Well after an extremely busy and anxious day yesterday, we are happy to say we have been in contact with all our guests in the Mentawai, and all are on their way back to Padang as I write this.
The group from the Gold Coast that were on the Midas, are on their way back to Padang onboard the Freedom 3. Apart from a few minor burns, cuts and grazes everybody is OK and looking forward to getting home and seeing their family & friends. Everybody is looking forward to having these guys back in Padang, to safety, telling their own tales of survival.
The guests we had at Macaronis have also had a pretty traumatic experience after spending the night and day at the local village of Silabu. Silabu was hit pretty badly by the Tsunami and 15 guests from Macaronis were stuck here for many hours, before being picked up by Tengirri and taken to Sikakap for transfer back to Padang. I am sure we are going to hear some pretty incredible tales from these guys on their return.
The Australian consulate in Jakarta are sending a representative to assist in getting new passports and organizing their journey home. The Perfect Wave team will be assisting in ensuring this is done as fast and efficiently as possible with as little pain as possible for the surfers and their families.
We here at The Perfect Wave would like to thank everybody involved in assisting with the evacuation of all our clients. A lot of people that didn't have to assist in helping out, did at the cost to their own guests trips and on behalf of our clients and their families, we would like to say thank you. A special thanks goes out to Rick Hallet for his quick thinking in saving lives onboard the Midas. Tom Plummer & Joey of the D'Bora for saving our Midas guests from a night in the jungle and assisting with the evacuation. Freedom 3 for assisting in bringing the Midas guests back to Padang, Phil from the Tengirri for traveling from Katiet to pick up all the Macaronis guests in Silabu. Martin Daly for all his assistance in organizing the evacuation of the Macaronis guests and anybody else that has given their time and resources to assist in what has been a testing time.
With all western travelers being looked after, we must now point our attention to the local people and their villages. Surf Aid is already mounting a relief effort to assist with the local communities and we surfers need to pitch in. The Perfect Wave Travel Co is contributing a donation straight away and will work on an appeal to generate more donations through its friends and clients. Please dig deep surfers as we are very happy to enjoy the Mentawai waves & hospitality, so we should be happy to help the local people out in their time of need.
To show your support, please go to - www.surfaidinternational.org
Thank you
Jamie Gray
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