March 11 - Tsunami happenings in Honolulu

First off, we're fine! Many thanks to all of you for your emails, prayers and thoughts. Here's the rundown of what happened. We left the dock at the Hawaii Yacht Club at midnight after finding out about the tsunami warning around 9:15 pm. We weren't really prepared to go sailing, so had to stow a lot of things and change our mind set fast! We lashed the dinghy down and tied down everything on deck as best as we could. Fortunately, we had tied down our new hard bimini, as it still needs trimming out and bolting down, so we weren't quite ready to take it offshore! When we got past the last set of channel buoys, we found the horizon was lit up with hundreds of boat navigation lights...hmmm...We set a double reefed mainsail and slowly "jigged" around. We were in deep water quickly and I didn't want to go too far away from the island, although the tsunami wave was not expected to reach Honolulu until 03:15 AM or so. We spent the entire evening slowly sailing back and forth from Diamond Head to just past the Ala Wai Channel, trying to gauge how close any other boat was and just trying to stay away from anyone else. I think everyone had the same idea! Although there were a few 6-8' waves, seas were pretty small, and we didn't actually feel when the tsunami wave passed; that was a very good thing! By daybreak, we were all tired, but safe, and looking forward to hearing news about what happened at the Ala Wai Small Boat Basin as well as the HYC. The radio was busy with many people inquiring about returning, as every harbor thru out the Hawaiian Islands was closed to boat traffic, so no one could return to their slip! Some folks got a bit impatient, but we enjoyed a beautiful sunny morning, sited some nearby humpback whales, and actually anchored and ran our water maker to further commission this new build out. Final clearance was finally granted to return into the Ala Wai, but by then we had received a cell phone call that informed us the Aloha Dock at the HYC was damaged and could not accommodate any boats. Uh Oh....In nearby Keehi Marine Center, several docks were severely damaged and boats adrift or sunk...Currents were swirling around the harbor at around 4 knots, and eddies were everywhere. Boats were lined up 2 to 3 abreast coming back thru the channel into the Ala Wai area. We tied up on "X" dock, a transient dock owned by the State, and were assisted by our friends from sv Cosmos and sv Before who had docked directly in front of us just minutes before our arrival. It felt good to be tied up and safe, albeit tired! We had a bite to eat, took a 2 hour nap, visited with friends, and relaxed. It's been an exciting 24 hours....Our hearts go out to all those who didn't fare so well, both here and in Japan....
The picture is of the boats behind us returning to the AlaWai Yacht Basin....we're not at the front of the line!