Our friends Kirk, Cate and Stuart on Gallivanter were on their boat in Pago Pago when the earthquake and Tsunami hit. I have cut and pasted their email on the blog. We are so very thankful they are safe.
Our end:
Thank you for all the emails regarding our safety. Yes, we are fine. A little shaken , but nothing compared to many others who were in the immediate "line of fire".
Here is what happened to us:
We had just come back from snorkeling the reef in Tahaa. I was making lunch and O was downloading our emails. Our friend Basil in NYC had sent an email telling us about the earthquake and Tsunami warning. O was reading the email to me when a local fisherman approached the boat and told us we had to evacuate Indy because a tsunami was coming, he spoke little English and when we asked him where we should go he shrugged and sped off. I then made a general announcement for information over the VHF, no answer. O checked the charts and we decided we were going to move around to hurricane hole on the East side of the island (Samoa, and thus the wave generated from the epicenter of the earthquake, would be to the West of us). We were about to pull anchor to move when we were approached by a boat from the resort telling us we had to evacuate the boat NOW!! We told them we were moving to the East side and they said that the wave was supposed to hit in twenty minutes and there was no time. They wanted us to go with them to the resort Le Tahaa IMMEDIATELY! They were standing off waiting for us to get our stuff. We were flustered and told them we would meet them there; however they would not leave until we were in our own dinghy. I grabbed our money, passports and laptop (to check what was really going on) while O let out extra chain and got the kids dressed. We loaded into the dinghy and went to the resort. I knew that leaving Indy was the right thing to do but I still felt like we were abandoning her as we left, funny how she seems like a person to me, a part of our family. Anyway,...
The resort, which is stunningly beautiful, is also on the reef which is NOT the place to be in a Tsunami but there was no time to get to the mainland. Once we got there I remembered the kid's life jackets. O then got in the dinghy and raced back to Indy and grabbed them. Then we were escorted to the second story of the stone structure to wait for the tsunami to come. As we entered people we staring at us and I said "I know, I know, welcome to paradise!" For some odd reason, it was what I kept thinking as this was all happening.
The internet connection there was good so I skyped my sister to let her know where we were, in case we did get hit, she would know where to look for us. Then we waited. Ben had brought his lemonade stand money which was showing the other Americans couple we befriended and Sam was running around grabbing fresh pastries from the guests tables which he would then hide under tables and eat..I think he managed to throw down about FIVE! After an hour the warning was cancelled and we were free to go back to Indy. Apparently a 3 foot wave came through but was unrecognizable to us. Still rattled but thankful, we returned to Indy who was sitting calmly on anchor . We are very fortunate.
Our friends on Gallivanter were in Pago Pago when all hell broke lose. He sent us an email describing the chaos which I have asked his permission to post. Thankfully they are alive and well. However, many around them were not as fortunate.
We will haul Indy today in Raiatea.
That's it for now.
I guess the only thing left for us to do is just sit here and wait for the swarm of locusts to arrive!!!!

If you are looking for a vacation in French Polynesia you should check out Le Tahaa. I have not been on their website but it is well maintained and looks like paradise. The staff could not have made us feel more welcome or been more professional. I cannot say enough about how impressed we were with them!!

Here is our friend Kirk's email below. To add to it, when asked today during an interview what it felt like he responded " it felt as if we were flushed down a toilet and then spat off a cliff.'
Here you go...

Thanks, Otis.

Here's the story...


This morning (six hrs ago) we were shaken awake by an earthquake which seemed to have no end! We were aboard Gallivanter and tied side-to a big concrete dock in the heart of Pago Pago, American Samoa. And after living up & down the California coast, I knew this was no minor tremor.

After the rude awakening, Cath & I walked across the dock and chatted with a few of our fellow sailors, one of whom said that he's just done a Google search on "recent earthquakes" and said that it measured-in at 8.1 and the epicenter was only 120 miles distant.

We returned to Gallivanter and I turned on our laptop and searched the same website. Sure enough there it was... "8.1 earthquake - American Samoa - 20 minutes ago". I clicked on the "Show Map" option and noticed the epicenter was located south west of Pago Pago... which is located on the southern side of the island.

Just as I was considering the ramifications of that little fact... all hell started breaking loose! Our boat was on the move! My first reaction was to start the engine and dash up on deck to see what was going on. I witnessed the water around us was rapidly dropping! Rapidly! In a blink of an eye, we were on the bottom and the boat was falling away from the dock! Three of our big dock lines popped and we fell right over into the mud - the entire basin we had been floating in only moments ago had completely drained! People were screaming!

Next - the water came flooding back in at an even more alarming rate and the next thing I knew we were floating directly above the dock! Over the concrete slab and drifting toward a young lady we knew (from another boat) who was desperately hugging a power pole and up to her chin in swirling water! I told Cath to cut the two remaining dock lines with our serrated bread knife and to be quick about it!

Right as I put the boat into gear, we were somehow washed back off the dock and into the basin as I advance to full throttle and we accelerated through a floating debris field of floating docks, fuel drums, sinking boats, a shipping container and a barnicle encrusted wreck all of which were spinning in the torrent of rapidly dropping sea level. It was absolute mayhem! As we steered out toward the deep water in the center of the harbor I looked over my shouder and saw what appeared to be a waterfall pouring off the dock and shore beyond. Not one of the dozen vessels remained at the dock. All were underway in a matter of seconds... with or without crews aboard.

We motored around in the middle of the harbor watching the waves of floods & ebbs while wondering about after-shocks and our fellow cruising sailors. As we passed one of our neighbors she shouted to us that her husband had been washed off the dock as they were trying to get away. She was alone and seriously concerned. Other boats broke free from their moorings and anchors in the initial seismic waves and many were driven ashore, or driven under by loose tuna boats.

After about three hours, we felt it was finally safe enough to return to the dock. All we had were lengths of old line and we were short a couple fenders. We were the first to go in and we started un-tangling lines and helping others get back along side the concrete dock. All of the store-fronts along the water are destroyed, roving mobs of kids can be seen looting, the fence around the dock is gone, every boat on stands in a nearby boatyard were washed away. Big fishing boats are now in parking lots across the street. Absolute destruction is seen everywhere along the shore.

Phones and power are down but we got back online right away and I immediately went back to the recent earthquakes website to see if things have been calming down in the center of the earth. A number of aftershocks as strong as 6.0 have been recorded over the past few hours - but thankfully no more wave action has been noticed. We've been making Skype calls to our families and letting others use the computer as well to phone home.

Online news reports say that the earthquake lasted three minutes and the highest flood rose 25 ft above normal! There are 20 confirmed deaths... including our neighbor who was swept off the dock. Most fatalities occured in and around the harbor where we live. Boats are battered and nerves are fried. One friend wound-up on his boat nearly 1000 feet away from the water after breaking from his anchor and sailing right down Main St. taking power & telephone wires down with his mast! Some people lost everything... including their lives. We came through remarkably well with only minor dammage sustained to our toe rail when the dock lines parted and to our fender basket which was the only point of contact with that drifting wreck. I never felt any jarring loads while we were hurtling around above & below the concrete dock, so I believe our hull, keel & rudder suffered no dammage from the wildest boat ride I've ever been on.

We're all okay... and very lucky. I met a new friend yesterday and he died today.

We've adopted a tiny kitten we've named Lucky.

And that's the way it is.

All the Best - All the Time,

Kirk, Cath & Stuart ~~~_/) ~~~ s/v Gallivanter