rough, ruff, storm

[lustyd]

Do we have enough words for "rough" at sea? Like the Eskimos have many words for snow should we have a word to describe the many versions of rough sea? If there was a specific word I might have saved time explaining wind over tide for instance, or overfalls at a headland. I think a lot of us have this conversation where someone says "it was rough" when what they mean was they were in the wrong place at the wrong time but the weather wasn't bad.

 

[TC Tuckton]

"Lumpy" Irregular waves <1m with short wavelength, enough to start impeding progress but not enough to lift and lower the boat.

 

[NormanS]

"And gurly grew the sea......." From the 'Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens'.

 

[Sybarite]

The mercans use "gnarly".

 

[LadyInBed]

One mans rough is another man's choppy is anothers lumpy.

 

[Laminar Flow]

Having watched a few Youtube videos, I have come to the slow realization that I may have been have been overly demanding of my wife in regards as to what might be considered rough ...



Passing a 30m schooner off Ploumenac'h ...

 

[capnsensible]

Douglas sea scale - Wikipedia

Been around since 1921 but Mebbe slow to get through......

 

[Leighb]

I love the last one “phenomenal“ not in the sense of being out in it though! I have only seen it on the Met office site a couple of times though.

 

[Laminar Flow]

Douglas sea scale - Wikipedia

Been around since 1921 but Mebbe slow to get through......

Much like a yachtman's storm begins at around F6 or sooner, I have come to suspect that the sea state equivalent commences with "slight".
I have definitely been in a "seven", which is more than sufficient to provide you with a "proto-religious" experience, particularly when the seas are starting to break; I'm more than happy to give "phenomenal" a miss, as in perish the thought or just perish, as that may be.

 

[Laminar Flow]

"And gurly grew the sea......." From the 'Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens'.

Having had, as a an eight year old, the proverbial beaten out of me by a busty 12 year old amazon, I can see how a "girly" sea could be quite scary ...

 

[johnalison]

I have sailed in a F8 in the Scheldt in almost flat water, and in an F6 in the Blackwater when my friend's Sadler 32 went hull down behind waves, so wave conditions are probably not as easy to categorise as wind. I think it would be fair to say that a F6 is about as high a wind as I have been out in the middle of the Channel or North Sea, though there would have been some periods of higher wind speeds for short periods. During these adventures, I think that I would have described the sea as 'lively' rather than rough, which I would only apply to a few occasions when a strong tide shortened the seas, as at the Roompot, or areas of water off Dover or Boulogne.

I have seen some ruffs and probably the odd reeve but I'm not sure what they have to do with the weather.

 

[capnsensible]

Much like a yachtman's storm begins at around F6 or sooner, I have come to suspect that the sea state equivalent commences with "slight".
I have definitely been in a "seven", which is more than sufficient to provide you with a "proto-religious" experience, particularly when the seas are starting to break; I'm more than happy to give "phenomenal" a miss, as in perish the thought or just perish, as that may be.

Yeah sea state seven certainly takes the fun out of it..... Have had a few batterings on the west to east transat. ?

Having been in northern winter waters in high sea states I can confirm that being able to get respite on military vessels is very comforting. ?