With a Tropical Cyclone Debbie coming directly for us, we run to the safety of the mangroves to hide from what becomes the biggest storm to hit Australia's Whitsunday Coast in years! Learn how we chose our spot, what Storm Prep we do – and get a taste of the beast that comes!

We are an adventurous couple who live an alternative life - a life at sea. We feel better connected when we are sailing. We live simpler and have less impact on the environment. We take the time to immerse ourselves in different cultures, meet amazing people and experience what the oceans and our planet have to offer.

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Peace and Love,
Meg & Darren


MUSIC:
Andrew Rothschild

Closed Captions (CC):

[Music]

in our last episode we had a stonking

sail out to the Stonehaven Anchorage on

Hawk Island in the whitsundays we swam

just off the boat with the cutest green

turtle and we hiked up to a beautiful

waterfall which was just so refreshing

after a hard day's work

[Music]

okay so we had sex or whether this

morning an elliptical is f bar x 12 had

to get this one

possibly they were sort of a present

instead of a touch-up so we're moving

so I can place them my growth

like say we looked at whether it's three

o'clock and let's look like

the I was going to be coming I for that

I like to keep a

you're faster and precise we have a

fresh way

knocking about few M is going to get the

boring line some of the right sounds

we're going to get off into this

in to travel by fairly shortly

we're heading to this is a called

Trammell Bay and if you plaques up and

around that way and tacks up also over

here and you can go up into the mangrove

so this is where we're going just like

away from the weather that's approaching

it looks nice and long can you cover

yourself here two-foot sound screen I

mean proof this stuff insects is what

you got up here okay so it's all very

tight in here pretty shallow we've had

to come in on a high tide and you sort

of stick to the right-hand side and then

we hook around to the left up bmd so I

considered some people already up here

we wanted to get further up but we might

not be able to

so looks like the guy in front on the

cat has already said his lines so no one

can get past them

unfortunately anyway we shall make do

beautiful out here beautiful and

Darren's just pulling us into the manga

Rosie

we've come into this a-here trammel bay

and right up into these mangrove here I

hope we don't end up online

it wouldn't be any good so Darren's just

checking the depth with the depth

sounder we want to find the deepest hole

that we can to park in we're currently

in 3.1 meters the tithe has just turned

so we have lost a bit of depth but it's

going to go off and see where we are

and we're just letting a girl settle in

maybe for some heroes it's amazing what

they'll hold on to if you drive the

tender right and as far as you can to

the mangroves and we've tried to go into

the most what seems to be the most dense

point of the mangroves because the

weather's going to come from a side so

we've tried to pick the densest area of

mangroves to protect us and also the

strongest looking around the healthiest

looking ones these suckers really dilute

and selves to the ground all right

you can do it baby

hahaha previous turnstile

it sounds just checking to see if he can

get the dinghy in will power up buddy

hahahaha

that's so good okay

here you guys here guys

charge honey

yes I check out this view I mean this is

where we are it's just gorgeous

all this bush land around us and as you

can see the hills are quite high so

that's protecting us and the fact that

when actually when low tide because the

the the tides are about 3.73 meter drops

so we're currently setting up level with

the mangroves but when the tide goes

down we are actually right down sitting

at the very bottom of those mangroves so

we're very well protected in here and as

you can see we're quite sort of tucked

in quite closely and this is the view

it's just gorgeous

okay so now as you can see we are well

and truly embedded into the mangroves

yes it's actually a beautiful day even

though we are speaking some pretty bad

weather but why not come to might be

alright tomorrow and then I think Monday

Tuesday it might be a bit nasty but it's

beautiful here in the mangers it was

about blowing coming on for 30s when we

left and we've got about 9 10 knots here

so just gorgeous so we're just going to

take away all the stuff from underneath

the Bimini tie-down lash down everything

on board and take away the things off

deck that don't need to be on deck and

tie up the Hitsville and then double up

on the lines and we should be right see

here we go

okay so I just thought that I would show

you the winner that we are expecting

this is tropical cyclone Debbie and

she's turned into a fairly big system

she's been pulling in wind from over the

top and then down south and she's built

up quite nicely as you can see she's got

quite a nice little core building there

so we are located pretty much here and

this map is a forecast for tonight and

tomorrow so we expect that she will

cross we're not sure whether she's going

to cross right above us I did see that

at one forecast that the I will come

