Subject: Tsunami warning for Marshall Islands and Kiribati
Date: 11 Mar 2011 10:35:04 -0000
Hello family and friends,
The tsunami has not struck here yet in Tarawa, Kiribati, but SV Brick House and SV Mr John have picked up anchor and we are out of the channel now, in deep water outside of the atoll, well away from the reef and land. We will sail to another atoll, Abiang, slowly—20 miles away. No danger in deep open water, so don’t worry about Brick House or Mr John. High Aspect is motoring in circles in deeper water inside the lagoon, and another boat with a Belgian man named Mark onboard who is out tonight is remaining at anchor in Tarawa Harbor.
Tarawa radio has put out a notice to all ships in the harbor, and the tsunami is hitting Guam right now, expecting to get here in about two hours (1230am our time). It is heading towards the Marshall islands and us. We understand that the earthquake was 9.7 and produced a 30-foot wave over Tokyo and did a lot of damage. Someone said a two-meter wave here, but it could be more or less, and we didnt want to take any chances…both boats were planning to depart this weekend for Abiang anyways.
To our friends in the Marshall islands—we hope you have gotten warning and are able to get off your moorings and to the west so you have lots of sea room. We hope it’s a false alarm and that there are no effects anywhere, but please let us know you are OK tomorrow, okay?
Best of luck to everyone, and again, no worries about Brick House and Mr John…we are in deep water and won’t even feel the effects…
Rebecca and Patrick
Brick House (with friends Mr John just behind us)
Post-tsunami update: It apparently hit as scheduled, but was not all too significant. Better safe than sorry, though!
Hallo Rebecca and Patrick,
I have friends at Abaiang island but until now I did not find any news about, how Tsunami was at Kiribati. If possible please can you give me some informations about Tsunami there and if Abaiang was affected. My friends are living at Aonobuaka about in the middle of the island.
Thank you and good luck for you
Olaf
I would also like to know what the Tsunami was like in Tarawa. The Belgian man mentioned in your post is Marc, skipper of the Gannet sailing yacht. We did not hear from him since the tsunami (but I assume everything is OK.)
Cheers
Tom
Thanks all for your notes. We are happily out of the Marshall Islands and back at the pleasant Kirabati Islands. We had heard about the approaching tsunami from the yacht High Aspect who was watching CNN on their huge screen TV. Marc, on Gannet, was ashore so we unfortunately could not alert him to the approaching problem. No one knew exactly what to expect. After narrowly missing the worst of the tsunami in Pago Pago we were not taking chances. I canceled my World War 2 tour of Tarawa for the next morning and Rebecca and I sailed out the harbor at 9PM. We hove too outside the atoll then in the morning headed to Abaiang atoll, 20 miles to the north. For a long period that night, I was able to listen to Radio Australia on the short wave radio. It sounded like the experts predicted the worst tsunami waves would travel east and west. The islands to the south of Japan would have little trouble. And so it was. In Tarawa and Abaiang there was a one foot wave, same in Majuro, Marshall Islands. The people on shore in Abaiang gathered in their maniabas, village gathering hut, and fortunately only lost sleep that night. No one got wet.
We feel terrible for the people of Tokyo.
Patrick Childress, eating lots of coconuts and wahoo and having fun with the villagers in the northern section of Abaiang.