We’ve become a bit inured to disaster stories from Sumatra. Yet another massive earthquake, restless volcanoes, deadly malaria – it all seems a little unreal until it hits close to home.
Ubud-based IDEP Foundation has been actively delivering aid to survivors in Aceh since December by truck and ship. Its most recent initiative was to plan a delivery of emergency and reconstruction aid on the ‘Endless Sun’, a private cargo boat belonging to businessman Chris Gentry. It had taken several weeks to refit the vessel and load it with supplies in Jakarta. Just as it was preparing to set sail for Banda Aceh and Meulaboh, a devastating earthquake hit Nias. The ‘Endless Sun’ was diverted to deliver aid there.
Aboard was a crew of 15 from Java, Ade, an Indonesian volunteer and IDEP photographer Rama Surya. Also aboard were seasoned Sumatra volunteers Gary Turner and Stefan Zwada, along with team leader James Bean.
The ‘Endless Sun’ had just finished offloading a shipment of emergency rice aid from the World Food Program to the village of Afulu on the afternoon of April 11. The day was hot and clear, with enormous swells rolling in from the open ocean. At the shoreline, huge expanses of coral had been thrust up from under the sea by the earthquake, bleaching in the sun. Knowing that the seabed was also treacherous, the crew steered slowly and carefully as they made their way out of the inlet bound for Meulaboh.
About three o’clock, the ‘Endless Sun’ suddenly smashed against an uncharted reef. Broken glass and equipment flew around the deck as the vessel quickly heeled heavily to starboard and lost steerageway. Although the men could see the USS Mercy on the horizon, it was using a different radio system and the ‘Endless Sun’s’ distress calls were unheard.
Pounded between two reefs by the swells, it was quickly clear that the ship would not survive. There was no time to save papers, passports, visas or money; within a few minutes of striking the reef, the wooden vessel began to break up. Wearing life jackets and little else, the crew and volunteers abandoned ship.
They were about 700 metres from the nearest shore. Some swam, others were picked up by a local fishing boat and several made their way ashore on the ship’s life raft. All 20 men survived without serious injury, landing singly or in groups on the banks of exposed coral that blocked the beach.
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The swells were huge and some of the crew couldn’t swim,” Gary recalls. “It was a miracle that no one was killed.”
The next miracle unfolded in the next few hours. As heavy seas pounded the newly refurbished ‘Endless Sun’ to pieces, the hull released its cargo. About 80% of the aid on board washed ashore. Carefully wrapped and sealed by volunteers in Jakarta, most of it was salvaged by the coastal community. So the emergency aid was delivered after all, if somewhat informally.
The shipwrecked men, shocked and sunburned, picked their way barefoot in small groups over a kilometre of exposed coral until they were able to meet up and ensure that no one was missing. But the ordeal was not over. There were no communications in the town. James and Ade hired two local men with motorbikes to take them across Nias to Gunung Sitole for help, a grueling journey along ruined roads and collapsed bridges. The rest of the group slept on a floor in the village. Therewere two strong earthquakes that night.
The next day they left the village and walked barefoot three kilometres to a helipad, where they were eventually evacuated to Gunung Sitole and still later to Sibolga. Then there was a crazy drive to Medan through Sumatra’s steep mountains, and a final adventure of talking their way onto flights to Jakarta and Bali without shoes or shirts.
The afternoon of April 12, IDEP issued a press release and update with all the information it had been able to gather from handphone calls. Then the third miracle happened. Within days, donors pledged more than enough money to replace virtually all the aid supplies that had been on the boat. About US$40,000 was donated, over half by Ripcurl and its staff in Australia.
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Robert Wilson of Ripcurl has been wonderful,” declared Petra Schneider, executive director of IDEP. “Ripcurl assisted IDEP in the very early days of the emergency when it was the key donor of the Sumber Rejeki, our first emergency aid ship. Again, Robert was first to come to the table when help was needed after the ‘Endless Sun’ was lost. Ripcurl has consistently been a tremendously generous and responsive donor.”
By April 19, IDEP was purchasing aid in Medan. On April 21, just ten days after the aid ship sank off Nias, the supplies were on their way to the community in Samatiga where IDEP has maintained a camp and clinic since early February.
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I was committed to doing something for Aceh, and losing the boat was a heavy blow,” says Chris Gentry, who was an early volunteer on the Sumber Rejeki. “The crew and volunteers put their lives at risk for the people of Sumatra, and I’m very relieved that none were hurt. I am not giving up; aid delivery will continue.”
The men are safely home now, but the energy of the shipwreck is still with them. They feel shaky. They have bad dreams. And yet they want to go back and finish the job they started. “I don’t think there’s single one of us who wouldn’t go back to Aceh tomorrow,” says Stefan. “There’s still so much to be done.”
