Abalonia: The Island Nation That Never Was

atlasobscura.com

34 points·onychomys··5 comments

“The idea of someone trying to resurrect a sunken island is such an American idea to me”

This did make me smile given the amazing work of the Dutch over hundreds of years to turn what is effectively a delta into a (not only viable but) thriving living space, including the resurrection of areas that were previously inhabited, subsequently flooded; though it didn't always go to plan! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saeftinghe

> However, they didn’t know about the waves.

> Also involved ... aquatic expert James Houtz.

Not much of an expert if the didn't know about the waves.

No one really did back then. It wasn't until the mid 90's that the monster swells there became any sort of common knowledge.

I'm hoping to head out there next summer, apparently the undersea island and the wreck are incredible for spearing tuna and yellowtail.

Even so, if I was planning on starting my own country, I'd probably, like, go check it out once or twice before starting. Or ask some local experts who could tell me about it. Something, anyway.

You could check it out a hundred times, but uless you were there during a relatively short window of time after a big storm in the eastern pacific, you wouldn’t have seen these waves.

In the 60s we didn’t have satellite photography or radar, so only a handful of ‘lucky’ people would have ever seen conditions like that. Remember - it’s 100 miles offshore, it’s not inhabited...

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