How did vessels at sea do?

Does anyone have reports of how boats and ships away from shore faired?

 

I think in deep water they would have experienced an elongated, fast-moving swell.... nothing life threatening for most sea-worthy vessels. But I too would be curious to hear a firsthand report.

 

vessel accident reports

There are lots of websites that have that kind of information... an example of one in the states might be:

http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/M_Acc.htm

Cheers,

Dave

 

There was a news report of one fishing boat that was at sea when it happened and they didn't know anything had happened until they returned to land. They didn't see nor feel anything at sea, had to be a very tiny wave that happens to move very fast that causes this.

Bill H.

 

I don't get it... what happened?

 

Dave B, think of it this way... If you were in a boat in very deep water over a piece of the bottom a km square that suddenly displaced down 10 cm what would you feel?

Most likely nothing, as all that happened was the water went down 10cm and the normal wind waves would cover that.

Now from a fluids perspective, you just generated a radial impluse wave with an energy of 9.8E07 N, a perimeter of 4 km, a wave length of 1 km and a wave height of 0.1m. Energy density would be 24500 N per meter of wave front but wave slope is only 0.0002 degrees. You would never see it. BTW the celerity (i.e. speed of advance of the wave front) should be or 39.5 m/sec or 142 km/hr.

Now suppose that we are on a beach 100 km away (with no strange effects like what happened to Hilo in '64). Perimeter of the event is now 1256 km and energy per meter of wave front is now only 78 N. But as the wave runs up on shallow water its wave length and velocity begin to decrease while its height increases to maintain energy. Now a breaking wave is hard to analyize but a rough estimate it that our wave would be ~6.8 m tall when it stated to break in about 47m of water. But like a tidal bore would maintain this height above still waterline as it runs up the beach.

Now think of hundreds of square km's moving not as a point, but in a line. Wave front energy is not dissipated radialy with distance but stays constant as the wave front advances across an ocean. This is why these things are so bad.

Try this web page for a better discussion. http://www.drgeorgepc.com

 

Hello
Here a post from one of my friends from Telaga Habor and Rebak Marina Malaysia. I was with my boat in Penang and ancored at the right side of the island. I'm ashamed to tell you, but I slept through the whole thing.

Cheers Rudi

From: "C. R. Taliaferro" rowdy@loxinfo.co.th> Reply-To: rowdy@loxinfo.co.th To: Christine Corfield rastegaissa@netscape.net> Subject: [Fwd: Fwd: RE: Tsunami] Here are two reports from yachts at Langkawi, the first from DEUSA and the second from KIHOE Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 13:52:50 +0700
Dear Rowdy, Thanks so much for your two great reports. Here's ours. Thanks so much for asking how we are. By now you must have received our short note saying we are fine and will come back to you as soon as things have calmed down.

Well, everything is getting back to normal in a somewhat altered world swept away by powerful water. Awesome and scary the power of the elements, whether it is air, fire or water.

Fortunately for us we were sitting at anchor in a sheltered bay outside of Telaga Harbour Marina, protected by two small man-made islands. We had chosen this spot to spend Christmas and New Year as it is peaceful and beautiful, protected from the North-east trade winds, with stunning views of the Matchincang range of mountains, forest and beach. The two little islands behind us are ideal for Tara to run free on without hassle from anyone.
So there we were on Boxing Day and Robert had decided to look up the tide tables for the area to correct the tide clock. Robert told me it was high tide. I looked towards the shore and rather scathingly told him that it certainly was not, the water was right out and the fishing boats were high and dry on the sand.

Being nearly full moon this was totally possible and so we exchanged some rather acrimonious comments, such as - do you think I am stupid and can't read the tables - well my eyes aren't deceiving me and the water is right out - these tables are quite correct - maybe you are in the wrong hemisphere - look I'm not the village idiot you know. At that moment a call on channel 69 of the VHF alerted us that there were strange waves breaking outside. Looking up I saw a great wave curling and breaking before the entrance gap of the islands, the sunlight shining through the green water like a surfer's dream come true. Only it shouldn't have been there and when Nature plays a trick like that the mind won't register the change and says - oh no, that's not possible.

