The Rest of the Story

When the massive 8.8 earthquake struck Chile last February, triggering a huge tsunami, the British-flagged sloop Zephyrus was the only boat anchored in Cumberland Bay on Robinson Crusoe island, which lies roughly 400 miles off the Chilean coast.

When the first massive wave washed under Zephyrus in the middle of the night, owners Rhian Salmon, 35, and Andy Whittaker, 36, were awakened by the sound of water rushing rapidly past their hull, but they initially had no idea what was happening. They had heard no warnings of any sort.

In the darkness, the couple began making out the shapes of all sorts of rubble in the water, then heard the screams of desperate people. Eventually a 14-year-old boy floated by and they were able to rescue him. Then whole houses drifted past, one of which got hung up on Zephyrus’ forestay. Later, Andy had to fend off an unmanned Naval cutter which had gone adrift after the whole station got wiped. 

Yup, it’s quite a story. Luckily Andy and Rhian lived to tell it. In fact, we got the full blow-by-blow version on tape recently when we ran into this bright-eyed young couple in Tonga. What makes the whole tale that much more remarkable, is that this was Rhian’s first ocean adventure — and to her credit, she didn’t jump ship at the first opportunity afterward. We’ll share all the details an the upcoming edition of Latitude 38.