It passed over the Jolly Sailor, uprooting a tree which fell onto the outside gas tank causing the road to be closed by the fire brigade.
It then passed over Victoria Quay and The Mill and followed the creek bed. From my view point on the South Bank visibility was down to 30-40 metres in heavy hail which was seen to move horizontally in both directions as the eye of the tornado passed astern of my boat.
Although it was about 3 hours before high water and the moored boats were sitting in mud, Dawn Run (Konsort), Tilaso and Just Fine (Evolution) were knocked over to the point where mud stains showed their lee gunwales had been in the mud, although there was no immediate damage visible except for snapped mooring lines.
Two others were not so lucky. Buddy Sam was dismasted and rolled with the stbd main cabin windows stove in and a good helping of mud inside the cabin.
The worst damage was received by the motor launch owned by the Tucker-Sandy's, which was picked up by the wind to a vertical bow up position with the transom several feet above the mud surface and then dropped back inverted, where it was then flooded by the incoming tide. It had to be towed inverted to the quay wall, helped by two auto life jackets which had inflated in the cabin and held the bow up, to be righted and pumped out after about 5 hours under water.
The whole event was over in 5 minutes as the tornado seemed to blow itself out over the sedge on the way out of the creek.
Steve Cox - Xiphias