You have probably already seen this image of the underwater volcano explosion near Tonga a few days go. I know those waters. I have sailed to Tonga many times and to me this image is astounding. That cloud for lack of a better word is almost two hundred nautical miles in diameter and when the image was taken still expanding.
The explosion caused tsunami warnings to be issued throughout the Pacific. I have seen pictures of boats damaged as far away as Japan, and this morning Zane in New Zealand sent me a link to damage at Tutukaka Marina not far south of the Bay of Islands. I thank him.
I have often anchored at Tutakaka, though I have never gone into the marina. The entrance to the harbor is extremely narrow. I would have thought that once inside a boat would be safe. Obviously I was wrong. I surmise that enough energy made it into the harbor and there constrained, magnified.
I am sitting as I often do by our bedroom window, looking out on Skull Creek where there are rare white-caps but less than 1’/.3 meter wavelets. Hilton Head is on the edge of a winter storm. Rain has been falling steadily since last night, but according to the radar should soon be moving away. Unfortunately it will move north where it will still be over land rather than out to sea. A hundred miles inland it is causing snow and ice in places where they seldom happen. A gale warning for near coastal waters is in place and I have seen buoy reports of gusts above 30 knots. As usual we do not have nearly that much wind on this side of the island. I expect perhaps gusts in the low 20s, which are enough to be making a humming sound and to dance the Spanish moss into a frenzy.
I checked out the Eagle cam where I found the eaglets huddled together for warmth. The tree is being shaken. I wonder what they are thinking about this world into which they so recently hatched. Probably: When is somebody going to feed me?
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