First person report from a cruising boat, American Samoa

[rbgarr]

http://www.cruiserlog.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13641

[willmarsh3]

That was a good read. I had wondered what it would be like to be in that situation and hope I don't ever experience it.

[TimH]

They sure were lucky.

[Hwyl]

I got this note

Just a quick update. We are all OK. A Tsunami hit this island and the surrounding islands this morning a few hours ago. Much devastation on the south side of the island ( we are on north side), including MANY levelled villages, cars floating out to sea, and people missing. We felt the 8.3 Earthquake on the boat this morning. I ran around trying to figure out what was wrong- we weren't dragging, or bouncing off a reef, the mast wasn't falling down...we were just bouncing up and down for 30 seconds for NO reason. The other 2 boats with us here were up on deck wondering what was going on. When we were greeted at the dinghy dock with the last of the un-evacuated employees at the hotel who told us about the total evacuation of the coast, asking us if we wanted to go on the next bus to the top of the mountain. They said that the Tsunami had just hit the south coast and there was lots of devestation. They werent sure how much it would wrap around the island. We of course scurried back to our boat trying to decide whether to set to sea or not. It was a scary dinghy ride..not a good place to be - in a small dinghy when a big wave hits in very shallow, coral strewn water! SSB radio and Local FM radio gave us some information and we helped another boat who was anchored in close to the beach, in the most danger if a big wave came in the anchorage here. We saw the water level rising up and down very quickly by about 18 inches, and we then heard from another boat that they had taken the last of the skeleton crew up to the mountain. We were the only ones left ( 3 boats and crew) at sea level. Sort of a scary concept. We all watched and listened to the local radio and looked out to sea wondering if a big wave would come and roll us all over.

But the warning has been removed now, and the guys on the other two boats here have grabbed their surfboards to go catch the last of the big rollers.

Their not updated blog http://www.sailblogs.com/member/brickhouse/