dateline....26th December 2004

Boxing day started as normal at Hakura Club in the Maldives, except for an early morning wake up at 6.28am when it felt as though someone was shaking the bed fairly gently. This we all soon found out from the TV and radio news was the result of a major earthquake out in Indonesia somewhere. It was the topic of conversation at breakfast, but no-one could ever have immagined what more was to come 3 hours later!!.

By 8.30am many guests were up and about,
preparing for another day in paradise. The first dive boat was just leaving for a full day trip across the atoll and I was getting ready to start teaching a dutch couple, who had arrived on Christmas day, how to dive.

9.00.. My new students arrived to the dive
school all ready to go on their first lesson and so after a very brief chat they then sat down to watch the first part of the teaching video. Meanwhile the second dive boat was just leaving for a local dive site with a group of novice divers on board.

9.23.. Lots of noise and shouting outside,,,I
guessed it was the spare boat crews, who often hang around for a while and mess around. Just as I went outside to see them and ask for a little less noise, Atif (the captain of the local supply boat) came running past screaming at his crew. The water level in
the lagoon looked a little lower that it had a while ago and then as I looed back down the jetty towards the Island all I could see was a BIG WAVE coming across the back of the lagoon. The noise was just like a plane in the distance, getting louder as it approached!. And it was comming fast!!. Within what
seemed like a few seconds the water was up over the jetty and from crystal clear to a dirty brown. As it had come across the lagoon it had hit the guest bungalows (all built over the water) at about 4 feet high. The damage and destruction was incredible,, doors just washed away, floors blown upwards by the
force of water from underneath the rooms, air
conditioning units swept off their outside wall
brackets etc etc etc,,,,,.
As we stood there in fear, all we could see was tables, chairs, clothing, suitcases and so much more sweeping past us. People were screaming and there was just total panic (not really surprising!). After a few minutes the water seemed to calm down a little and then as we decided to go back down the jetty to the island the water decided to flow back!.
Once again all the floating debris came racing back past us. Then we made a dash for it.
The main hotel reception area had dead fish on the floor, various pieces of personal belongings everywhere and most of the tables and chairs gone!. Walking wounded seemed to be gathering there,, mainly small cuts, bumps and several people in shock,, but there was a lot of screaming coming from the beach so we went to see what we could do. That was when we found out that the general manager of the hotel was "missing". He had been washed off the island in sight
of his wife and daughter, who were there to spend the holiday season with him.

Unfortunately,,he was to become one of the 300k plus victims that fateful day!!!!. His body was recovered about 2 hours later. The only victim from our island.

By 10.30am the good old British spirit had kicked in and several people were hard at work mopping and cleaning up in the restaurant area so that people had somewhere to sit and so that we could keep everyone together. Lunch was a bit of bread and fruit, but no-one was complaining,,,well almost no-one!. There always has to be one doesn't there.
" I want to leave the Island right now, get me a
seaplane here, I want to call my rep" etc etc. Have you ever tried to explain to an idiot that all the power is out, all communications are down (inc. mobile phones) and no seaplanes could land even if they came here due to all the various "rubbish" floating in the lagoon!. Then he had the nerve to complain about the wonderful food we had managed to put together for lunch.

2.30pm,, The decision had been made to remove all the guests to another local island that had power, so over the next 3 hours the local boats moved all guests and some of the staff. The locals were wonderful, when you consider that many of their islands were much more badly damaged and many more of them were killed they did everything in their power to help,, food, bedding and somewhere safe to sleep for over 250 people. This all provided by the inhabitants of an island with a population of 600.!!!!!!!!!!!!..

Several of us stayed on the island that night
and as we sat on the beach, still in shock and
disbelief at the events of the day, we began to get a feel for the enormity of the devastation. Radio reports were suggesting that almost 2,000 people had been killed in Sri Lanka,,the worst hit area! Even then that seemed to be a huge number,,but now everyone the world over knows just how wrong those estimates were!.
Needless to say, but we didn't sleep very well that night.

6.30am 27th Dec. A local boat appeared and the crew told us that we had 45 minutes to leave the island with whatever we could carry as a frigate from the Pakistani was coming to take us back to the capital. We met up with all the guests and, on a flotilla of local fishing boats, were taken out of the atoll into the open ocean to transfer onto the Tarik. This little exercise took over 3 hours and then with everyone on board we set off on our 4 hour
journey to the capital. The crew were wonderful and did all they could to make everyone as comfortable as possible.

On arrival in Male we were all transferred to
the local high school where food, clothing etc was being given out. We spent the night there on the floor, but most of the guests were found rooms in hotels, local guest houses etc.
Thats pretty much where the story ends, I
managed to get back to the UK late on the 27th and since then we all know just how terrible the devastation really was!!.

It was a sight I never want to, or expect to
see again. It is very hard to explain just how bad it was,, I know everyone has seen the pictures on TV etc but you cannot immagine it unless you were there!.

Tim. (aka WK for the older ones amongst you).

ps, Sorry no pics Lynda,,I have some but they are in my mind!