NYT article on Rogue Waves

[cjenkins]

You may have already read this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/sc...425&ei=5087%0A

Anyone ever seen/dealt with one of these? I was surprised to read that oceanographers dismissed the reports of giant waves until relatively recently.

Anyway, it's thought-provoking.

Charlie

[hellosailor]

Charlie-
It must have been a slow news day for the Times. Nothing in that article was "News". The story about radar surveying from space confirming that rogue waves are *normal* and *common* was news last year--when it was announced. The Times has just rehashed this and yes, even sensationalized it a bit, a year later. I'm not looking at the article but remember there's a line about the way rogue waves sink ships....Made it sound like a vendetta out of the Godfather.

Hey, it's the ocean. It's big. It does what it pleases. And that's why people who go to sea in small craft sometimes make sure they *can* roll over safely (more or less) and still toss an offering to Poseidon and then to Aeolus as well.

I would think any modern ship keeping a proper radar watch (which is NOT kept as often as it is kept) should be able to see an 80' tall wall of water moving in, in time to point the ship into it and secure.

[Ronbye]

Here in Newfoundland and around the east coast of Canada and the North eastern U.S., rogue waves are known by those that ply the oceans. They are not uncommon. Remember the movie the "Perfect Storm" it is suspected that the "Andrea Gail" was sunk by such a wave, although not proven. On our Grand Banks where the water depth is considered shallow, we lost a semi submersible oil rig when a rogue wave over 80 feet in height broke through a control room window in one of the legs, located at over 80 feet above sea level. Resulting in a chain of events that lead to the over turning of the rig and the lost of over 80 souls some of which I knew.

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians as well as our seafaring brothers on the east coast of the continent know too well the power of the sea. A friend of mine who is a retired merchant marine sailor, once said " Nobody knows how bad the sea can be because for those who know never survived to speak about it".

Here is a web site with some heavy weather photos:
http://tv-antenna.com/heavy-seas/