Around the 2nd Feb 2010, just 3 days before our planned return to
Raiatea, in the tranquil tropics of French polynesia.. A small blip of
a ,tropical depression in South Pacific suddenly escalated through the
tropical storm level, to become a full blown "class 1" Hurricane, and
as such earned the name "OLI " .. simultaneously as soon as Oli earnt
his name, he turned south-easterly & headed straight towards the
Society island & Apple our yachts.... Over the coming days Oli...
rapidly quadrupled in size & speed to became a "class 4" ( maximum
hurricane class is 5..) which means winds of around 225-250 mph,
inside a storm that just move forward at 15 mph & in this case... was
heading south east.....!!! Bora Bora, Raiatea, Tahaa, Tahiti &
Moorea were all in it's direct path & as such put on alert...... The
storm was now predicted to hit land on our arrival date the 5th..
Just hours before our departure from LAX ( Los Angeles where i'd been
busy- securing a deal on both Movie i'd spend the last 5 year's on-
discuss later) Oli speed maxed- out at 250 MPH moving at 20 MPH... So
luckily or unluckily depending on your POV.. Raiatea & Apple were hit
with winds of only!!! around 95 MHP & waves of 7 meters... basically
the eye of Oli gilded past the society islands but left it's mark..
every bridge, pier, water front, Beach front house was ..F___
affected, the street were strewn with torn palm tree's, flooded
streets, Power was out for 24 hours... but Apple had survived, with
out even a scratch... we literally arrived 12 hours after Oli had
left.. EEEK!! This is amazing timing...
Woow... This really reminded me of a trip i took to Thailand around 4
years ago.... the story was... I'd planned to meet friends for a
diving trip on PiPi Island.. But for some reason? I was delayed in
leaving London, i think i simply missed my flight...... So my close
friend John Spary ( of JSA fame) .., kindly waited in Bangkok for me
rather that taking the connecting flight & heading out alone........
anyways to cut a long story short... I arrive a day late & fell
straight to sleep in my hotel.... Suddenly around 9 p.m. I was awoken
by a scratching noise, which again escalated to a scrapping noise.. i
immediately ( half asleep) phone the reception & complained about the
noise.. for some reason i thought I had painters in my ceiling?. i
remember saying.."PLEAE STOP" .STOP the painting in my ceiling!!" ,,,
only to be informed that we were experiencing a earthquake..!!! ..well
the next day 2X tidal's wave hit PIPi & wide every out.. the rest is
history..& Thailand has never been the same since...
So back to french polynesia. ..Oli has has just left..... & Now we
have a second Hurricane "class 1" named PAT bearing down on us ..at
around 5 days away...
the blog begins..
