The scene – on the docks. Last Sunday. Warm and breezy.
Capt. Rob arrives dressed in his brand new hand-me-down-$35-foulie jacket.
And I say: Expecting foul weather?
Like the cartoon character who is tracked by his own personal black cloud, one of the largest waves of the day targets Bro. Rob and gives him a thorough hosing. Unfortunately, Bro. Rob was not wearing his foulie panties. I don’t know what the lesson was. I got some warm spray on my sweatshirt but was otherwise untouched.
SPOT says we were outside the breakwater for a little (very little) over an hour. Pretty dicey out there. No gale warnings as the wind was in the 20’s, but there were some impressive rollers. Good foul wx training and one more reminder that daysailing is a proud sport that gives you the option of getting home and getting warm and dry in a hurry.
I fully agree with the plan for “next time” but being one of those who was on a boat in the harbor I’d like to relate what a “goat roping” this event was.
We awoke aboard Saturday morning to predicted scattered showers and possible t-storms. Sailing was most likely not in the cards, but there were plenty of boat projects to keep us busy. We poured a cup of joe and turned on the t.v. to catch up on the news. The earthquake in Chile was the lead story.
In short order the VHF came alive with CG sector L.A. broadcasting the Tsunami warning…or was it a watch at that point? Either way there seemed to be no detectable concern and as is the norm the voice on the other end seemed quite bored with the announcement duty. As best I can recall the “wave” was predicted to arrive around 1230 hrs and the surge was estimated 1′ – 2′. That didn’t seem to be anything to be alarmed about, so we went about our normal Saturday morning.
It was close to 1200 hrs when I first heard the new revised broadcast. It had changed from “Tsunami Warning” to “Imminent Tsunami” and the 1′-2′ was now was 8′-10′. T
The CG also warned mariners to stay off of beaches & jetties, out of harbors and to seek “safe haven.”
The radio came alive; “So are you saying to get out of the harbor?” some anonymous Captain asked.
Sector L.A. replied “Please stand by” followed by a disturbingly long pause…they didn’t know what to tell us! The revised announcement was repeated, no further instructions were given and Sector LA went quiet.
Ventura Harbor Patrol finally broke the silence and instructed anyone in the Harbor to stay put and consult their marina managers.
Whaaaat? Being a student of Sail Channel Islands and working on my graduate degree in “Ole Sea Dogness” I instantly knew what a horrible piece of advice that was – our marina’s only concerns are slip fees, registration and insurance compliance. Tsunami’s, water spouts, disasters natural and man-made as well as rampaging mothers-in-law are outside of their field of view.
By this time, it was much too late for us to get underway and out to deep water, but the question remained: should we leave the boat and head for the safety of … the parking lot?
I’ll admit at this point I phoned Captain Dan and told him what was going on. We both agreed that most likely very little will happen but to be on the safe side, close up the boat and go for a walk – away from the beach! We did just that and as we now know not much happened.except for the fishing boat who sped out of the harbor at full speed but that’s another story.
So what’s the moral of this story? Follow the Captain’s advice: head to sea or meet him in Ojai. I believe you’ll find him in the first bar on the right.
The next time we get a Tsunami warning, we’re not going to dither. We’re going to do one of two things if we’re in Ventura:
1. Get underway and get to deep water
2. Get to high ground.
This video from the 1994 Thai Tsunami is very instructive. For one, it shows that the first wave is not necessarily the worst wave. Watch the video for at least a minute. The second wave shows up at 53 seconds.
Tsunamis are probably widely known as tidal waves because they look tidal in that a lot, a whole lot, a veritable s-load of water comes ashore. The wave may be only a couple of feet high, but it can be on the order of a half mile long. And initially, it’s moving at 500 mph. Compare that to towering surf, which around here gets to maybe 20 feet, but runs back maybe 100 feet. And it trucks in at -what? – 20 knots?
A lot of us now realize we have never seen anything like a Tsunami. Nothing remotely like a Tsunami. NOAA warned us to stay away from beaches and out of the harbor.
So those of us who ran to the harbor and waited on the boat for this monster to come crashing in the other day were lucky that this Tsunami was trivial. Had it been something on the order of the second wave in the video, folks sitting on their boats would have been in for a fight for their lives.
However, if they’d been in deep water, they might not even have noticed.
Next time I’m either getting underway or heading for Ojai.
The Coast Guard has warned that the weather is going to be lousy, proving that somewhere at CG headquarters there is a window and someone chose to look outside. They also issued a couple of common sense suggestions – make sure your boat is tied down adequately etc. etc. Read it all here.
But the risible part of their rather understated caution is that they failed to mention the minor Tsunami that is headed this way. The good news is that the Tsunami warning system seems to be working, activated this time in response to the 8.8 magnitude quake in Chile. Here’s the report.
HOWEVER…A MINOR TSUNAMI MAY BE RECORDED IN SOME AREAS OF THE COAST
WHICH COULD PRODUCE DANGEROUS CURRENTS AND SURGES IN HARBORS AND
BAYS. PEOPLE ARE ADVISED TO STAY AWAY FROM THE BEACHES AND MARINAS.
WAVE HEIGHTS AND CURRENTS ARE AMPLIFIED BY IRREGULAR SHORELINES AND
ARE DIFFICULT TO PREDICT. WAVE FLUCTUATIONS ARE EXPECTED TO BEGIN
WITHIN 30 MINUTES OF THE ESTIMATED ARRIVAL TIMES LISTED BELOW:
PORT SAN LUIS HARBOR…AT 1235 PM PST.
SANTA BARBARA HARBOR…AT 1231 PM PST.
SANTA MONICA HARBOR….AT 1225 PM PST.
SAN PEDRO HARBOR…….AT 1215 PM PST.
I don’t know of any way to monitor the Tsunami’s progress, but you can watch radar and satellite developments simultaneously at NOWCOAST.
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High seas, low winds, brown water.
