I had an opportunity to interview our captain, Dodi Candra who was mate on the Freedom III a surf charter vessel captained by Lee Starke (sp?) in front of Macaroni’s, aka, Maca’s, when the tsunami hit. This is Dodi’s Candra’s eye witness account two years later;
The day started like any other surf charter day with clear skies and a searing sun beating down on the surfers at Macca’s break. 10 am; Dodi sat in the Freedom III skiff just outside the break taking pictures of surfers as they took off, dropped in, and set a line over and over again.
Even at this point in the day, twelve hours before the earthquake something was eerie. He couldn’t put his finger on it, he thought maybe something was wrong with his wife and daughter at home in Padang, he didn’t know. He thought maybe he should call from the Freedom Tree when he had time. He blew it off and continued snapping photos. At noon it was getting to the heat of the day without a cloud in the sky and still something was bugging him. Around 2 in the afternoon the wind changed direction and began to swirl but there were still no clouds. Usually when the wind changes there’s an increase in cloud cover, usually. Things just weren’t settling in Dido’s mind but he didn’t take it any further. By 5 pm the waves had gone flat and there was no wind, no clouds, only the burning sun. The surfers had returned to the Freedom III and the captain had decided to go inside Macca’s cove and anchor up a safe distance behind another surf charter vessel, Midas. People went ashore to Macaroni’s restaurant for a change of scenery or to explore the beach. Dodi had asked the captain if they were going to stay the night or travel the hour and a half to a protected spot to anchor and sleep. The captain looked into the sky and didn’t see a reason to go anywhere. The weather looked good so they stayed the night. By 6 pm dinner was ready and then 6 surfers decided to play poker on the boat. By 9 pm Dodi had beaten the self proclaimed Aussie champion poker player on the boat and guests began heading for bed. Dodi and the crew took a look around the boat, checking that the anchor wasn’t fowled; generator gauges were in good order, and general boat maintenance. By 10pm the crew felt the boat was secure and they began to go to bed.
Just before Dido fell asleep around 10:15 he felt the boat rumble and shake. He thought maybe the captain had changed his mind and was going to move the boat. When he looked around he realized that the engines hadn’t been started, he checked the generator and the gauges read normal, then he thought earthquake. With guests and crew asleep the Freedom III suddenly swung 180 degrees as the water was sucked out of the cove. Held by the anchor the Freedom III was now facing the shore and the stern of the Midas. As the first tsunami wave approached it picked up the Freedom III and the boat rode the wave into the stern of the Midas. The anchor held but shuddered forward in the sand with the weight of the Freedom III and the power of the 20 plus foot wave. Dodi can only guess at the size of the wave because there were so many other things going on at the same time. The Midas had been picked up by the surge but the Freedom III had more speed and the bow of the Freedom III collided with the stern of the Midas and wedged between the stern and the upper deck. The railing and a few feet of the bow of the Freedom III broke and smashed. Lights from the Midas back deck broke off and left shards of glass all over the remaining bow of the Freedom III. The Freedom III tried to start her engines but the boat was now on the sand where water used to be. They shut the engines off. As the water seeped back in returning between waves the Freedom III tried to start her engines and this time it worked and they immediately tried to separate. The boats separated and the Freedom III turned out to sea but was still on anchor.
The Midas was on fire. The Freedom III couldn’t get her anchor up fast enough as the captain tried to break the Freedom III anchor free of its hold on the bottom. The crew let out all their anchor chain trying to drop the anchor all together but the anchor chain was attached by a shackle to the boat. They wanted to cut it. The crew was unscrewing the shackle as the second wave hit and after two turns of the shackle pin the inertia of the rising boat and forward engines popped the anchor chain which whipped around and away. Dodi saw people from the Midas in the water and had enough time to get three of them on board the Freedom III. Dodi saw more people in the water but they were too far away and he began throwing anything that could float into the water for them to hang onto. The third wave came in as the captain pushed the throttles full speed ahead to get over the wave and they barely made it as the wave broke. The next time Dodi looked he couldn’t see any people and continued throwing floating materials over board in the hope that someone could use it to stay alive. The guests on board the Freedom III were told to go to what was left of the bow and hang on, specifically told to stand by and not to jump in the water unless the abandon ship order was given by the captain. More waves were coming but only half the size but closer together. Debris from the island was everywhere; palm trees, massive driftwood logs, underbrush, skiffs, and multiple surf boards were strewn all over. The Midas burned to its water line.
Inside Macca’s cove I can still see the Freedom II skiff 40 feet up the beach at tree line and what’s left of the Midas which burned down to the water line. The debris was so thick it stopped the Freedom III from getting out of the cove for a long period of time. Eventually out, the captain drove 5 miles out and tried to make a phone call but there was no signal. Dodi lives in Padang only 200 meters from the beach and thought of his family thinking maybe they had been caught by a wave and perished. His heart sunk, knowing he couldn’t help his family. He wept for them briefly while trying to focus on the emergency at hand.
At 3 am the next morning a phone call to Padang went through and Dodi spoke with his wife and child and told them to run, now! She didn’t believe him at first but he convinced her to pack up their daughter and head to high ground.
6 am the next morning the Freedom III returned to Macca’s to look for survivors with binoculars. The weather had turned bad; windy and the waves were up and choppy. Captain Lee Clarke, a good diver and swimmer, wanted to go in for swim look and rescue any survivors and told Dodi to drive the boat out to sea if another wave comes while he’s in the water. The captain swam in. Some time passed before another surf charter vessel, the D Bora, which had anchored outside Macca’s around the point came around the corner with the 7 missing Midas passengers and crew. The D Bora’s skiff was dispatched to retrieve Captain Clarke. There were no casualties between all three boats. Dodi calls it a miracle.
On shore, the Macca restaurant is built on stilts and was the main structure where the guests there gathered before running for higher ground. Looking at Macca’s, higher ground is not easy to find. There were no people and no other buildings on the beach besides the restaurant structure. The bungalows along the salt water way separating the islands were all gone and the concrete foundations were carried down the water way.
The water way is now twice as wide and the far side is now marked by sun bleached dead trees and branches.
The Macca’s blue and white skiff was swept 1 kilometer inland and took four days to drag out of the jungle when it was all over.
The Freedom III went to the closest village, Si Ka Kop, to tell the police what happened. The police didn’t believe them and asked if the Freedom III hit a rock or another boat. The police wanted to see the Midas captain’s log book, document book, which he didn’t have because it burned up. They didn’t believe him. All he had was the clothes he was wearing. This frustrated the captains and only when villagers and other boats arrived damaged did the police begin to believe the stories they were hearing. Canoes came in telling the same story of destruction, villages gone, people missing, and debris everywhere. In the end the Freedom III had to pay the police to get their document book back so they could set sail for Padang. (Tidak Bagus). Many aftershocks continued to rattle the villagers and surfers.
On the Freedom III’s arrival in Padang harbor the people could see a flock of international film crews and news reporters standing on the dock waiting for word from the Mentawai Islands. Lee Clarke spoke with the reporters and there is a U-tube film clip of him explaining what he saw and remembered. Dodi snuck off to the side and saw his wife and daughter on the dock. It was a great relief and a joyful moment for him to have survived and reunited with his family.Earth quakes are still happening in this area with some regularity, some as high as 8 point something, but not necessarily the same kind of earthquake that make tsunamis.
Thank you Dodi Candra for your time and tale you shared with me and other people who want to know something outside of their own immediate world.
http://www.davidcdagley.com/
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