooked supper for us so after he set his anchor we pulled alongside and tied up beside his boat to share his fine cuisine. We planned on having dinner and after cleaning up we would then move off and set our own anchor. While we were eating, David finally showed up and set his anchor a little ways away from us just as the wind started picking up in the anchorage. We quickly finished up and were just about to leave to set our own anchor when we heard David hollering. We went outside and saw David drifting towards our bow. He had been having trouble with his starter and had planned on taking it apart to see if he could fix it, but the wind had caused him to start dragging his anchor and now he couldn't start his engine. He was heading towards some rocks but we were able to toss him a line as he drifted in front of us and we pulled him alongside of Rod's boat and tied him up. Now all three of us were tied together with two anchors out but with David's anchor line crossing Rod's. We didn't seem to be moving so decided the best thing to do was stay the way we were while David tried to fix his starter.

Weather Office Issues Hurricane Warnimg

By now the wind was really howling and the weather office had upgraded the forecast to a Hurricane Warning, which was winds in excess of 70 miles per hour. The waves in the anchorage were now getting quite big and were pounding the boats together but our anchors were holding just fine. Rod and I began taking turns trying to catch catnaps while the other stood watch on the anchor alarms and offered any help they could for David. At about 4am David finally got the starter fixed and was able to start his engine. He asked me if I thought he should untie and go anchor and I suggested that he wait a little while for daylight before he left. I told him to go and get some sleep and we would wake him up when it got light. Everything seemed fine although the wind was really howling, so I got one of the deckhands up to watch while I went to bed for awhile myself.

I had just laid down when I heard a loud bang and I jumped up just in time to hear all the anchor alarms going off. Rod's anchor line had finally sawed through David's and now all three of us were hanging on Rod's anchor alone and it wasn't holding. I ran over and woke up David and told him we were dragging anchor and he better cut loose and get out of there fast as we were heading for the rocks that were only about a hundred feet away and he was going to be the first one to hit. I headed back over to my boat as Rod was picking up his anchor and I grabbed my butcher knife and cut all the lines holding me to Rod's boat. I then started backing away from them as fast as I could and saw that David was already on the rocks. Rod finally got his anchor aboard and was going ahead on his engine trying to get away from the rocks and me. I could see his stern rise up in the air about 2 or 3 feet and I knew that he hit the rock but he kept his power on full and was able to jump right over it. Luckily he hit the rock with just his keel and no damage was done but David wasn't quite as fortunate. He had banged his rudder on the rocks and although he was able to make his way off, his rudder was jammed and he was only able to turn the boat in one direction and had to travel in circles.

I tried setting my anchor several times but it wouldn't hold. Rod went out into the middle of the inlet and was able to get his anchor to hold while David drove around in circles waiting for daylight. There was another anchorage a little further up the inlet where the Dept. of Fisheries had placed some mooring bouys and so I decided to head there and try to tie onto one of them. It was finally starting to get light as I worked my way over there and we were able to see how strong the wind was. It was coming off the hills in real strong gusts and was picking sheets of water off the surface of the ocean and carrying them a couple of hundred feet in the air. When one of the gusts would hit the boat it would heel it right over on its side.

Finding Shelter From the Hurricane

We finally made it over to the other anchorage and made our way through the narrow quarter mile entrance into the basin where the mooring bouys were located. We tied onto one of the bouys and were finally able to relax a little after the harrowing events of the past few hours. The wind didn't seem to be near as bad in this anchorage as it had been in the other place so I called Rod and David to see how they were making out. Rod's anchor was holding and although he was getting pounded pretty hard by the wind and waves he wasn't in any danger and decided to stay where he was. David had made his way out of the other anchorage and was now out in the middle of the inlet, so I suggested that he make his way down to where I was and when he got to the mouth of the entrance I would come out and tow him in as he would be unable to make it in the way his steering was. He was able to steer in a wide arc and when he got too far off course he would then back up until he was pointing far enough the other way and then he would continue again until he had to back up once more to be pointing in the right direction. It took him a while to make it over to the entrance but he finally called to say he was there, so then I went out and grabbed ahold of him and brought him in. I took him over to what I thought was the most protected bouy and got him tied up and then went and tied my boat onto another bouy.

Rod finally had enough of the pounding and decided to come in and join us. As it was much nicer we decided that it would be alright for him to tie alongside of us again. We had just gotten him secured when the wind decided that it was going to start blowing in this spot also. Within a couple of minutes the waves had grown to about 3 or 4 feet and the boats were banging together real hard. We had tied a rope onto one of his davits and it snapped off under the strain. I grabbed my butcher knife again and for the second time that morning I cut my lines from Rod and moved away, with him retaining possession of my mooring bouy. I moved onto a bouy on the other side of David and now all three of us were tied to bouys with about 100 feet separating each of us.

If we thought it was windy and raining before, it was nothing like what we experienced over the next several hours. The slopes of the mountains surrounding us were very steep and we could see the gusts of wind roaring down the mountain sides bending the trees over and snapping off their tops. The wind would then slam into the water where it would pick it up in huge sheets and throw it against the boats. The sound was deafening and I imagined it was like being under a freight train as it was thundering down the tracks. When one of the gusts would hit I wouldn't be able to see Rod's boat anymore and I could just make out David who would be heeled so far over that his keel was almost showing. The boat would shudder and shake and it would feel like the windows were about to be blown out and we would push our hands against them to try and hold them in place.

I was worried that the rope that was holding us to the bouy would break so when we had a lull in the wind we went outside and attached a few more so that we had four ropes holding us. As the wind increased I began to worry that they wouldn't even hold us so we then went and disconnected our anchor and used our anchor chain to hold us to the bouy. The wind was clearing everything off the boat that wasn't tied down and so I went out to the stern to put some of the gear under cover just as another huge squall hit us. The wind was so strong that I could feel it starting to pick me up so I grabbed onto one of the aluminum stantions that was holding my boom and I held on for dear life. My deckhand was watching from the window in the wheelhouse door and he said that he couldn't see me for about a minute although I was no more than 15 feet away from him. Even though I had full rain gear on I was soaked completely through from that one squall.

The wind continued throughout the morning and into the afternoon and although we were a little nervous at times, we were completely safe tied onto the mooring bouys. I had a book on board written by Farley Mowatt about the deep sea salvage tugs on the east coast and in the book was a reference to the Beaufort wind scale and I read the description of what hurricane force winds were to Rod and David and asked them if they knew what it was. The description goes 'The air is filled with foam and spray, Sea completely white with driving spray; visibility very seriously affected.' They both said that it was a perfect description of where we were. Between the three of us we have close to 100 years experience fishing the ocean on both coasts of Canada as well as other parts of the world and all of us agreed that it was the worst wind storm we had ever seen. We estimated the wind at its peak to be well in excess of 100 miles per hour.

There was at least one boat that went down in that storm with the crew being rescued by Coast Guard helicopter. The next morning the sea was calm again and all three of us limped into Winter Harbour to repair our damage and replace what was lost and a valuable lesson was learned about seeking shelter in that anchorage in a southeast storm.

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