Steve & Barbara Seide Safe After Tsunami

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Steve and Barbara Seide are OK. They are past New Jersey Day Sailer racers who were in Malaysia living on their boat when the Tsunami hit. In October 2004, on a visit to the U.S., they visited with many Day Sailers at the annual Virginia Inland Sailing Association regatta in Moneta, VA.

Below is their email to all describing Tsunami damage near where they were. I believe Steve and Barbara would be OK with having a link to the text below be added to the DS website temporarily, as their letter is a mass mailing to friends and Day Sailers, and in years past their letters have been posted on the DS website.

-Mary Heimer and Rob Bonney

--------------------
Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 00:58:21 -0800 (PST)
From: steve seide
Subject: Tsunami, we are OK

Hello all,

First, Happy Holidays and I hope you all have a
healthy and happy new year!! I know many of you have
been trying to find out our status. Thanks for your
concern and we are fine!!

New Years celebrations last night were subdued in
deference to the victims, and collections have been
made of cash and goods for distribution today to the
people affected.

We were at the southern edge of the tsumani area and
when it hit our generator was not working. Since the
generator drives our watermaker, and is our favored
method of charging batteries, the priority went up on
making sure it was fully functional. (The injectors
were clogged and I removed them and had the nozzels
replaced.) We have always refrained from using shore
water and this is likely to be even more important as
we go across the Indian Ocean. We now have 10 months
of provisions aboard as well. Here in Malaysia there
was limited loss of life and property, less than 100
killed and isolated damage. The country is fully
functional, and except for some coastal portions of
some towns, so is Thailand.

We will try to send updates out more frequently to
give you our observations. We hear the CNN, BBC and
other news agencies, and reality does not always agree
with what is presented. We were in Phuket, Phanghna
Bay, Phi Phi, and the Andamans last season. We may
stop in Phi Phi and Phuket on our way west, but the
Andamans are out of the way.

***Here is what we wrote to Marsha, Barbara's sister
the day after the quake:***
The rest is commentary:

The quake, and mostly the resulting tsunamis, have
been tragic for many people. Death and injury figures
have been rising steadily for the past 24 hours. As
of now (Dec 26) 20,000 dead and growing, mostly Sri
Lanka, then Indonesia, India (including Andaman and
Nicobars), Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Maldives, and
possibly Bangladesh. Singapore not affected, and not
Chagos.

The major event occurred near noon on Boxing Day
Langkawi Malaysia Time, which is where we are. It was
virtually simultaneous in most other areas. There was
essentially no warning for anyone anywhere, and I am
now hearing news reports that technical people knew
there was a wave danger once the quake hit, but there
is no structure to report into in SE Asia. In defense
of the officials here it should be noted that this
sort of event has not been seen here for 60 years, 100
years, or perhaps ever. Inmarsat-C had nothing.

We were at anchor in 20 feet of water on Xmas day for
a party with a few other boats (Ad Astra [host],
Cockaigne, & Sunflower; all these are fine also.) We
picked up our anchor just around the time the tsunami
arrived, and noticed nothing. Ad Astra had picked up
an hour earlier and was motoring to Telaga to load up
on fuel for a trip North. They were near Rebak when
the radio chatter started. They also noticed nothing
in terms of unusual conditions. Sunflower had just
anchored at Kuah and noticed nothing. At Royal
Langkawi Yacht Club Cockaigne watched the water level
rise to put the floating docks within a meter of the
tops of the pilings, which is 2-3 meters above max
high water. There were downs and ups with strong
current running through the marina, but no damage to
boats or facilities. Telaga Marina was destroyed.
Rebak Marina was destroyed. There are at least 8
boats sunk at Telaga. Only one boat was sunk at
Rebak, but the marina is gone, and even the bar at the
resort swimming pool was washed away. Hardstand area
was untouched. Penang beaches were hard hit, but not
the new marina there.

The tsunami occurred just about at high water, which
helps explain the severity of the result. It was not
a super high tide, but obviously with a lower
astrological tide there might have been less loss of
life and property. Rosemary and Robert on Deusa, at
anchor just outside Telaga, were an eye witness. They
report that Robert saw a large water outflow from the
marina and remarked that it must be near low water.
Rosemary replied that it was definitely near high
water. A few minutes later the water surged into the
marina rising 8+ feet and then quickly came back down
pulling much of the underpinnings of the marina with
it. I think the water "flushed" in and out a few more
times bringing docks with yachts tied to them along.
Some docks flipped and boats were flipped or holed.
Some people were able to cut loose and get out to
clear water. Deusa, as usual for them, brought
several unoccupied boats out and anchored them.

Bottom Line: Rebak and Telaga are man made basins with
narrow entrances bounded by stone seawalls. RLYC is
at an open harbor with a wood pile wave break and a
new stone seawall to reduce the wind chop and ferry
wakes. RLYC is usually the least favorite place for
comfort due to ferry wake and current running thru the
marina. Clearly RLYC's location allowed the wave
surges to flow freely instead of overfilling and
emptying boat basins. Also, as long as you have a
reasonable amount of water under you a boat at sea is
barely affected. (At Patong, although a large bay,
the water flowed out first puting some anchored boats
on their side on the ground before the surge came in.
I don't think there was any loss of anchored boats
there, but beach goers, jet skiers, shore hotels,
buildings, and vehicles were washed away. Phi Phi Don
was destroyed, with over 200 killed and many still
missing.)

We are in a berth in RLYC and will stay through New
Years. People are understandably skittish and there
have been reports of additional wave sighting and
arrivals. Information is pretty unreliable. We are
trying to keep alert, but not on edge.

Thanks again for asking about us. Both we and Ad
Astra have had some boat repairs that caused us to
linger in Langkawi and hold the Xmas party here
instead of Patong or the beach just north of there.
We would have been at the most severe point of the
tsunami's impact on Phuket. We were in Rebak until
12/22 and Ad Astra left 12/24. Ad Astra wanted the
party to be outside marinas in sight of a beach.
Wow!!

Hugs to all,
Steve & Barbara
***end***