35) Tsunami -- Stay or Leave

Tsunami -- Stay or Leave

March 14, 2011 – Pacific Ocean

Given the chaos of 'tsunami Friday', it's a little unclear to us what kind of instructions port and other officials gave to boatowners. In many cases it was reported that ports were closed, but that might have happened once the effects of the tsunamis began to be felt.

We do know the the three port captains in Banderas Bay — at La Cruz, Nuevo Vallarta, and Puerto Vallarta — announced that the ports were closed. As far as we're concerned, this was akin to vets advising owners of domestic pets to put their animals in cars with the windows rolled up during a heat wave. Being in port is the last place you want to be during a tsunami.

According to John Thompson, crew aboard Bruce and Pascale Powell's Tiburon-based Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 45 Calou, some docks in La Cruz Marina on Banderas Bay seem to have been the only casualties there. © 2011 John Thompson

As Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Kurt Fredrickson in Honolulu reported, the Coast Guard worked with local port authorities and harbormasters to get the word to all mariners to get their boats to sea. "People listened to what we told them," said Frederickson.

Well, not all of them. Suzie Grubler of Maui reports that "there was no loss of life but there was major carnage in the Maui harbors." It's also been reported that 200 boats were damaged in Honolulu's Keehi Lagoon.

Max Rosenberg took this shot of a whirlpool forming in Santa Barbara Harbor during Friday's tsunami. © 2011 Max Rosenberg / Santa Barbara Aviation

And here on the mainland, 18 boats were sunk in Santa Cruz and 11 in Crescent City, with hundreds more damaged. It's unclear to us what advice, if any, port captains and harbormasters gave boatowners in those two ports.

Crescent City was hit hard by the tsunami. © 2011 The Oregonian

Down in Banderas Bay, a trickle of boatowners willing to defy the 'stay in port' orders of the port captains — and a supposed fine of $4,000 to $5,000 U.S. — became a flood of outgoing boats. We're told that well over 100 boats sought the safety of the deep waters of Banderas Bay. So many boats left the marinas that the port captains responded by saying the 'stay in port' orders only applied to commercial vessels.

If a tsunami were approaching and a misguided authority of some sort instructed you to keep your boat in port, what would you do? Keep your boat in port and risk having it be damaged or destroyed, or defy authority and head out to sea? 

- latitude / rs