Note to self: When beachcombing, check the tide tables.

On March 11, 2011, this piece of floating dock was attached to Misawa in Japan and was being used by local fishermen to offload squid catches. The tsunami broke it loose and last week it washed up on Agate Beach in Oregon after a 5,000 mile journey.

We hoped to see it up close but forgot it was high tide.

The dock has high “windage”, bits poking out about the waterline that the wind can push, so it moved faster than items that are at or below the water which are driven just by water currents. Apparently there were 5 million tons of debris that were washed out to sea and about 1.5 million tons that did not sink off Japan. We can expect a few more of those to arrive over the next few months.

The sign for the tsunami zone always makes me chuckle. It depicts a very Hollywood idea of a wave – surfs up dude – but the reality of a tsunami as we saw from the horrific Japan YouTube videos, is far more sinister, slow, and deadly. You don’t run uphill away from this kind of disaster; you watch as it slowly eats your towns and property and sends them across the Pacific.