Feb 27 Tsunami Regatta

Feb 27 found us still anchored in Bahia de los Ninos, fast asleep at 8 a.m. when there suddenly came a hail "Just a Minute, Just a Minute." There was a dinghy just off our stern with a fellow cruiser calling urgently for us. We came awake quickly and went on deck. Fearing that we were dragging or some other small catastophe, it took a few seconds for his message to sink in. There had been a giant earthquake in Chile and the entire coast of Mexico was on Tsunami Alert. Thankfully, this kind man was going around the anchorage to make sure everyone had heard the news, a good thing since people like us turn our radios off at night so we aren't disturbed by radio traffic. Cruisers had already been broadcasting the news on the VHF radio. Though it was only an alert, vessels were cautioned to head out to deeper water, in the event of a tsunami. The local time was 8 o'clock and the tsunami shock was supposed to hit our area in three hours. Quickly, the boats anchored around us were pulling anchor and heading out to sea. You just can't stay behind when everyone else is leaving, so we followed suit

It was a parade of boats. I have never seen so many boats at sea at the same time in Mexico. Boats from all the marinas and anchorages began leaving. A lovely 10 knot breeze quickly had everyone raising their sails and soon the horizon was filled with the beautiful sight of full sails. We all had a lovely day on the water and then after the danger was past we all returned to anchor. We chose to head back to Tenacatita. Quickly the anchorage filled back up and once agains there were over 20 boats anchored here. The tsunami alert came to nothing in our area and we would have been fine to just stay put - but it is always better to be safe.

Rudy was very excited because he heard that we were on a "Salami Alert." Of course, Rudy is always on Salami Alert. Alas, that didn't pan out either.

Internet access is getting harder and harder to find as we head south and from now on I will try to keep a running post going on my comjputer and then post several days' posts whenever I get a chance. Also, the connection has not been good enough yet to upload video or pictures, but I have some great stuff I can't wait to post when I find a good connection. We caught some video of the mother and baby dolphin, and have very funny footage of anchoring in the squall at Ipala and the bash through the waves at Cabo Corientes.