over and I did see another forecast

where she will sort of clip slightly

above us either way as you can see the

winds are pretty strong and they will

remain strong anything in the red and

the purple is pretty horrendous so we're

expecting to have a fairly raging night

and very intense morning

so yeah that's Tropical Cyclone Dewey

what do you think my honey no I think

we're going to get wet and

I think we're going to get a bit of a

serious way I think Debbie's going to

give us a bit of a touch-up

anyway we're all talking no society so

we'll be pretty good

okay so day two in the mangrove hiding

from what has now become tropical

cyclone Biddy and that's all going

pretty good actually we are very well

protected from the wind in here and you

can hear it roaring all around us and

we're actually going only getting a

little bit of breeze down here but we're

actually sitting down in the bottom of

the mangrove as the tide goes down lower

of course we lower down a bit so yeah

we're nicely tucked away but we're

expecting that the eye of the cyclone is

going to pass about 20 or so nautical

miles above us and that probably comes

through in the wee hours of the morning

so yeah it's going to be a bit of a

windy old night but hopefully okay for

us yeah so that's our update we'll check

in with you later on

you

okay so we just thought we would take

you through how we decided that we were

going to come here to this place to

shelter from the cyclone top of a

cyclone Diddy

and yeah just run through a few things

that we've done as far as safety on

board in preparation for this big storm

so first of all the one thing that we

took into consideration was to take a

really good spot so for us we wanted to

find a bay that was sheltered from the

southeasterly which is going to be the

main wind the direction of the wind

that's coming for us now although it's

swirling around from all over the place

at the moment

and we wanted to find a place that had

lots of mangrove and a creek that we

could get up as far as we could so

there's actually been here for ya little

of chose this spot because it's

extremely protected and even though it's

very quiet and shallow there is a there

is places where you can get up and it's

it's quite it's quite deep once you get

in so it's on a wave height we still is

still quite and we cuts the bottom

that's mum so it's not really a concern

but

also it's quite narrow so it

you're really boxed in so you get a lot

of shelter and it's quite easy to type

twice and lines up to the mangroves to

get to get a nice hold on everything

yeah that's a good point actually

because earlier on we went across to the

other side the southern arm and there's

a chap over there and he can't really

we've had to tie off at one point has

lined the distance is just so huge his

lines wouldn't reach across like he's

actually not in a very sheltered

position

yeah so yeah the snug is you can get a

good idea yeah sure yeah so also when we

tie off we've tied off about ten lines

around the boat on both sides of the

boat and we've tied off at the mangroves

our high point we came in on the high

tide obviously and the reason we've done

the high point is because when the tide

goes down we've got about three point

seven meter drop heavenly yeah just just

at this point in time but all our lines

are up nice and high so any any trash

that comes down because there will be

quite a bit big logs and whatnot yes

it'll hike why most of that stuff we'll

we'll just go under the lines and like

create a problem for us

yeah and that's one of the reasons we

have an extra drop drop during cut we

didn't want a big log or something

snagging on on the anchor and then

bashing into the bow of the boat here

the other boats down the down the stream

from us have got their anchors down so

yeah what do you do yeah look I guess

it's a personal opinion with what you do

and you know every scenario is different

so you know like outside of what's right

or wrong Lee but it's what you feel

comfortable with them you know we we're

fairly well tied off and we just sort of

figured that them you know

something attached to the bottom there's

just another Spragg point really so we

we decided not to and at this point in

time well well what's your night Amara

to see have we fed up but yeah that's

that's that's what we've done at this

point in time anyway yes yeah so what we

did next is after we've secured the boat

we took every removable item off the

deck that we could and stowed it down

below here and then we lash down the

domain we lash down the solar panels we

tied off the furler and we disconnected

and tied off the whinging we took off

all the fenders and the life ring and we

what else do we do that covers pretty

much already ever do anything that

possible protect off yeah or if you

really want to keep it in editor it's

better to tie it down that's right then

we'll take it off yeah you know if you

get a direct hit from these these big

storms the power is just quite

unbelievable so yeah it's better to be

on the safe side and Iveco

we haven't taken our cockpit clears down

at the moment because the storm isn't

due to hit until tonight we've been here

for two or three days and so it's been

