This morning we left Imagine and dinghied ashore to catch the water taxi to the mainland. Once ther we started to walk into Nukualofa to do some shopping. We only got half way down the road when a siren sounded. Then over a loud speaker system first in Tongan then in English came the announcement, there had been an earthquake off Tonga and there was a force 4 tsunami alert.
A few minutes later the Police were trying to rush us off the streets. We made our way as quick as possible to the wharf. The taxi that brought us, was nowhere in sight. We managed to get a local with a big outboard to take us back to Imagine. We didn’t bother to stop and pick up the dinghy from shore. We just hauled anchor and headed to deeper water.
Most of the boats we had spent the night with were already ahead of us. The remaining boats had their owners stranded on the mainland. There was one boat with 2 onboard and a brocken motor and another with only one onboard that couldn’t move the boat on her own. Unfortunately there was nothing we could do to help. Our first priority was getting Imagine away from shore and to safer water.
As we pulled out of the bay we were battening down the hatches and strapped everything down. The radar was on to see if we could see it coming. After an hour sitting out in deep water the all clear was given. The main wave had passed Tongatapu and we were safe.
The flotilla of boats all returned to the bay by lunch time and had a quiet afternoon.
