Our survey season is almost over. Now we have to plan to tide over the monsoons. If there is one thing I am scared of it is the weather, or rather bad weather.
I have personally experienced two storms on the high seas. The first time, in 1990, a particularly severe cyclone emerged in the Bay of Bengal and crossed the East Coast of India south of Visakhapatnam. This super-cyclone had two eyes.
In May 1990, I was on a hydrographic vessel to ‘survey grounds’. We entered Madras, where we learnt that a cyclone was brewing at sea. As the cyclone was expected to pass right over our port, we were asked to leave the harbour and ride out the storm at sea.
When our ship crossed the breakwater, we faced mountainous waves and gale-force winds. We applied the Buys Ballot’s Law: face the wind, 10 to 12 points on the starboard is the eye of the storm, in the northern hemisphere. Our vessel was in the dangerous semi-circle, but we could not do much thereafter. The wheel got stuck in a particular position and the speed dropped from 15 to 2 knots due to the wind and sea.
The ship passed weather parameters to shore authorities. The waves became higher, and sea water started dripping through every pore in the ship. The engines stalled due to loss of suction. The main switchboard caught fire due to a short-circuit. We adopted the ‘do-nothing’ theory, in which the vessel shuts off the engines and allows free play of the waves and the winds. I guess this is what saved us ultimately.
In that storm we lost all four boats. We suffered a lot of damage and managed to escape with our lives. I became very religious after this event.
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