Previous chapter [“The Paradise,” February 8]: Bernard and his Irish sailing partner somehow managed to survive Cyclone Tomas at sea in Bernard’s sailboat Rainbow’s Shadow. After being declared cancer-free, Bernard the German discovered a new life on the island paradise of Fiji and decided to plant roots. At age 64, he married a Fijian woman, and at age 65, Bernard Krieger was shocked to find himself a father again to a bouncing Fijian-Canadian boy. Bernard the German loved his new family, and loved his life in the South Seas. The plan was to build a tropical pole house and live out his days overlooking sparkling Savusavu Bay.
Bernard Krieger had a lot of friends in Fiji. One of his best buddies was an Australian sailor named Peter Stevenson. Together, Bernard and Peter had a lot of fun in the few nightspots in Savusavu, a seaside village known as “the hidden paradise of Fiji,” famous for its steaming tidal hot springs.
Peter Stevenson loved Bernard, describing him as a “big bruisy bloke, a gentle giant with a tremendous personality.” Peter noticed that it read “Powell River BC” under the name “Rainbow’s Shadow” on the side of Bernard’s sailboat, so Peter bestowed upon Bernard the German yet another nickname: “the Powell River Bear.”
Bernard would often admit to Peter that while he loved life in Fiji, he missed Canada. Bernard and Peter would sit on the deck of Rainbow’s Shadow anchored in Savusavu Bay as Bernard would passionately wax on about his Canadian family and describe the raw beauty of Desolation Sound, where the big German had spent so many years. He promised Peter that one day he would show off the splendor to him over a pot of freshly steamed spot prawns.
On the evening of Saturday April 11, 2015, Bernard was on his own and feeling edgy. His wife Millie and their baby boy were over on Fiji’s main island visiting their extended family. He missed them. Bernard rang up Peter to grab some dinner, but it was a rare night when Peter didn’t feel like going out. Bernard the German hit the town anyway, and he wasn’t alone for long.
Soon Bernard met up with various friends at spots around town in the warm tropical evening. Some have said that Bernard’s mood seemed darker than usual, but when he wound up at the local nightclub, his energy must have picked up. Bernard the German always had a great love of music, and on that night, he lumbered up on stage with the band to bellow out a rendition of “Mustang Sally” that brought the house down. He joked with the audience that the band would be crazy if they didn’t sign him up.
When the club shut down for the night, Bernard left with about a half dozen Fijians, accompanying them down to an embankment along the shoreline, a common late night gathering place once everything closed.
It was then, in the inky black tropical night, when disaster struck. There aren’t a lot of streetlights in Savusavu, and while chatting with the Fijians, Bernard the German apparently misjudged where the edge of the embankment was. He stumbled, slipped, and tumbled into the darkness. Bernard the German fell roughly eight to 10 feet from the grassy embankment to the rocky exposed beach below. In an instance of horrendously bad luck, Bernard landed directly into one of Savusavu’s famous shoreline hot spring pools.
The fate that had saved Bernard the German so many times before finally ruled against him on that night. Had the tide been in, Bernard would have simply fallen into the warm salt water of Savusavu Bay. But the tide was out, which exposed the shoreline and the fervently boiling hot spring pools.
Those hot springs are so hot, that Fijians have used them to cook their food for generations. The springs maintain an average boilingheat of 100 degrees Celsius, or 212 degrees Fahrenheit.
Put it this way: 100 degrees Fahrenheit is often considered to be a safe temperature in a hot tub for a healthy adult. At 212 degrees Fahrenheit, Bernard the German had essentially fallen into a giant pot of boiling volcanic water.
This is when things get confusing. Most of Bernard’s friends believe that those Fijians he was with somehow managed to pull the 240-pound giant from the hot spring, and got him back up to the top of the embankment, where they laid him down on the grass. At some point later, for lack of any sort of available ambulance, the big German was loaded into the back seat of a taxi and taken across the island to the closest hospital.
When dawn was breaking over Fiji, Bernard’s friends began to find out about the accident – many of them rushing across the island to the hospital. And when Bernard’s Australian buddy Peter Stevenson laid eyes on Bernard, he was horrified at the condition of “the Powell River Bear.”
Bernard Krieger had suffered brutal third and fourth degree burns to most of his body from his chest down. Bernard’s friends were outraged to find him lying on a stretcher apparently not yet having been treated for his wounds, but the hospital was rural and short on supplies – so much so that many of Bernard’s friends made mad dashes to their yachts and sailboats, rummaging through their first-aid kits for anything that might help the big German.
Theories swirled: was Bernard a victim of crime, was it an attack? Bernard’s watch was still on and his wallet with cash was still with him so his friends don’t think so.
Bernard was airlifted to Fiji’s largest hospital on the main island, where his wife Millie rushed to be with him. Over the next few days, the horrible news made it home to Canada. In a rare lucid moment, Bernard the German spoke to his adult daughter Misty on the phone, back home in Vancouver. From his Fijian hospital bed, Bernard told her not to come – that’d he’d be fine. The doctors told Misty otherwise. She was on the next flight.
Bernard Karl Maria Krieger died on April 16, 2015, at 66 years old. He somehow survived for a remarkable four days after tumbling into the boiling hot spring. Burns and severe scalding covered 65 per cent of his body. Bernard the German passed away while his daughter Misty was mid-flight over the Pacific.
It was a heartbreaking scene at the airport: Bernard’s newlywed widow Millie was forced to delivered the devastating news to Misty – sadly, it was the first time the two had ever met.
A few days later, after a funeral and cremation, Bernard’s many friends in Fiji climbed aboard Rainbow’s Shadow one last time to sprinkle the big German’s ashes into Savusavu Bay.
Bernard Krieger left behind his wife, three children, three grandchildren, 10 siblings, many nieces and nephews, and countless friends from around the globe. In 2018, his Fijian son Lorenzo turned four years old. Here’s hoping that one day, Lorenzo will learn of his father’s adventures. Bernard’s beloved boat Rainbow’s Shadow was eventually sold to an Australian couple and the cutter-rigged sloop’s adventures continue.
About a month after Bernard the German’s death in 2015, his friends and neighbours from Desolation Sound came together at the Okeover government wharf at the foot of Malaspina Road to celebrate the Giant of Desolation Sound. Everyone marvelled at how much living Bernard the German managed to pack in to his 66 years. No matter what the odds, Bernard Krieger lived his dreams, and those dreams carried him to the end of the earth, and to the end of his life.
End notes: This story would not have been possible without the help and memories of Bernard the German’s many family members and friends: Bernard’s daughter Misty Cherry; his former wife; his granddaughter Bernadine; his sister Roswitha Moreau; and his nephew David Moreau. Many thanks also to Bernard’s many friends from Desolation Sound: "Handy" Candy Anderson, Darrell and Anita Dick, Richard Brent, Mike Mullen, Sherri Klassen, and Jeremy Duggan. This summer, Bernard Krieger’s remaining ashes will be spread into the current in his beloved Desolation Sound.
Grant Lawrence is an award-winning author and a CBC personality who considers Powell River and Desolation Sound his second home. The entire Bernard the German podcast can be heard on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, or read more of Bernard’s adventures in Grant Lawrence’s book, “Adventures in Solitude.”
Lawrence will return to the pages of the Peak soon with “The Cougar Lady Chronicles: the life and times of Nancy Crowther, Cougar Queen of Okeover Inlet.”
The live show “Grant Lawrence and Friends: an evening of stories and songs” is coming to the Max Cameron Theatre in Powell River on Saturday, May 11, 2019, with very special musical guests. Tickets on sale soon through the Peak office.
