By Darrel
The Weather is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful
We have often reported how idyllic the conditions are here in Thailand
Yesterday morning when we woke up it was to the beginning of another beautiful day in paradise. We were anchored in Nai Yang Bay
We walked to the bus stop and caught the 10:30 bus to a large mall about 45 minutes away from Nai Yang. We did some business, had lunch and then went to see the movie “Hunger Games”. About two-thirds the way through the movie we all noticed our seats were shaking. My first thought was that this shaking was part of the sound surround system to give us a more realistic effect. But when I realized that the movie scene was a quiet part of the movie where the leading actress was moving stealth-like through a misty forest (by the way she dies in the end), which is where I thought something else was happening. Loretta and I got up and went out into the movie theatre lobby and saw that a mass exodus of the people in the mall was occurring. We went back into the movie theatre and told everyone they should leave.
When we got into the mall outside the movie theatre which is located on the fourth floor we could see that the escalators were full but we knew of another exit which took us out onto a catwalk and down a set of stairs out to the sidewalk. Everyone was moving in a very orderly fashion and there was no panic. Part of this was likely due to 90% of the people had their cell phones on and were walking and talking – something Loretta and I still have problems doing.
Once we got out and away from the mall we decided we should get back home to ensure that CanKata and Aqua Dreams were safe. We caught the 4:00 bus. We knew by this time, thanks to Julie and her smart-phone, that an earthquake had occurred in Indonesia
Having learned from the 2004 tsunami we knew that the best place to be on CanKata was out at sea. Otherwise, CanKata would likely end up sitting high and dry in the bay due to the water receding and then hit with a number of large waves washing CanKata up onto land when the tsunami hits.
When we arrived back at Nai Yang we found a number of locals telling us not to head towards the water. We were told the tsunami was due to hit Phuket within 30 or 40 minutes which did not allow us enough time to get to CanKata, raise anchor and head out to deeper water. It felt very weird having to turn around and head away from our boats and instead head to higher ground where a tsunami evacuation site had been set up.
We stayed at the site talking to tourists from a beach resort in Nai Yang and some locals we knew who had businesses on the beach. One of the local resorts came in a truck with a supply of drinking water for the people to wait out the tsunami. We were of course worried about CanKata, not to mention CanKitty but we felt more for the locals who had to leave their belongings and stock behind without having any insurance to help cover their loss.
Julie was in constant contact with her mom in Australia
At around 6:00, the four of us decided to walk towards the Dewa, which is a 5-story building, and try to get a better idea of whether we could safely head out to our boats and head to deeper water. When we arrived at the Dewa we were shocked to find that it too had been evacuated along with everything else along the beach. The latest update on the tsunami warning had indicated that none of the areas had yet been hit by a tsunami and if nothing changes in 2 hours the warning could be cancelled.
We decided that we would jump in the dinghy and as quickly as possible get our boats ready for heading out to deeper water. We raised anchor just as darkness fell upon us and headed out to deeper water. Once there we dropped anchor and kept our Internet running along with our radio and depth sounder to monitor any drop in the water level. About an hour later the warning was dropped for the Phuket area but that there were still a number of large aftershocks occurring. We decided to just stay put for the night and head back into the anchorage the next morning.
We woke up to a beautiful sunrise and returned to a nice calm anchorage where we will stay for Songkran tomorrow (Friday), which is the Thailand New Year. Just checked the weather and saw that the winds are staying calm, and the weather is to be beautiful – wish you were here.
BTW we hope to return to the movie later next week to find out how it ends (but something tells me that she doesn’t die in the end).
P.S. We were in the news (sort of). The photo below was in this news piece. You'll need a good zoom to see us - D in grey, L in black, near the black car.
http://www.thephuketnews.com/
P.S. We were in the news (sort of). The photo below was in this news piece. You'll need a good zoom to see us - D in grey, L in black, near the black car.