nice to actually not be cooped down

below the whole time we've had that

extra living space so we'll take the

clears down and then lossy screens down

later on when the wind gets really

intense yeah so the next thing we did is

we disconnected all the non-essential

electronics and the reason we did this

is because we weren't sure whether the

weather whether they would be lightning

about Anna neck

we don't really want to lose a gear so

disconnected from the battery and VHS

the chartplotter

autopilot and the rider and the radar

yeah we figured we're not moving it's

beautiful if if things got really bad

and we would have break loose we're

probably going to end up in a big pile

down the the end of the creek there

somewhere so we figure we're probably

not going to be meeting any they are

electronic devices so we just said well

we'll you know just on the off-chance

it's pretty rare but that does happen

yeah we kept the fridge obviously and

the lights and the solar panels are

connected because we do need to keep our

power running and we've got the rip the

VHF radio on one thing that we have done

with the other there's another three

boats up here and we've created a bit of

a rate radio net with them on one of the

lesser used channels on the VHF radio so

we're just keeping in contact with each

other it's great keeps up the morale and

we update each other anything any we're

advisers that we're here or any sort of

stories that we hear from people from

land yes some of the guys section down

further we will sort of been getting at

a tiny little bit of Internet's a way

where we can sort of keep updated pretty

easily with you know just on the net

with their with their weather so I would

think even some of the guys down further

run

updated so so we're good yeah and the

next bit was to hook up a big feed so I

took up a big curry so we've got that

sorted out and actually were out on the

ocean and within a storm

I'd actually sort of had lunch as kept

as well so that we can keep our food

going but here you know the storm is

really only going to be a one night

banger yeah so just cook up a big feed

and keep us going and then we've prepped

our wedding wet weather gear we've been

wearing it obviously but depends on the

strength of the cyclone I think she's

going to cross as the number of cat 4

which is caught up there like it yep

it's if the prediction is that it's only

going to land a bit 20 miles off the

coast from us so it's not that far away

and Pacific plains where they say it is

you know there's a lot of variation in

size yes I'm fairly strong winds and

horizontal rain that's what I

experienced in my last flight plan which

was a cat 5 so another degree higher but

it really hurts and when it hits you you

know if you if for example you want to

go out and check if there's any chafe on

your line which you know I don't know if

you're going to do it or not but it's

matching you in the face that's messing

your legs and it really new so I

actually learnt the trick of putting

putting up my my mask on from my

snorkeling gear which protects my eyes

and my head torch and wearing a wetsuit

because it keeps you warm even though

you're wet so a lot of people do that

but I don't really think we're going to

be going out on deck here but anyway get

you with a gear and your head torches

ready and yeah try the mask thing out I

might help you out if you ever in this

situation the Heron thinks I'm a

complete nutcase

well sometimes you made everything that

he got gone he is

generally in a worst-case scenario you

really can't go out there it's so bad

yeah in my experience but yeah if you

have to do well you better go prepared

peasant and be messy

yeah and the last thing is are we

prepped a grab bag or we we don't

actually think we're going to be needing

to abandon ship in the situation but

it's always a good idea to check out and

and make sure you've got all your gear

ready and that you're slathering dates

and you've got water and something to

drink and you've got your meds if you

need your moves and your wallet your

folk documents and if obviously did I

say please

I didn't say please so that's good add a

space blanket and some mud and good shoe

see we'd have to try and bash through

some pretty thorny mangroves to get in

here we're outta here

but you never know and they're awful

truth

so yeah just just to get your grab bag

and everything ready just make sure you

never know so that's about what was done

and I think we've probably got about 10

hours or so until the crux of the storm

hits so fingers crossed and your cross

will take you updated

[Music]

the only sneeze

while I'm lying here in the aft cabin

then things are pretty comfy it sometime

around midnight and the wind's really

started picking in we're getting a few

ferocious booths come true Clarion's

sitting knife down her line she is

hugging a weaver and she is getting

pushed over a bit too but things are

generally pretty comfortable and I think

we're just gone past high tide so we are

at our most exposed point and so you'll

be well in another

I think it's about 4:30 about ground my

jihad against but this muddle away again

so yeah you been at the moment

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