|
|
27-09-2010, 10:52
|
#1
|
Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Liveaboard KW FL/Bocas del Toro
Boat: Shuttlecat 32
Posts: 286
|
The Last Word: Terrors of the Sea
The last word: Terrors of the sea
Are "rogue waves" responsible for the disappearance of dozens of ships every year?
POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 27, 2010, AT 10:05 AM
THE CLOCK READ midnight when the 100-foot wave hit the ship, rising from the North Atlantic out of the darkness. Among the ocean’s terrors, a wave this size was the most feared and the least understood, more myth than reality—or so people had thought. This giant was certainly real. As the RRS Discovery plunged down into the wave’s deep trough, it heeled 28 degrees to port, rolled 30 degrees back to starboard, then recovered to face the incoming seas.
rest here:
The last word: Terrors of the sea - The Week
__________________
Ship O' Fools
It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top. - HST
|
|
|
27-09-2010, 11:24
|
#2
|
Long Range Cruiser
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Australian living on "Sea Life" currently in England.
Boat: Beneteau 393 "Sea Life"
Posts: 12,822
|
I think rouge waves are another fear enhancing piece of balderdash. If they exist at all in any real sense then they are combined waves where you get a doppler effect working on waves from 2 directions. The chance of being hit at that precise moment when the 2 waves are shooting skywards would be infinitesimally remote... but could happen.
If those things occur then they would be down in the deep high latitudes above +- 40 degrees or more.
One of the reasons why I know this is that I lived on the beach front of a 1 km beach for 5 years. I never saw a wave, or evidence of a wave, hitting the back wall.
But I often saw the increased effect when 2 waves of different directions would hit. That went vertically upwards, not laterally.
Stcik to sailing in season and you will be all right
The article said:
Quote:
A series of storms had trapped them 250 miles off the coast of Northern Ireland... late January i.e winter
|
Well, I say he who cruisers there is a ding-bat... or Evans Starzinger.....
LOL
|
|
|
27-09-2010, 11:27
|
#3
|
Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Malvernshire, on the sunny side of the hill.
Boat: 50' steel canal and river cruiser
Posts: 1,905
|
Rogue waves have been proven off South Africa.
What about the monster in 'The perfect storm'?
|
|
|
27-09-2010, 11:40
|
#4
|
Long Range Cruiser
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Australian living on "Sea Life" currently in England.
Boat: Beneteau 393 "Sea Life"
Posts: 12,822
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by anjou
Rogue waves have been proven off South Africa.
What about the monster in 'The perfect storm'?
|
Both those locations are + or - 40 degrees.
Except Cape of Storms could be 35+ degrees but they called it Cape of Storms for a reason.
Further in both cases you have the worlds 2 worst wind against current storm waves. Get 2 waves from different directions superimposed over the Aghulus or Gulf Stream and I am sure you will get some interesting chances of the biggest waves on earth.
Neither place should one be sailing in winter! Sure the 1991 storm that was written as "The Perfect Storm" was on October 28th to November 1st, but I think that far north October 28th is getting where I would be calling it as winter.
Is anyone really crackers enough to go cruising up there, then?
|
|
|
27-09-2010, 11:41
|
#5
|
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Carlsbad, CA
Boat: 1976 Sabre 28-2
Posts: 7,505
|
The 'monster' in the perfect storm is purely a creation of a Hollywood special effects studio. The fishing boat sank without any communication with anyone and the wreck has not been found or inspected. Could have been any one of a hundred things go wrong in those terrible condition. The only that is certain is that the boat disappeared and it was in absolutely the worst wrong place at the right time.
|
|
|
27-09-2010, 11:48
|
#6
|
Long Range Cruiser
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Australian living on "Sea Life" currently in England.
Boat: Beneteau 393 "Sea Life"
Posts: 12,822
|
I just found this cool write up on it in Wikipaedia.
It was a perfect storm. An extra tropical hurricane hit and absorbed a tropical hurricane!
The highest wave is interesting, but for me the AVERAGE waves and the sustained winds
1991 Perfect Storm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
|
|
27-09-2010, 12:37
|
#7
|
Senior Cruiser
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario - 48-29N x 89-20W
Boat: (Cruiser Living On Dirt)
Posts: 49,082
|
As Mark previously suggested, rogue waves form when strong winds beat against an opposing ocean current, when waves from different storms join forces, or when swells interact in strange ways with a particular seafloor.
__________________
Gord May
"If you didn't have the time or money to do it right in the first place, when will you get the time/$ to fix it?"
|
|
|
27-09-2010, 12:49
|
#8
|
S/V rubber ducky
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: heading "south"
Boat: Hunter 410
Posts: 20,362
|
For us sailor types it would seem whether these 100 foot waves doesn't really matter all that much. Wouldn't it be like taking more posion than needed to kill yourself?
Maybe they occur when the Gods release the Kracken.
|
|
|
27-09-2010, 13:09
|
#9
|
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Central California
Boat: M/V Carquinez Coot
Posts: 3,782
|
Because of a rogue wave ...
|
|
|
27-09-2010, 14:09
|
#11
|
Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: UK
Posts: 834
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete7
|
You'll enjoy this ..... http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...tml#post524763
I'm glad I was not on that boat...
__________________
Arthur Dent: "I wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was younger"
Ford Prefect: "Why? What did she say?"
Arthur: "I don't know - I didn't listen!!"
|
|
|
27-09-2010, 14:16
|
#12
|
Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Solent, England
Boat: Moody 31
Posts: 18,398
|
So how does the chef cook fried eggs in that
|
|
|
27-09-2010, 16:00
|
#13
|
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Eastern Tennessee
Boat: Research vessel for a university, retired now.
Posts: 10,406
|
They exist. Satellites with radar that study the oceans detect them frequently. The reality is that you need to be in just the right place at the wrong time when the amplitudes of two or more large waves combine to make one enormous wave.
I kinda think you need to worry more about lightning.
__________________
David
Life begins where land ends.
|
|
|
28-09-2010, 07:32
|
#14
|
CF Adviser
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Wherever our boat is; Playa Zaragoza, Isla Margarita
Boat: 1994 Solaris Sunstream 40
Posts: 2,449
|
Roverhi, the monster wave in 'The Perfect Storm' was, of course, a Hollywood creation. However, as I recall, waves during that storm in excess of 100 feet were measured by sensors near that area. As to saling in the North Atlantic in late October, early November - that is, in fact, the typical departure date for boats leaving NE Canada and the United States for an offshore passage down to the Caribbean.
Do I think we need to panic about the possibility of being struck by a monster rogue wave? Absolutely not. But recent science certainly seems to be suggesting that they may be more common than at first thought.
Brad
|
|
|
28-09-2010, 08:07
|
#15
|
Long Range Cruiser
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Australian living on "Sea Life" currently in England.
Boat: Beneteau 393 "Sea Life"
Posts: 12,822
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Southern Star
Do I think we need to panic about the possibility of being struck by a monster rogue wave? Absolutely not. But recent science certainly seems to be suggesting that they may be more common than at first thought.
Brad
|
the 2 examples we are looking at here, one was in 1991 and one in 1995.
Using my fingers and toes to count, its a lot of years.
Why arn't these weather bouys and their Big Brother Controller finding more? Like enough to eat those "dozens of ships per year"?
2 waves in 20 years does not make a it a credible threat, imho.
|
|
|
|
|
Thread Tools |
Search this Thread |
|
|
Display Modes |
Rate This Thread |
Linear Mode
|
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
Advertise Here
Recent Discussions |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Vendor Spotlight |
|
|
|