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

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We arrived in Raiatea on Tuesday after an overnight sail from Moorea
As we entered the lagoon and were dropping the sails, we quickly discovered that our main would not come down. Half an hour later we had it down, but it was a pain. Thankfully, and surprisingly, it was not blowing 30..that seems to be the norm for us!! Anyway, we still do not have the new bat cars that slide the main up and down. We have since ordered them...oh, and the main ripped too..naturally.
We thought we could hold off on hauling Indy until Samoa or New Zealand but we need to do it now. We contacted the yard in Samoa and they quoted us 4,800.00USD to haul for four days, any day after that was an additional 150.00USD. Wow, business must be booming to charge thos prices!!! The repairs simply will not wait until New Zealand. Not to mention our sails are in a sorry state of disrepair!! They can haul Indy here at a reasonable price, plus there is a sail loft so we can fix all of our sails. The problem is that there is not much on the island to do for me to do with the kids while we are in the yard, when O is working on Indy. There are no beaches here and the main town is quite a haul. I am going to snoop around for a hotel with a pool to loiter during the day. Normally if I buy lunch they let you swim..I hope!!!
The weather has been overcast, rainy, windy and cool. We have been kind of holed up on the boat since arriving which is never good for the family. Too much time in close quarters makes me a little nuts. I get short and irritable which then feeds on itself and goes rapidly down hill.
Today we left for town but it was raining pretty hard so O and the kids went back to the boat and I hitched in. I was surprised everyone wanted to go back to the boat as it was the last place I wanted to be. I got a ride pretty quickly and walked around town for the afternoon just delighted to be alone and off the boat. It does not help that I have not had any exercise. Have I mentioned that some sorry slob stole my sneakers in the Galapagos??? I hope he/she has foot rot. See, the mood is not full of joy and happiness.
I was up the majority of the night last night. We are currently on a mooring that belongs to the yard but a nasty storm blew through this morning which brought forty kt winds, and I was a little anxious about the mooring holding. The boats all around us were dragging and surprisingly we did not get hit!! That may be a first. I was nervous about the mooring, but also really happy that we were on the mooring and not having to do anchor watch. It seems so out of character for us!!!
That's all for know..

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We are still in Moorea. Our friends have left so we are catching up on school, snorkeling, going to the beach, which has great trees for climbing, and just chilling out. There is also a fresh water tap so that we can do laundry..ugh. I do believe that one of the worst parts of cruising is laundry. Usually I take it to be done but there is nowhere to take it here and it is HELLISHLY expensive.
Oprah sometimes poses this question to her guests:
What is one thing you know for certain?? Well, I finally have the answer...clothes never get as clean or smell as good as they do when the come out of a washer/dryer. This is a myth created, I think from sentimentality or nostalgia but it is NOT true. There is NO JOY derived from washing twenty pounds of clothes. O's clothes get much cleaner than mine. He scrubs them while I subscribe to the "soak" method.
Yesterday we took the kids over to feed the Manta Rays and black tip sharks. As soon as you drop the dinghy anchor the rays swarm around the boat. O took the kids in the water and they all swam amongst them while I took photos from the safety of the dinghy. After I saw that it was safe I went in as well. A boat from a nearby hotel arrived shortly after, dropped anchor and fed them. We joined in with the hotel boat until the sharks came. The boys stayed but I swam back. We can't all be heroes!!!! It was fun to see the boys in their giddy excitement... the kind of excitement where you are also a little scared.
It has been mellow here but nice. Not really a whole lot to report.
O and I have been struggling to decide where to go for hurricane season. The plan had always been New Zealand, but we are pretty far behind and I just do not want to rush through the Pacific after making the trek all the way out here. Some could argue that there is no such thing as Indy and rush in the same sentence but. You know what I mean. Indy NEEDS to be hauled out of the water and spruced up so it is a matter of where. We need the place to economical, safe, and easy to obtain parts and skilled labor around. We could haul out in Raitaia but it is expensive and getting parts takes quite a while. There is nowhere in the Cook Islands to haul which then leaves us with American Samoa..yes, the armpit of the Pacific, as it is so eloquently referred too.
However, as of this month all of the fish canneries are being closed for good. The government is putting a great deal of money into cleaning up the harbor making it desirable for cruisers and mega yachts. A new sheriff is in town I guess you would say. They have the facilities to haul Indy and from what we have heard a great mail system with flight to the States so getting parts would not be a huge hassle or break the bank (I don't think). Another perk is that since we are American, we are thinking we may possibly be able to work too! If the rumors are true, there should be lots of opportunity and now would be the time to get in. I have not checked out the schools but they are in English and if they are terrible we would just continue to home school. SO, that is the plan du jour. The problem is that nobody will respond to our emails. except the yacht club..their pizza chef went back to Italy but they still have cold beer, or so they say. This place sounds like it needs some organization Otis and Jenny style! We shall see. If we don't like it we can mad dash to NZ. So those are the thoughts at the moment.
picture of O and Carlos in the MArquesas. One downside to Moorea is that it is much harder to meet the local people. I miss that.

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