Tsunami

In the early morning of Friday February 26 while at anchor in La Playita, Panama we received
a tsunami warning via the VHF radio. An earthquake of 8.8 on the rector scale had hit Chili
in the Valpariso area and it was believed Panama City would be hit with a tsunami in the
area of our anchorage. A tsunami is a wave action caused by the displacement of a large body
of water caused by land or ocean earthquakes. All we could think about was the Tsunami that
had hit Indonesia, Christmas 2004, and destroyed the coastline and took many anchored
boats in its wake.
I was in our stateroom changing from my pj's when Stuart advised me of the warning and told
me to hurry up as we were going to weigh anchor and get out to deep water. In just the few
minutes it took me to change and get behind the wheel there were already many boats up
and moving out of the anchorage. We were soon behind them and motored out to 80' and
waited. We had a report that it should arrive at 9:50am but we did not know what to expect.
We had battoned everything below down and closed all the hatches, ports, and companionway.
We had our life jackets out and our safety harness ready to hook up in the cockpit should we
see a wave of sizeable volumn approaching. There were boats out past us at this point and we
knew they would give a warning if a wave came. The appointed hour of 9:50 came and went
without a ripple. We were advised to stay out at least another hour to be safe. We did. Finally,
we motored back into the anchorage with a constant look towards the ocean and any sign of
danger. It was later reported that the "tsunami" had hit Mexico with a 12" wave and Hawaii
with a 12 to 16' wave (good surfing waves). Lots of excitement but fortunately no damage to
boats or property on land. Thank you Lord! Stuart and I had visited the Valpariso, Chili
area 3 years ago at this time and it is/was a beautiful seaside resort area. We are very sad
to hear the reports of destruction and loss of life there.