Earthquake – San Francisco Bay

Yesterday morning, 0530 early, we were nudged from our sleep – a 3.4 magnitude quake brought us half awake – in time to hear a roaring sound – that I first thought was a big engine starting, then louder, then what seemed like a not so distant sonic boom – which shook the entire boat and us – and was, in fact, a 4+ magnitude earthquake.

Wow!  When DESERT VENTURE is in the water, as has happened on several occasions while visiting San Francisco Bay, when an earthquake happens we sleep sound through the event, and hear about it the next day on the news.  This time we were just a mile from the epicenter (in El Cerrito), and sitting in the water didn’t totally protect us from this event.   Since we were awake we turned on the television and within a minute they were reporting the earthquake.

We are in Marina Bay in Richmond, CA.   It is a lovely setting with nice housing developments surrounding the bay.   Most of the lights were on in those homes.  It is certain they experienced a bigger jolt/shake/etc., than we did yesterday morning.  We suffered no damage but the land dwellers probably have more dramatic stories to tell.

Safe and Sound

Confirming the quake, we went back to bed.  It took awhile for me to drop back off to sleep – waiting for what might come next.

During those last awake moments it occurred to me, that we almost repeated history, though.   Four years ago, we were sitting in the boat yard here in Richmond, when a 5.6 mag earthquake happened.  It was early evening, and it was not fun – the boat, sitting on blocks on the hard creaked, rattled, groaned.  I held on and prayed that DESERT VENTURE wouldn’t fall over on her side – not that it should happen with her under body design, but it seemed possible to me at the time.  There was no damage.  DV rode out the quake and stayed square on her blocks.

Boat Yard 2012

We scheduled our boat yard for this year on March 1.  That haul out would have put us on the hard for yesterday’s quake.  <sigh> However, Bruce and I came down with our second miserable cold since the middle of January, and were not up to boat yard ops.  Haul out was scheduled for today.

Nope, we’re still not on the hard!  Winds were over 25 knots one hour before we were to head to the boat yard this morning.  We were ready to call the whole thing off when the boat yard manager did it for us.   So, third time is a charm, right?

Tomorrow we are scheduled for haul out at 0900.

Standby!   Boat yard ops is next!

Related articles

• Bay Area hit by two earthquakes – 3.5 and 4.0 – moments apart (latimesblogs.latimes.com)