Report on Tidal Wave from Phuket

The first thing I want to say is that Active Light is fine, unharmed, and so are the both of us, Nancy and Neil Sirman. Nancy is in the USA visiting her mother and I am on the boat in Phuket doing a thousand and one long-postponed boat maintenance jobs.

I am in no position to be capable of describing the enormity of the tidal wave disaster which struck South East Asia on December 26th, even if I had sufficient data to do so. I am receiving daily BBC radio reports of the situation, as I am certain you are, and I am proud that the United States is one of the first countries to be in the worst- hit areas of Sumatra helping directly with relief efforts.

In the Phuket vicinity, there were no cruising boats lost during this disaster that I am aware of, but there were many boats that were rolled and shipped water through open hatches. The day the tidal wave or surge hit the southwest beaches of Phuket was beautifully clear and sunny, little wind, and calm conditions. Having spoken to several people who were anchored on the southwest shores, the only warning was that water levels dropped several meters prior to the waves and surges that followed. Most people tell of a series of three surges with the first most nearly approaching a breaking wall of water. They tell of people being drawn by curiosity to the receding water and dry beaches prior to the wave hitting, puzzled by the water's recession. The second two waves were more like enormous non-cresting surges, but they were nonetheless devastating. There is considerable variation in how the waves presented themselves depending on bottom contour of the bay the boats were in. For the most part, there was no huge wall of water that came crashing in on the anchored fleet. The water came as a powerful surge that swamped everything and washed away all in its path. Most all boats held at anchor, some were lucky or prudent enough to escape to the open sea when they saw the water dropping so fast. The devastation on the southwest beaches is terrible. There is such a feeling of sadness among the Thai people here and much loss of life and property on the beaches.

In the Yacht Haven Marina, the only effect felt was a surging tidal current of about eight knots one way, followed by eight knots reversing shortly thereafter. No boats in the marina were damaged at all, the marina lying on the northeast shore of the island. The day after the disaster, however, many boats that were out at anchorages started coming in with wounded people aboard, some still in intensive care units at the local hospital. The owner of  local Muslim restaurant, Imron, was at Patong Beach when the wave hit. He was carried out to sea three times, dunked repeatedly before he managed to swim back to shore. He is a relatively young and athletic man and narrowly escaped drowning. His voice seems ruined, though. He speaks now with a hoarse rasp.

I have heard that two well-known south-facing marinas on the island of Langkawi were wiped out with many boats lost. We had almost decided to spend our layover season in one of these. Dan, Marian, and Dana Corley aboard Windwalker III are safely on the hard in the Wavemaster Marina having gel-coat repair.

We very much appreciate the concern and email from those of you who have worried about our welfare. We have returned an email to each who has written us. In our last webpage, we explained that our shipboard radio was not functioning, that we would be using only our Hotmail account at worldvoyage@hotmail.com until the radio is repaired. I placed a mailto link on that webpage for people to use. Please be aware that email sent to our radio email at ac7qk@winlink.org is out of service for the time being. Please do not send to this account, you will only get frustrated and worried unnecessarily.

Thank you for your concern and inquiries,

Neil and Nancy Sirman
s/v Active Light
Yacht Haven Marina
Phuket, Thailand