I shouted for Robert to come and look and he leapt up from the computer, took one glance and said - start the motor. We were stern to the flooding water pouring through the entrance and he had the presence of mind to reverse into it, stretching out our anchor chain away from the beach and even though it walloped into us and shoved us forward it did not pull out the anchor due to the full force of our powerful motor. It swept under us and roared up the beach only to return in full force once again from the other direction. By this time we were turned sideways on with our beam to the tossing waves which chucked us around like a matchstick.
But Deusa is a very strong matchstick and although all our belongings down below were thrown to the floor, she and ourselves suffered no damage at all - what a miracle. The lagoon became a swirling bathtub with the sea rushing in and out almost like it was breathing. Every few minutes the surge would change direction after the initial three waves that came pounding in. The marina basin lies inside a protected channel, is newly built and quite solid. It was full of yachts, not one empty berth. We watched in horror as the yachts tied up in there started throwing backwards and forwards clashing masts and then the strangest thing happened; they all started moving in a macabre carnival carousel, whirling in great circles around the marina in the swirl of rushing water, the pontoons wrenched from their pilings. As the water started to recede they poured out through the channel, spat into the lagoon where we were anchored. The first boat out we recognised - Kihoe - belonging to a friend of ours who is now land-based.
Deusa by now was stabilised and holding on her anchor so we leapt into the dinghy and headed for Kihoe, climbing on board to drop the anchor. However our scrabbling fingers were unaccustomed to the different anchoring set up and we were being swept towards the beach and rocks. So we then found some lines and made one fast to a cleat and tried to tow her to a nearby mooring but to no avail. Therefore the only solution was to guide her out through the gap between the two small islands and in the comparative calm of the open ocean try and get an anchor out. With both of us in the dinghy and using the 25hp motor to push the stern and then the bow we managed to steer her clear of deadly hazards as the sea swept her out. The trouble was that the sea was still moving in and out in a weird tidal flow and we only had a few moments to release the anchor before she would be swept back in again.
The story ends well - we got the anchor down and she was safe. We then went on to do this with five or six other boats as they drifted free of the tangled mess coming from the marina. Some still had pontoons tied to them which we had to cut free. Most boats were locked and put away for the Christmas holidays while owners traveled to visit family and friends. It was an interesting challenge to try and free anchor chains from the windlasses, drag the chain out of the locker across the deck and then not get our feet caught in it as we dropped the anchor.
One doesn't think of the danger at the time and only afterwards, on reflection does one shudder to play the -what if- game. A catamaran that we rescued was totally surrounded by pontoons that were a big drag in the current. We got them cut away and then a floating fisherman's hut with rusty old tin roofing came and lay right across the anchor rope (it had some chain but mostly rope)with the roof resting precariously near the rope.

Robert was in the dinghy but the current was so swift he could not push the hut away without getting swept under the catamaran so we just had to hope it wouldn't chafe. And it didn't, as it finally drifted loose and went off to sea where the fisherfolk rescued it. One poor boat we were unable to help as it had no anchor on board and was locked. Sadly we saw her drift away as we went after others with visible anchors. But she has a charmed life because she drifted into the rocks where she settled for the night and we watched her by the light of the full moon as she gently lay over to rest at low tide. Next morning she was gone - out to sea we presumed. But no, the fishermen had found her and towed her back to safety in the harbour, some-one had loaned an anchor and she was rescued with only a few scratches. Dazed and battered people were saving their boats all around us, motoring out to deep water away from the shore, dropping their anchors and inspecting their injuries. One French aluminium boat was punctured on both sides above the waterline and had stuffed mattresses and pillows into the gaping wounds. Right now there are three boats on the beach behind us on the island. A concrete boat that is resting on rocks and sand with a hole in her hull. Her owner will arrive tomorrow and will have to mix some cement before moving her.
A French fiber glass boat lies near her with her keel firmly wedged in the sand. Yesterday there was a big digging session and then we were all on the beach until 2am trying to shift her with a tug boat and a power boat. Moved her about three metres so will try again today. There is also a very surprised trimaran who had pottered over to the beach at high tide to do some minor repairs and before he knew what was happening the water went all out and then all in and he was swept up to the tree line, far higher than he ever anticipated!! Now he says he will settle down for a long stay and do major repairs!
A friend of ours has lost her boat, holed and sunk in Telaga, her house swept away from the beach, her car and computer gone.

As a yacht broker all her work is on the computer - she is wiped out. Rebak Marina some two nautical miles from Telaga Harbour had a similar experience with all boats and pontoons swept out to sea. These two marinas that were considered so safe are on the west coast of Langkawi where the major surge of water happened. Who, in their wildest dreams, thinks of Tsunamis when storing their boat or thinking of a safe haven. Many people use their boats as retirement homes and have settled comfortably into marina life with light, water, air-con and companionship. This is now all torn apart in a few short hours and they are all anchored out, bewildered and forlorn.

