Hurricane Ivan and its aftermath

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	A satellite image of hurricane Ivan moving towards Haiti (600 dead), after trashing Grenada on 7th September. At this point Ivan is some 300 miles across. We were safely in Trinidad having run down there from Tobago to take shelter (Tobago's North East coast was mauled). However we went up to Grenada right after the hurricane and stayed two weeks to provide water (we can make 50 gallons an hour), food and petrol, all generously donated by cruisers and marine businesses in Trinidad.
	Grenada is 'below' the hurricane belt and had not had a hurricane since the '50s. Many yachts go there in the summer for this reason - often, as with ours, their insurance policies specify that yachts be South of 12 degrees 40 minutes North, and Grenada is comfortably below that. A number of boats came down to Grenada specially to seek shelter from Ivan, which was predicted to track further North, and were in anchorages such as Mount Hartman, above, which are far from being hurricane holes.
	A yacht stranded on the reef outside Mount Hartman bay, and the remnants of another. A number of yachts were swept out to sea, and some were swept back. Some crews stayed on their boats and at least three deaths resulted among them. Of the c350 boats in the water before Ivan, half ended up sunk or ashore.
	The Lagoon, in the capital St. George's is normally a sheltered anchorage, but once the cleats started breaking off the yacht club docks and yachts went rampaging across the harbour a disaster was inevitable. Many became piled up in front of the Foodland supermarket, and the crews were stuck on their boats for days, scared to leave as wild looting went on - Foodland itself was stripped bare, and even some police reportedly took part. When we arrived some days later we were the first help of any kind they had had apart from a British warship which brought round a little water the day after the hurricane.
	Our boat is not suitable for towing, but we did try to get a few yachts off. We only succeeded once, and sustained some damage in the process, with a broken engine mount, damaged pushpit and a grounding. The joy and relief on the face of the skipper of the boat we did get off, after a week stuck in the mangroves, more than compensated for our small problems.
	The French boat La Flibuste was one of many heroes who came forward. Flibuste came down from Carriacou to help a friend, then towed off eleven boats. All for free, and all before the commercial salvors came in charging as much as $10,000 dollars a time.
	Clarks Court marina was particularly badly damaged. Its floating docks are not designed for a hurricane, and many who had boats there felt it was a mistake to let even more boats on as Ivan approached. With big power boats on the hammerheads, the securing chains had no chance. At the marina where we were in Trinidad, only on the fringes of Ivan, the big yachts were sent off well ahead to reduce the load on the docks.
	The most havoc among the yachting fraternity was caused in Spice Island boatyard, where only 8 monohulls out of nearly 300 remained standing. By comparison in St. David's boatyard less than 30 fell out of roughly the same number.
	Some people feel that the problem in Spice Island was caused by this hydraulic trolley, which enables boats to be taken off the Travelhoist and put within inches of each other. So when one falls..... At St. David's they have a wider Travelhoist and no trolley, so the boats are further apart.
	Others say the support props at Spice Island were inadequate. We saw no real signs of them buckling (except when boats fell on them), but most boats only had three each side and they were not chained together. One yacht's crew grabbed more props before the storm and roped them together. Their boat stayed upright. But only about a dozen crews were in the yard - many people leave their boats there for the summer and go home.
	The catamarans ashore fared better, and none fell over in the yard, though they did sometimes tip onto their noses or sterns, and a number lost their rigs because adjacent monohulls fell onto them.
	For some, the tragedy of a hurricane brings opportunity. An enterprising young French couple, whose small boat weathered the hurricane successfully here in Port Egmont, bought this sunken 47' Lagoon catamaran from the insurers for just $18,000 US. It will take much work and expense to get it seaworthy again, but could also set them up in the charter business.
	Despite the 100kt winds, many boats survived Ivan well. We were so glad that our friends on Ocean Breezes and Dolphins were among them. They chose the best hurricane hole, worked together as a team to find a safe place ashore to shelter and tied up the boats really well. They came through with minimal damage and were able to set sail for Venezuela days later. Before leaving Chris kindly installed a replacement mounting block for one of our engines.
	Ashore, according to the BBC, 60,000 people became homeless out of a population of 90,000. Certainly thousands of homes (particularly the poorer ones) were badly damaged, and the trees were stripped completely bare. Much as the yachting fraternity suffered, the real tragedy was ashore. Five weeks later 6,000 people, mostly children, were still living in shelters.
	Many say it will take years for the nutmeg crop to recover, though we were amazed by the extent of regrowth in the two weeks we were there. However tourism is vital to Grenada and many hotels suffered not just lost roofs, but enormous flood damage. They may be closed for up to a year, so causing a lot of unemployment. There is a continuing need for aid.

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