Cyclone "Mick" struck Fiji yesterday. It had just been upgraded to a Category 2 before it made landfall. The "Eye" of Mick passed between the towns of Lautoka, which I visit at least twice a week, and Ba (yes, the name of the town is spelled BA). The eye was within 25 miles of my location. Although I did not experience the "dead calm" effect of being right in the eye of a cyclone, I did notice a steep drop in the wind for a while. Silly me, I thought the worst was over. WRONG!
The nearby resort hotel had several trees get blown down. Bless their hearts, they re-opened for dinner and I dined with fellow survivors by candlelight. It gave us a chance to start working on our survival "lies".
A large (80' approx) steel hulled survey vessel was washed up on the reef. A picture is attached. Had it been built of fiberglass or wood it surely would've been broken to pieces. The flat-bottomed barge it was towing wound up well inland.
At the height of the storm I walked out to look at the shipwreck. It was impossible to look for more than an instant as the driving rain stung my eyes. It was like driving a motorcycle at 100 mph in a rainstorm, without a face shield. I felt like one of those nutty TV people we see standing in the middle of a storm, getting blown to bits, all for the sake of appearing on the late news!
It was interesting, very interesting.
Oh, well, another "survival" story for my memoirs.
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