The local staff of these two marinas were totally shell-shocked and unable to do much at all. The Navy Police came around in their big blue power boats but when asked to help anchor boats, were unable to do so. However, they did go around to everyone who was on board, enquiring if they were OK.

Basically the yachting community all helped each other as they always do and there are lots of unsung heroes out there doing good things. Now there is only the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club that has marina facilities in Langkawi and it is full to bursting. Amazingly it suffered very little damage as the tsunami had to turn a corner and run up the channel and so it took the sting out of the waves. One boat from Rebak was sunk, a Warren Catamaran called Bambola.

We took Deusa down to Rebak to talk to people there and on our way sailing back we saw something strange in the water about a mile away. Getting closer we saw the upturned red hull of a boat, with a dinghy attached and thought with horror of people adrift, no radio, no water. No such thing - as we got closer they waved us away shouting that there were trailing lines and would get caught in our prop. They were a salvage operation, diving on the hull, pulling out of it what they could. When we asked the name of the boat they said they didn't know and acted most suspiciously, saying they were working for Rebak Marina.
Later we phoned Rebak to give the GPS position of the wreck and they said they knew nothing of people doing salvage for them. They were welcome to what they could get, the boat was well out to sea - but their manner was most suspect - we wonder who they were? By the way the floating hazard was Bambola. Of course in disasters like this there are lots of rumours flying around and one that kept on threatening us was that there were aftershocks in Sumatra and that we should expect another wave. We all upped anchor and moved further offshore where we spent an anxious Boxing Day night watching the flotsam and jetsam drift past, some quite large and dangerous pieces of pontoon, logs and unidentified objects. The weird thing was that the currents were not running normally with an incoming tide running north and out moving south. It was switching every ten minutes or so and just when something particularly nasty had drifted past and seemed out of harms way, oh no! here it comes back again.
The strange movement of the sea, the awful power of the water, the unexpectedness of it all, left everyone exhausted and nervous, almost like Nature had played a foul trick and the subconscious was picking up on something that the conscious was not really registering.

What happened to all of us in Langkawi was nothing in comparison to the devastation everywhere else and as the death toll rises we count ourselves so lucky we are all here and unhurt. Thank you again for getting in touch with us. Much love Robert and Rosemary PS Michelle is OK we have spoken to her. What of Harry and Susan of Eos? -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Fwd: RE: Tsunami Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 09:30:30 +0700 From: Patricia Michel and James Domville beaujeu1@yahoo.com

To: Rowdy@loxinfo.co.th, paul042@attglobal.net, arjumand@pd.jaring.my, Serenade@lantic.net, , svptarmigan@earthlink.net, raireva@telstra.com, john@differentconcept.com, asiapix2000@yahoo.com, manikanada@bluewin.ch CC: Rastegaissa@netscape.net, zara@routas.com, bligget@pd.jaring.my, rosemary@rrf-publications.com, HIStrass@aol.com, bmurphy@wabi-sabi.com, chris@lapsley.net, gloria.bishop@sympatico.ca, bobrose@netscape.com,

mangareva@videotron.ca

Hi...we received this this morning from Kihoe, it's all about the boats in Langkawi. Love to you, Pat & Jim >X-Apparently-To: beaujeu1@yahoo.com via 206.190.37.71; Tue, 28 Dec >2004 04:10:51 -0800 >Authentication-Results: mta316.mail.scd.yahoo.com > from=penyachts.com; domainkeys=neutral (no sig) >X-Originating-IP: [60.48.91.183] >Reply-To: sales@penyachts.com> >From: "Peninsular Yachts" sales@penyachts.com> >To: beaujeu1@yahoo.com> >Subject: RE: Tsunami >Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 20:10:45 +0800 >Organization: Peninsular Yachts Asia >X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.6626 >

Dear Parsnips >

Thanks for your message. I have decided to compete on length. Because we had attended a medical appointment for Samantha in Penang >on Xmas Eve, after tree dressing and present wrapping we ended up with only four hours sleep into Xmas Day. Therefore, after the culinary excesses of the season, we did not rise too early on Boxing Day. Who says alcohol is bad for you! But for that, our earlier plan had been to breakfast at the Red Tomato on Pantai Cenang Beach.

