# I was not comfortable in my TIME ZONE !!
FROM THE EYE OF A HURRICANE.
It happened in the year 1964, when I had one of my most terrifying experiences in my lifetime.
I was working on M/S Broland a Swedish bulk cargo vessel with the size of 18.000 Dwt. We were crossing the Pacific Ocean with a full cargo of Bauxite, loaded in former British Guiana, now heading for Japan, after passing the canal of Panama.
We had a cruising speed of 20 knots and the weather was nice and sunny with lots of Dolphins following our vessel.
When we just passed the dateline, the weather made a drastic change in less than one hour (we also had lost one day passing the IDL). Our Captain informed us that we had a bad storm ahead of us, on our destination to Yokohama. We secured all moveable stuff, as normally in bad seas.
The wind and waves were growing for every minute and the ship rolled and dived through the dark high waves, now reaching almost 20 meters high ! Suddenly everything became calm and dark…..what happened ??
We had entered in the EYE of a Hurricane !!! This was all new to me and when I for curiosity walked out on the open deck, I could not believe my what I saw…. The ocean was flat and seemed to have a dark oily black color and knowing that the depth of the ocean was about 2000 meters under us, I was stunned! Looking up at the sky I saw a small patch of blue, but around it there was dark clouds moving so fast in circle, that I became almost dizzy…
…was this the end of our journey?? The crew on the bridge told us to go inside and close all doors and portholes! Our vessel Broland was at still, not going anywhere. Our captain informed us that we were in a ”dead zone” and no radio connection could be made neither the compass or navigation system was in function…..we did not know which way to get out of this HELL !!…..A drastic decision on the bridge was made to go at full speed ahead against the dark wall of shriving clouds and rain. The decision was taken by our captain. Very soon we left this calm dark sea behind us and met huge waves and even stronger winds….we were rolling and jumping again and without sight ahead more than the length of the ship. I had never experienced this before, we seemed to be lost and going nowhere. Suddenly after long hours of living hell, the sky opened, and we had left the center of the hurricane behind us.
I said to myself, “finally it’s all over” ….!! But I was WRONG!
We came out where the hurricane has left the ocean with long huge waves, almost like a tsunami! Between the waves, we were “surfing” with an 18.000 Dwt. Vessel ‼ The waves had now the height of almost 30 meters.
Without warning, an enormous wave broke all over the ship and we seemed to be diving like a submarine. It was almost midnight when a sound like an explosion was heard all over the vessel…. The main machinery had cracked!! Our M/S Broland became totally quiet, after being growling and shivering for the last days……
This was even worse than before, we had cero control over the vessel, now we moved like a nutshell at ruff sea. Our telegraphist sends out a S.O.S. call, as now, we were outside the hurricane! Finally, it was captured by a large oil tanker ahead of us and came to rescue, until a tugboat from somewhere came to assist us.
With a large amount of luck, we finally reached the port of Yokohama. It was not a beautiful sight, as we found other ships who had gone down or sunken. One Maersk Liner was hanging on top of the pier at the port entrance! This was the “after show” of a hurricane or typhoon!
Finally, when stepping on shore, for the first time in 25 days, was a relived feeling. The port was a mess! The first 2-3 lines of buildings where totally wrecked, but finally reaching “uptown” Yokohama we could find a nice location to have a relaxing Japanese meal…
I will now end the story for this blog, but I will be back with more….
Thank You for reading!
Curt/Windmush
