Huge Dock Washes Ashore

While we’re not inclined to buy into the mainstream media’s hysteria over the debris field set adrift after the Japanese tsunami in March 2011, the recent groundings of large — and very hard — objects can’t help but send a shiver down the spines of anyone who plans to sail home from Hawaii this summer. The most recent addition to the growing list of flotsam discovered along the West Coast is an enormous dock that washed ashore at Newport, Oregon’s Agate Beach earlier in the week. Measuring 66 feet long by 19 feet wide by 7 feet tall, the dock was one of four that broke free during the tsunami. Another was found on an island near where it had originally been moored, which leaves two unaccounted for.

The other two notable pieces of debris which found their way west were a 164-ft ghost ship that was sunk in April by the Coast Guard 180 miles off the coast of Southeast Alaska, and a container — which contained a pricey Harley — that washed ashore on B.C.’s Graham Island in April. Much of what Pacific Cup and Singlehanded TransPac racers will undoubtedly sail through on the way home from the Islands will probably be small, buoyant items. But these recent discoveries should serve as a warning that those sailing home should keep an extra-vigilant eye out — and maybe leave their radars on.