It Takes a Tsunami to Leave Tenacatita

Well, at 7 am this morning we woke up to a "Sécurité, Sécurité, Sécurité" warning regarding the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that hit the coast of Chile this morning. NOAA issued a tsunami warning for the entire Pacific coast including Mexico and California. According to the warning:

Tsunamis can be dangerous waves that are not survivable. Wave heights are amplified by irregular shoreline and are difficult to forecast. Tsunamis often appear as a strong surge and may be preceded by a receding water level. Mariners in water deeper than 600 feet should not be affected by a tsunami. Wave heights will increase rapidly as water shallows. Tsunamis are a series of ocean waves which can be dangerous for several hours after the initial wave arrival.

Now, we always sleep with the VHF radio on, "just in case" and this morning was one of those "just in cases." We woke to the Sécurité, logged on to the internet to check the NOAA warnings, talked among the other boats in the Tenacatita anchorage – we even had to dinghy over to some of the 30 plus boats anchored there in order to wake them up because they do not sleep with their VHF on, -- prepared our boat, raised anchor and made our way out to sea. Now, in 600+ feet of water we are enjoying a beautiful morning sail. Since Tenacatita is such an awesome anchorage (one of our friends has been there for over four weeks) and the dolphins were swimming all around the anchorage this morning, it took a tsunami warning to get us (and them) to raise anchor and head out. We have now decided to make our way to Melaque (19 degrees 12 minutes north by 104 degrees 41.4 minutes west) for a few days. We will pick up provisions and do laundry and then make our way back to Tenacatita. It is too nice an anchorage!

Always some sort of excitement.

Michael