Big bad seas

[Sandy]

I've been sailing all week on Lake Solent with a chap who has just completed his PhD thesis on on waves and this thread sparked an interesting and informative discussion over supper. So much so I've asked to read it after I need to address him as doctor.

 

[MisterBaxter]

Experienced it once on a loaded 100,000 ton OBO. Not so much a big wave but a big hole in the ocean. We were slow steaming at about 7 or 8 knots into a fresh sw'ly. Sea wasn't too bad. On my watch - suddenly one wave top missing and just bloody great hole, down down down she went, buried the full front end in the next wave, ship disappeared up to about midships. Speed - on the SAL log - of about 120,000 tons of ship and cargo dropped on the instant to 1 or 2 knots.

I witnessed something like this myself once in the Bristol Channel, albeit on a microscopic scale compared to your experience. It was a lively day with steep waves around the 4-5' mark, with the wind across the tide. Looking to windward I saw a large pit in the water moving diagonally towards me - moving with the waves but also sideways across the wave fronts, maintaining its size and shape as It moved. It appeared to be about 2' deeper than the troughs of the other waves, so that the slope up and out of it was maybe 6' high. It was roughly rectangular in shape, perhaps 15' x 12', and fairly flat-bottomed. I sailed down into it and up out without too much fuss, but it was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen the sea do.

 

[Sandy]

I witnessed something like this myself once in the Bristol Channel, albeit on a microscopic scale compared to your experience. It was a lively day with steep waves around the 4-5' mark, with the wind across the tide. Looking to windward I saw a large pit in the water moving diagonally towards me - moving with the waves but also sideways across the wave fronts, maintaining its size and shape as It moved. It appeared to be about 2' deeper than the troughs of the other waves, so that the slope up and out of it was maybe 6' high. It was roughly rectangular in shape, perhaps 15' x 12', and fairly flat-bottomed. I sailed down into it and up out without too much fuss, but it was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen the sea do.

Following on from my post #21 'rogue troughs' are well know and even more dangerous that waves as they can suck you down

 

[Tradewinds]

Following on from my post #21 'rogue troughs' are well know and even more dangerous that waves as they can suck you down

Aka the Katie Price of troughs