Solent Myths and facts

dom said:
Speaking of myths: there's no doubt that the Western Solent can bump up in a big wind against tide blow. Yet some of the Portsmouth Pilots tell me that that the maximum significant wave height in the severest of winter storms is just 1.2m (circa 4') and that the absolute max is 1.5m (circa 5'). This seems somewhat low to me, but I could well be wrong.

Bramblemet have archived data, but it doesn't seem very user friendly in that one can only search one specified day at a time.

Anyone know the answer?
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You can get some very rough water in the Solent.
A 1.2m wave, with a wavelength about the same as your boatlength can be very, very messy.
The area around Gurnard in F6 wind over tide can have you wishing for a drysuit in no time.
 
awol said:
As an example, here is a quiet day in Oban Bay. You will note the absence of car ferries perched on the Scrat. The Solent does that kind of thing so much better...
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You can just sense the sheer chaos off Cowes on an early September Sunday afternoon:


29ar2wg.jpg
 
Exactly, Escargot. Actually that photo doesn't encompass the widespread emptiness I've often witnessed - not just on trips to Lee-on-Solent but frequently from the ferries too.

But nothing will eradicate the vision of floating traffic jams, in the minds of those who've known nothing else hereabouts. Can't blame 'em really.
 
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l'escargot said:
You can just sense the sheer chaos off Cowes on an early September Sunday afternoon:


.....]
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as in early September, rather than early afternoon.
The Solent goes quiet by about 6pm on a nice day. The racing has finished, and the cruisers tend to have arrived.
It's often hard to find a berth later than this, Yarmouth may be full and Lymington crowded.
 
dancrane said:
Scrat? Elucidate please.
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A quaint vernacular name used by the locals for Sgeir Rathaid - a reef marked by north and south
cardinals about 2 cables apart, smack, bang in the middle of Oban Bay which seems to have a curious
attraction for some vessels, though never the Calmac Ro-Ro car carriers.

PS Is sizing pictures a lost art or is it just too much faff for some?
 
awol said:
A quaint vernacular name used by the locals for Sgeir Rathaid - a reef marked by north and south
cardinals about 2 cables apart, smack, bang in the middle of Oban Bay which seems to have a curious
attraction for some vessels, though never the Calmac Ro-Ro car carriers.

PS Is sizing pictures a lost art or is it just too much faff for some?
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I reduced my picture to 40% and it occupies about 2/3rds of the width of my screen. What do you expect them sized to, have you got a small monitor or your screen resolution to small?
 
That photo looked great to me. Almost full-width of my screen.

Isn't it surprising that many of the reputed thousands of daft sailors in the Solent, don't routinely go aground catastrophically on the Bramble? I mean, by accident, not to play cricket?
 
dancrane said:
That photo looked great to me. Almost full-width of my screen.

Isn't it surprising that many of the reputed thousands of daft sailors in the Solent, don't routinely go aground catastrophically on the Bramble? I mean, by accident, not to play cricket?
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We do frequently go aground on the Bramble, just not catastrophically. As most of it is softish sand, some quick action can normally free one's keel and get you back to deeper water with nothing worse than a red face (and having lost a few places in the race!).
 
l'escargot said:
I reduced my picture to 40% and it occupies about 2/3rds of the width of my screen. What do you expect them sized to, have you got a small monitor or your screen resolution to small?
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A picture width of 800 pixels has been recommended previously. Using Photobucket (other hosts are available!) automatically (re)sizes pictures to
that.
Of course, the Forum FAQs do not give any help but I have sourced the "800" figure from old posts from VicS and Lakesailor.
 
awol said:
A picture width of 800 pixels has been recommended previously. Using Photobucket (other hosts are available!) automatically (re)sizes pictures to
that.
Of course, the Forum FAQs do not give any help but I have sourced the "800" figure from old posts from VicS and Lakesailor.
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"Old" being the operative word, that would be for a 4:3 picture. I don't use Photobucket either. The smallest monitor generally sold now is 18.5 inch widescreen which is 1366 pixels more than up to a picture width of 1306. Have you still got an old CRT monitor? Time for a new one to enjoy that widescreen experience perhaps?

(Oh, and yours was 960 wide :encouragement:)
 
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awol said:
A picture width of 800 pixels has been recommended previously.
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Ah, but I often read the forum from my phone, which has a horizontal resolution of 640 pixels and a certain amount of surrounding chrome. So perhaps you'd better make it 600 instead.

Or, how about using a sensible browser that resizes pictures appropriately?

Pete
 
I took the 800 size from Jan 2014 posts. As a MAB sailor it would hardly behove me to replace my venerable Thinkpad (running XP) while it still works well enough for my needs - and like my boat it has the added advantage that I can fix it if it ever goes wrong.
 
awol said:
As a MAB sailor it would hardly behove me to replace my venerable Thinkpad (running XP) while it still works well enough for my needs
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Except when it encounters pictures, apparently :)

Nobody said anything about replacing the hardware.

EDIT: What browser are you using, anyway? I use Chrome on Linux and Safari on Mac, and both of those resize images to fit within the window size. I'm fairly sure IE does too when I've borrowed Windows machines. So I was thinking this must be a Firefox thing, except that a quick google suggests that that has auto-resize as well. So what are you using that displays pictures so badly?

Pete
 
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prv said:
Nobody said anything about replacing the hardware.
Pete
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Sorry, I obviously misread the following .....
Have you still got an old CRT monitor? Time for a new one to enjoy that widescreen experience perhaps?
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However, as I am obviously alone in disliking-over size pictures - not actually a problem but the subsequent growth of all text on the page is - I shall add this foible to the list that includes lazy jacks, stackpacks, dangling fenders, and ..............
 
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