My vessel “Taras” (52’ Kha Shing Trawler) was the one on the beach in Avalon that night. She ended up on top of another trawler. That storm was scary. We were moored to “2” 60’ capable mooring balls (tied bow and stern). The 2 “ lines were recently redone, all new nylon. I was overconfident that we would be fine since we were tied to 2 balls. The wind started howling up to 45 knots, directly into the open harbor of Avalon. The waves started to build and grew over 10’ In height. It was a hell of a ride but I still felt confident we were secure. Then the port bow line “exploded” from the force. As soon as I heard that, I fired up the engines and called the harbor patrol for help. Then the starboard line blew. We were then loose from the mooring and we immediately pitched sideways. I hit the throttles, brought the boat back around and somehow ended up next to another boat next to me. At that moment the harbor patrol was able to somehow side tie us to the other vessel and we each jumped, one at a time onto the harbor patrol boat. As we fought the seas in the patrol boat back to the dock, I looked back at Taras and knew she probably wouldn’t make it. We took the last hotel room we could find at 1:00am and I obviously didn’t sleep much. The stench of busted diesel fuel tanks filled the air of Avalon. I just huddled with my family, glad they were safe. At the crack of dawn, I went to the beach to what looked like a war zone. Taras was on the beach, gutted by the huge storm waves that beat her all night. The hull was unpenetrated but the house was caved in and everything that was inside the boat was ripped out of it. It looked like Godzilla just ripped the entire insides out. My lesson that I learned is the absolute power of wind driven waves. The force is enormous. The other thing I learned was not to be overconfident. Get to shore while you can when you have loved ones with you. Thankfully the insurance fully covered the complete loss and my family was safe.
