Gale-force winds and mountainous seas wreaked havoc around the Isle of Wight on the night of 25th October 1992.
Severe weather conditions – with gusts of up to 80mph – disrupted electricity supplies and left rescue services severely stretched.
Coastguards dealt with dozens of emergencies around the Island involving sailors who had set out to sea despite the appalling conditions.
In the worst of the sea dramas, 1 man drowned and 4 others were rescued suffering from hypothermia and shock from the 40ft yawl Aoelian, which had set out from Poole in Dorset and came to grief off the Needles.
Yarmouth lifeboat answered the yawl’s Mayday call after 1 of their crew had been washed overboard.
At the height of the storm, lifeboats from Yarmouth, Selsey, Calshot, Hayling Island, Swanage, Southampton and Portsmouth were all involved in rescues in and around the Solent.
17 sea cadets were also winched to safety by helicopter from the training yacht the Donald Searle after its engine blew up.
However, the most memorable event for the Isle of Wight during the storm of 25th October 1992 was the loss of local landmark the famous Arch Rock, which sadly collapsed into the sea on that fateful evening.
2 rocks remain in Freshwater Bay: Mermaid Rock and Stag Rock. The former fell off the cliff face in 1968; the later is named after a stag that supposedly leapt onto the rock to escape a hunt.
But, but, did we have bad weather even before Gritter Funbag came on the horizon? I really didn’t realise this.
Didn’t she say we would all be dead by June 2023…
I took a lovely photo of the “storm” at Freshwater Bay this morning and barely got my feet wet.