For Your Safety CASE 3
A Dark and STormy NIgHT
CROSSING FROM HAITI TO THE BAHAMAS
B Y J O H N D OWD
WE HAD NO RADIO WARNING of the storm. It swept out of the Arctic and down the Eastern seaboard, the fiercest norther of the season, wrecking pleasure boats and capsizing a barge under tow off the Carolinas. In two doubles we were five hours into a 75-nautical-mile (139 km) crossing from Haiti to Great Inagua when a string of sausage-shaped clouds appeared along a glowering northern horizon. Astern, a line of mountains lay against a hazy sky. We pulled the two kayaks close to
discuss options. It would be dark in an hour, and the Haitian coast in a night storm was unthinkable. Meanwhile the cloud at the edge of the front raced towards us like a roll of fuzzy carpet. A waterspout materialized. As it veered a quarter-mile to the west, spirals of ocean twisted up the column into the low grey clouds. Uncertain puffs of wind teased us as we edged forward with a mixture of dread and excitement. I snapped a cyalume light and attached
it above the brim of my hat as a cloud of spray headed our way. We leashed our paddles. In the other kayak, Ken did the same. The first blast took our breath away and almost took the paddles as well. Darkness rushed in. “Keep your stroke low!” I yelled, but I doubt my wife, Bea, heard me. Spray flew so thick we could only open
our eyes off the wind. It streamed off our coats and down our faces, filling our mouths with salty water. On the fringe of my vision I could just make out the hazy light on the other kayak, yet, whenever we drew closer we risked collision. During the next hour the wind blasted us through 360 degrees while we directed
36 ADVENTURE KAYAK | FALL 2008
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