We could so easily have been sitting in the beach restaurant, watching Samantha playing on the sands, when the wave hit. Kihoe looked after herself. As soon as the marina started to break up she broke her lines and floated out with the after surge. Robert and Rosemary on Deusa, at anchor outside off the beach, saw her coming and used there dinghy to help her navigate around the new islands.
Once she was outside they jumped on board and dropped her anchor. (We definitely owe them a couple of tubes of Smarties.)

By the time we arrived at the marina Kihoe was already lying serenely outside and bone dry. We were in our apartment in Kuah when the waves hit.

Our first indication of trouble was receiving a distraught phone call from Anne at the marina office saying "Come now, Come now, big trouble, Telaga finished, Kihoe already gone, marina finished, staff gone, come now". We could not get her to say what had happened. We quickly dressed and set off in the car for the half hour drive to Telaga Harbour wondering what had happened. Could there have been a freak storm? There were no signs of it on the roads. Perhaps a fire, surely not terrorists!
We had not heard yet about the earthquake.
It was not until we passed Kuala Teriang (on the junction near the 'other' Sheraton) that we knew. The first indication was water on the wrong side of the road, then fishing boats in the Mosque car park, then finally the fishing village flattened... People died here! Michelle Pippen lost her beach house, she was in it at the time and her ordeal and survival, only later to hear that she also had lost Sympatico, is a story that deserves telling separately. By the time we arrived at the Marina an hour must alredy have passed since the event. It was entire chaos, only the fuel dock, the working jetty and a short piece of pontoon at the bottom of the entrance ramp had survived. The rest had completely disappeared, although most, if not all, of the piles >were standing. Many boats were gone and could be seen outside. We could not see Kihoe and did not yet know where she was, although we did get a message that she was safe. Some unsecured boats were still whizzing around the harbour carried by bizarre currents. Most unmanned, some with crew helpless aboard, as they slammed into the piles and each other, like some crazy bumper car derby. We saw one guy just finish getting his boat tied to the pontoon in front of us when onlookers began screaming 'get out! get out!' Another surge was coming. He was finally persuaded to leave only seconds before the large cat 'Spellbound', doing at least ten knots backwards, wiped his boat off the pontoon again. I watched Skana, another large cat, speed sideways into a pile. The shock put her starboard hull completely underwater for a moment, and she must have been holed. Santushti had broken free from a mooring and was zooming in and out of the marina, miraculously missing everything. She finally wrapped her bow line round a pile and settled there. We don't know whether it was then or earlier that she lost her bowsprit. Tri-Oddysey had been inverted by the first wave. Ruth normally takes a morning walk while Gerry stays on board. On this day he had un-typically joined her and they both watched from the shore as she flipped, broke up and sank. Had they been on board they would not have survived. They have lost everything including credit cards, clothes and passports.

Sympatico was lost at this time, probably our Macgregor too! At least four boats were already sunk, by the end of the day that had became eight, with more damaged and taking water. It was still very dangerous out there, but a couple of dinghies were doing what they could to catch and stabilize boats. There was a shortage of dinghies. Most of those in the water had been lost in the surges. Mine had gone out with Kihoe. It was nearly two hours before things had calmed enough for me to hitch a ride out to her. She was remarkably secure. The dinghy on her stern must have served as a bumper because her davits are bent. Her pulpit has been bent and torn out and the bow rollers destroyed. However, down below she was bone dry and everything in its normal place. There were reports of another wave coming in an hour. So I started getting ready to move her. The engine started up straight away, but began to fill the bilge with cooling water. Also, the bow roller was acting as a chain stopper, so there was no way of lifting the anchor quickly. Just before the next wave was due Deusa took me off, and I spent the next three hours with them, being fed tea and sandwiches (more Smarties) >while we waited. The reports kept coming on VHF of more waves due but they were always somehow an hour away. They never seemed to make sense, but better safe than sorry. However, we could get no confirmation from Phuket that they hat been hit again so, eventually we decided to ignore the doomsayers.

I had planned to move Kihoe inside the islands, but there were now several boats on the beaches that might come loose overnight, so we left her where she was with Deusa and Why Knot both keeping an eye. The following day we got on board and fixed the engine. I had blown a welsh plug on the manifold so stuffed the hole with epoxy putty. Brian from Why Knot brought a five foot scaffold pole over and we (mostly he) modified the already modified bow roller sufficient to allow the chain to pass. We raised the anchor, albeit very slowly, and moved Kihoe round to Bass Harbour. The doomsayers were back... more VHF messages of waves coming. One unidentified idiot even announced 'Red Alert, Red Alert, Penang had just been hit again with a wave of the same ferocity as yesterday'. (How his VHF message reached us from Penang, no-one has explained, nor how the wave reached Penang BEFORE Langkawi. However, there were now reports of a tidal wave coming from Penang!!!!!

