Crew Log 198 – Tsunami

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February 27, 2010 – At Sea, 25º 23’S, 074º 16’W
By Herb McCormick

A little over three years ago, a bunch of sailing buddies and I strolled down a dock in Phuket, Thailand – sea bags over our shoulders – en route to the yacht we’d chartered for a spin through the amazing islands of the Andaman Sea. Up on the marina walkway – way up on the walkway, well over my head – someone had painted in a long, white stripe on a wall that designated the level the waters had reached at the height of the devastating tsunami that wreaked such widespread havoc in Thailand, Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka following a powerful Indian Ocean earthquake on December 26, 2004.

Remarkably, the marina got off lightly, with no injuries to anyone, and no more than repairable damage to most of the boats.

Aside from the marina and some isolated locations, the resort island of Phuket was spared the brunt of the tsunami’s force. The most visible reminders of the powerful wave were the warning towers with loudspeakers that dotted the beaches, and the Tsunami Evacuation Route signs on every coastal road. After a couple of days in Phuket, the tsunami was the farthest thing from our minds.

That changed the day we sailed past the low-lying spit of land at the head of Ton Sai Bay, where several hundred people were killed and a slew of ruined buildings stood testament to the ravages of that awful day. But the Thai are remarkable, resilient people, and the main strip at Ko Phi Phi Don had been completely rebuilt and was open for business. We had a quick stroll along the drag but after wandering through the ruins just a while earlier, we weren’t feeling very merry, and we retired to the boat soon after, in silence. I’d put that morose night, and the jaw-dropping evidence of the havoc a tsunami can wreak, behind me, for quite a while.

In fact, I’d mostly forgotten all about it.

Until today.

Three short days ago, Ocean Watch was tied up at a lovely yacht club in the coastal city of Valparaiso, Chile, where sailors and their families were coming and going, laughing and smiling, in the waning days of the summer holidays. Our close friend, Mauricio Ojeda, had dropped by just the day before, and wished us a fond farewell and fair winds. He was heading home to Santiago later in the afternoon, and wondered if anyone might want to come along.

This morning, of course, we began to receive emails – at first concerned, and later informative – on the massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile at 3:34 a.m. local time today, the epicenter of which was centered about 200 miles southwest of Santiago. We also started to get news on the tsunami warnings that were beginning to spread out over the South Pacific, the waters we’re currently traversing. Preliminary reports from Valparaiso indicate tsunami wave activity of 4.2 feet. It doesn’t sound like much, but twice during our weeklong stay there Ocean Watch broke all its mooring lines in a far less significant swell. Had we still been in Valpo, the consequences might’ve been disastrous. As it is, it’s terrible to imagine – and worse, not to know – how our new friends are faring at this very moment.

At midway, we were forwarded the latest bulletin from the NWS Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, where a statewide tsunami warning was still in effect. Here’s a portion of that report:

“A tsunami has been generated that could cause damage along coastlines of all islands in the state of Hawaii. Urgent action should be taken to protect lives and property.

“A tsunami is a series of long ocean waves. Each individual wave crest can last 5 to 15 minutes or more and extensively flood coastal areas. The danger can continue for many hours after the initial wave as subsequent waves arrive. Tsunami wave heights cannot be predicted and the first wave may not be the largest. Tsunami waves efficiently wrap around islands. All shores are at risk no matter which direction they face. The trough of a tsunami wave may temporarily expose the sea floor but the area will quickly flood again. Extremely strong and unusual near-shore currents can accompany a tsunami. Debris picked up and carried by a tsunami amplifies its destructive power. Simultaneous high tides or high surf can significantly increase the tsunami hazard.”

The bulletin ended with the note that further updates would be issued hourly “or sooner as conditions warrant.”

As the description makes clear, the most dangerous, exposed areas for tsunami activity are coastlines and beaches, and the memorable television and video footage from the waves that swept Thailand underscored that fact. As in Thailand, one of the safest places to weather a tsunami is a well-found cruising boat, such as Ocean Watch, and all aboard are safe and sound, as is our sturdy, steel, 64-foot cutter.

In fact, ironically, at the stroke of 3:34 this morning, skipper Mark Schrader and mate Dave Logan were successfully troubleshooting and addressing an electronic relay problem on our diesel engine that forced us to temporarily shut down our always-trusty auxiliary. The prospect of sailing to Lima, Peru in fitful winds was not a happy one, but in the grand scheme of things it was a minor hassle.

To repeat, we saw no sign whatsoever of heavy waves or seas in our location, roughly 500 miles north of Valparaiso, and some 120-miles off the coast of Chile. While Mark and Dave were dealing with the engine, I was on deck, in a light southwesterly and low, mellow seas, trying to keep the boat moving at 2-4 knots in about 6-7 knots of breeze.

As the afternoon wore on, reports continued to filter in from not-too-distant waters. Again, it was the shorelines and coastal regions that bore the brunt of the earthquake’s aftermath. One of the favorite cruising destinations for Chilean sailors is so-called Robinson Crusoe Island. An email update: “Reuters reported that a tsunami caused by the quake caused ‘serious damage’ to Chile’s sparsely populated Juan Fernandez Islands (about 600-miles south of our current position), where Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk was marooned in the 18^th Century inspiring the novel Robinson Crusoe.” We suspect similar reports to be forthcoming.

In the meantime, all is well aboard Ocean Watch.

We hope and pray the same is true for our mates in Chile, Hawaii, and elsewhere.

-Herb McCormick with photographs by David Thoreson

*This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos

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