The coastal towns and ports in the Pacific North-West are highly susceptible to tsunamis caused not only by nearby earthquakes, but also those that occur on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. In 2011, a massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Japan’s coast caused massive destruction that included nearly 20,000 deaths and a meltdown at their Fukushima nuclear power plant. The tsunami traveled across the ocean to damage harbors and towns in northern California, Oregon, and other regions.
We met John and his daughter on our dock. They had come in from a day on his small sailboat. John is in his 80’s and turned out to be a daring man and great storyteller. He pointed out a boat called “Queen” and said that it had saved his life. In 2011, he got a phone call warning of a possible tsunami coming because of the earthquake in Japan. They had instructed all the large boats to head out to sea. John has had these warnings before and nothing happened…plus he lives about forty miles away, so he went back to sleep for a few hours. Then, he decided to come down to the docks to see what was happening. He went to the end of the dock and saw the water receding, so he started to capture it on video with his phone. The water came surging in slowly, but with very great force. There were two surges, with the second one much stronger. He heard cracking noises and then the captain of the Queen yelling for him to get on his boat as the dock broke away from the pilings around them with the Queen and two other boats still attached to it. The captain of the Sound Adventure, a fishing boat that was part of the tangled mess, fired up his engine and powered forward to keep them all from hitting the boats behind them.
I mentioned that I’d really like to see that video and John kindly brought us a DVD a few days later. He came aboard Adventure to watch the video with us and narrate what was happening. A true sailor, he focused our attention on the new sail that was sitting on the dock that was washed away. He’s has given us permission to publish his camera work on our blog, so please enjoy this clipped version…
Author: Kathy; Video source: John Pitts, edited by Sean
Tales of Misadventure 