Tsunami

Our morning started out at approx. 5:45 am with a phone call from our friend Ernesto in Mazatlan.  He wanted to give us a heads up.  The tsunami event happened here in Zihuatanejo at about 4:00 pm.  We had moved the boat over to Las Gatas beach area and anchored in 40 feet of water, we had been anchored in about 15ft. near the pier in town.  The port was closed and a big red flag was flying at the end of the pier.  The bay was usually quiet all day long.  Typically there are boats, parasailers etc., buzzing around the bay.  We spent most of the day anchored at Las Gatas beach waiting for an event that was predicted at approx. 1:00/2:00 PM...., A guy in a panga boat came out and invited us over to a restaurant but we declined not really wanting to leave the boat.

Finally at about 4:00 pm I said I thought we should head back over to the anchorage since we have tickets for tonight's guitar fest.  We hoisted anchor and headed back to the main anchorage and the bay proceeded to empty.... the level went from about 20.5 to 10.5 FEET in about 10 min. It was all very exciting.  There is a small natural breakwater just off Las Gatas beach and Doug said he was looking at it and thinking he could see a lot more of it then usual, but was already concentrating on moving the boat.  He headed towards the anchorage.  The water in the bay became very violent with lot's of conflicting currents and waves.  Upon getting closer the the anchorage they noticed that a disabled sailboat here in the anchorage (Blythe Spirit) was already beached on it's side, since all the water resided past it.  It went back and forth in the waves but held anchors (bow and stern).   All the other sailboats at anchor were dancing around on their anchors as we were moving around looking for a spot to anchor.  The water literally rushed out like someone pulled a plug in the bay then swooshed back in.  The small river near the pier looked like the Truckee River in Tahoe.  In the river was washing a ton of debris being into the bay.
Doug was at the helm, Clark was on the anchor and me, well I was below resting after having made breakfast, lunch, bread, did dishes, washed the deck....., they said they called me up to have a look but they guess I didn't here them.  When they finally got the boat anchored and turned off the engine I popped my head up and they said wow that was freaking amazing!  I was like what?  Oh you missed it.
Well it turned out I only missed the first wave.  There were many, many more wave events.

Over at Las Gatas beach a panga boat sunk, there were kids in the water having fun at first then very scared, water up to the palapa tables,  The water went out then back in within just a few minutes.  The panga driver who had come out to ask us if we wanted to go to shore for lunch was on the radio saying you are on your own, I'm heading to high ground!  The folks from SV Precious Metal were on shore over at Las Gatas having a cooking class at the restaurant.  They dropped everything and started grabbing kids, helping with the pangas.  They said it all happened so fast.  One minute they were enjoying the food from the cooking class then all hell broke loose.  They eventually got into their dinghy and headed back over to their boat in the anchorage.

All in all everyone faired very well, the waves continued well past midnight in the anchorage.  We took a water taxi into the guitar fest and only stayed on shore for the performance then hailed a fellow cruiser to come get us from the pier.  At 11:00 pm the water was still rising at the pier well over the walkway then residing below the walk in the course of 3 to 5 min. intervals.  We had to dodge our way through a debris field to get back to the boat in the darkness.  I stayed up on anchor watch until about 1:30 am when I felt that everything had seem to fall into a calm pattern.