Early in the morning of March 11 we received a phone call from California (Brenda/Firefly) advising us of the Tsunami warning. We were moored in Las Hadas and hoisted the anchor about 11:30 am. Most of the other 10 or so boats next to us moved offshore as well, also the commercial ships from Manzanillo’s commercial harbor to the south. Throughout that time, the marine radio traffic was very active and we had good broadband internet accesss to monitor the situation locally and abroad. After floating around a mile or two from the coast for 3-4 hours and observing no tsunami conditions, we safely anchored off Miramar Beach, Bahia Santiago for the night.
The Puerto Vallarta area saw some significant surges, as reported by Tom & Lori who were there on our sister ship Camelot: “The first of four waves hit land. The largest from low to high was about 6 feet, which caused a huge surge in all the marinas. At the marina mouth, the Harbor Master estimated the water was running at 12 knots at both La Cruz and Nuevo Vallarta. Marina La Cruz lost a dock to the surge, but no other damage was reported. The last reported surge occurred at 1845 last night, which caused the Port Captain to close La Cruz Marina for the evening. Nuevo Vallarta and Old Harbor opened about 1900. We spent the night on the hook and will be moving back into the Marina in a couple of hours.”
In addition to the surge and dock damage in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, a green marker bouy broke loose and washed ashore a considerable distance from the marina!