South Bay Tsunami
 

Here's a strange report from this after noon. Took my family out in my buddies 17' skiff and headed south out of J street. The tide was supposed to be rising, except when we got to the end of the bird island the water was going out at about 3-4 knots. And about 20 minutes later it came back in at the same speed. There were huge eddies all around the end of the bird reserve island. This rise and fall happened 2 more times over 40 minutes. I'm estimating the sea level change was about 2.5 feet. I can only guess that many of the after shocks in Japan, some up to 7 on the richter scale, are producing tsunamis. I've been on and around SD Bay for 40 years and I can tell you what I saw today was not any tide generated phenomina. Mike

That's nuts. I called my parents this morning while they were on their boat up northish, and in the course of our phone conversation the water level rose four feet. They said that before they got to the boat this morning the white caps of the dock pylons were knocked off because the water level rose so high.

On the evening news tonight they showed the damaged caused by the Mission Bay bait barge when it came loose and collided with a dock due to the tidal surge. It not only damaged the dock but also quite a few boats, too.

Pat Abbott, the geologist from SDSU who is usually interviewed after these types of events, was saying the bays and harbors commonly sustain more damage the the coasts as the water is in a confined space and has no place to go.

They also showed some footage of the tidal surge up in L.A. harbor (Santa Monica, I think). It looked worst than down here as you could see a wall of water pushing some loose skiffs around like toys.

BTW, GO AZTECS!!!

Water was rushing in and out of Oceanside pretty fast today as well. There were a few spots where you could see visible signs of strong undercurrents and there were a couple coast guard/harbor patrol boats re-locating buoys back to where they were supposed to be.

Every few minutes when I was rigging up on the ramp, I would have to move the kayak back into the water.

Peddled out to reef 2 and had a navy boat contact me to tell me to stay 500+ yards from a nearby ship. (i was a lot farther than that) ... between the big swells and them camping out next to me for the whole time I was there, I decided just to go back into the harbor.

Yeah, but did you catch any fish?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gw54iSiRH8



some footage of DP harbor

Ed, thanks for bringing me back to whats important. The water was absolutley horrible back there. Muddy, foamy, and clogged with eel grass. That said my 9 year old fought it out with a 20lb or so batray on the little spinner and 6lb. That went on for a while and ended predictably. The boat side break off was fine with me. Mike

I noticed the same thing in mission bay yesterday. Big surges, and the currents seemed to be real strange. When I landed my yak was almost entirely in the sand, went to my truck and came back and the yak was almost entirely in the water again.

Nothing like watching your kid pull on a big fish. Add a little Tsunami adventure and what a day.

You got that right, Mike. We went bugging Saturday night. Right before sunset, Zuniga jetty was a river. Headed back into the bay, but still those surges kept coming. Never seen anything like it, and definitely no tide generated phenomina.

WOW!!! That's some crazy stuff right there. Like a river. Thanks for posting.

There goes a set of nicely tuned props. The pilot was right on the edge! Been thru a few "tidal change currents" before,not fun..actually its very hairy.

Nordhavn 75.. between three and four million. Awesome boat to see and fish the world on. if only it was faster! can't believe the pilot almost lost it!:eek:

I was on that boat last year...the 75 sportfish/trawler is Nordhavn's new boat design and very cherry. Glad it made it out safe. But you're right...they are slower than sail boats on a windless day. haha. But they'll take you anywhere you want to go. (The 43 tops out at like 8 knots).