We ignored them. I had been lucky enough to throw myself at the mercy of the RLYC as being unable to anchor shortly before they decided to survey their marina for damage before admitting new boats. So we are now lucky enough to be tied up >alongside there.
Rebak is destroyed.
In my opinion it would have survived if better constructed and maintained. Like the yacht club, which rode out the >waves and survived, the surge hit D Dock side on. However the piles all broke like matchsticks and the dock floated away, breaking up, to take out C Dock then B Dock and eventually A Dock. Telaga unfortunately took the wave end on... NO pontoon system is designed to have one end 18 feet higher than the other. Full marks to Telaga Harbour and the yachties there for the many rescues and support.

A few injuries but nobody died! (I did hear that a >tourist had been swept off the beach at Burau Bay, next door). I also hear that funds are already approved for the re-build and a team arriving from Singapore next week to begin construction. That's what happens when you have a mariner in charge! There are many more stories, particularly of the event itself and how people survived. We are thinking of collating them and mounting a website. Glad to hear you are both OK. Love from Samantha (who can now say Salami... what a benign name for such a destructive force), Mary Ann and Tim.

 

Nothing happened, they didn't know a wave had passed.

Bill H.

 

Welcome Xrudi: Thanks for relaying your friends' reports.

Have boat owners in the area discussed the possibility of a Dunkirk style flotilla of boats to Aceh to assist in the relief effort? Would money for fuel & provisions and/or a military escort and coordination help? If someone were to propose something like that I'd be interested in putting such a proposal in front of UN & relief agency people here in New York.
(for background on Dunkirk, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/765004.stm)

Another possibility is to put together a procurement team to help relief agencies buy usable boats in your area. Would the yacht broker who lost her home be a candidate for such a procurement team?

Note that a Naval Architecture professor in Thailand, Alik, has posted at http://boatdesign.net/forums/showthread.php?t=6033&page=1, that D'ARTOIS and I are in touch with two marine industry people in Sumatra and Singapore respectively, and that CDBarry may have a contact or two in Singapore through SNAME.

 

Any word of damage in Australia? Were they (the Aussies) on the scene fairly quickly?

 

Australian damage

No, there have been no damage reports coming from Australia even though I suspect waves would have been felt.

Closest area to the quake is very low population particularly close to the coast in northern WA and western NT. These areas also have 30+ feet tides and are subjected to frequent cyclones (and therefore storm surges) so there are no permanent buildings close to high tide level.

I think Australia was the first country providing aid.

Regards,

nevd

 

i should study CFD but can anyone here in a simple manner explane me the high speed of a schockwave?

 

Yipster, are you thinking of the tsunami wave? There's a page on sound and water waves here:
http://electron9.phys.utk.edu/phys135d/modules/m10/sound.htm
Water waves are about halfway down, and tsunamis are below that. The tsunami section also has a couple more links in it.

Apparently the wave speed gets slower in shallower water. That means the wavelength shortens. And that means the energy in the wave has to change from motion, i.e. speed, to height, i.e. the amplitude increases until the wave breaks on shore.

P.S. What does CFD mean?

 

Thanks for the link Skip, seems like that page is what i'm looking for. CFD is short for Computer Fluid Dynamics. i know you can blow a whistle above and under water, sort of amazing to me couse liquid does not compres (Boile etc). sonar works but how and at what speed do these waves travel? with this tsunami i was again shown on tv that actual fysical water waves can travel up to 1000 km hr. enough talk, i'll read your site now.

 

A yacht for Indonesia

Dear Friends,

Yes, there is a movement called "A Yacht for Aceh" organized by Mr. Luca Schueli a Swiss. The idea is to sail from Thailand or Malaysia with food and supplies.

I don't know how effective this and if the Indonesien goverment will allow yachts to enty the area. There is a war going on for over 50 years..

There are some rumors that minefields were displaced with the waves. This adds to the problem.

Indonesia has the capability to produce a large amout of fibre glass boats in a very short time. ( I was for 10 years the advisor for shipbuilding in Indonesia). What is needed is a decision to build these boats.

The Indonesian navy has also a large amount of landing crafts (East German origin) which could be used for supply operations. To move this resources, a little force is needed Maybe we could help them to help themself.

Best Regards

Rudi