Wind flattening swell?

[CFarr]

A couple of weeks ago I was crew on a yacht for two or three days in the Sound of Jura.
The wind was strong, but we were confident enough to go out in it.
The forecast was 6 to gale 8.
Well after an hour or so running down the sound we discovered that there was no 6 or 8, but more 9 up to 10!

We and the boat were fine but a lot of the anchorages we would usually pull into were just white water so we entered Craighouse and picked up a buoy to wait for calmer weather.

We could see the waves in the Sound from where we were and they never got above slight even though the wind persisted for over 40 hours, constantly blowing between 8 and 10?

The skipper said it was because the wind was flattening the swell .
Is this correct?
The wind was constantly NW so we were the sheltered side of the islands but I've been there plenty of times with much bigger seas.
Any ideas?

 

[Billjratt]

I saw the same thing years ago at Craighouse. Perhaps it's a local speciality, the wind certainly kept us aboard.

 

[Mistroma]

I guess that the paps of Jura might affect the airflow downwind and I think the Sound is only about 7nm wide around there. More like 10nm downwind to Gigha though and that's plenty in a strong wind.

I can't think it's the wind flattening the swell as the Atlantic swell doesn't get into that part of the Sound. Def. much worse as you near the mull and of course the tides are much stronger down there. It's an odd area off Craighouse anyway as there's an amphidrome (virtually zero tidal range) and some odd tidal differences over only a few miles.

We often holed up in Lowlandman's bay if the wind was going to swing more easterly. Good protection from waves, though the wind whistles through but no worries about checking the tide as the range is virtually nil.

My wife has a slight connection with the area as the Isle of Jura distillery was one of two in her family many years ago (1880s). However, it was shut down after her great-great grandfather had an argument with the owner of the island. The building was left as a shell for many years and I doubt that made him popular locally. Doesn't entitle us to free drams when we visit, not that I've tried of course