When did you last see the Sea State described as Phenomenal?

High or very high, occasionally phenomenal at first.

My folks were planning to catch the ferry to Orkney. I’d give it a few days to settle.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/marine/highseas_forecast.html#All~Rockall

is this anything to do with that rad swell photographed off Portugal recently..

now that was phenomenal

Nazare, Portugal 28-01-2013

We need pictures of that.

The shipping forcast the other evening did catch my ears, its not often that I have heard storm force 10, then Hurricane force 11 and 12 issued… must have been one to be in port for.

>14 metre waves

ouch!

Just checked a couple of surf reports for west Ireland. Predicting 29-35 foot at 16 seconds. If that hits the right reef it could turn in to 50 foot waves easily. Unfortunately it’s also coupled with 50-60 mph winds. So it will be blown to bits storm mess. It would still be a sight to see though.

My mate had a 45ft swell off the west coast of Ireland last week in the gales, thankfully his fishing boat is 90ft and can handle pretty much anything the sea throws at it but bugger that for a job, i get seasick just walking around it in the harbour.

I’ve been out in some lumpy waves, ain’t at all like it is on TV.

cornwall, earlier today (from a friends fb)

Did a stint on fishery protection in a force 10 many years ago – quite enjoyed it oddly enough as I didn’t get seasick, unlike many of the rest of the crew. Strangely exhilarating being out in really bad weather if the ship is up to it.

😯

I never knew:

Sea state

Smooth
Wave height less than 0.5 m
Slight
Wave height of 0.5 to 1.25 m
Moderate
Wave height of 1.25 to 2.5 m
Rough
Wave height of 2.5 to 4.0 m
Very rough
Wave height of 4.0 to 6.0 m
High
Wave height of 6.0 to 9.0 m
Very high
Wave height of 9.0 to 14.0 m
Phenomenal
Wave height more than 14.0 m

I’ve sailed for 40 years, I am an RYA Yatchmaster. Have raced all round the uk, inshore and off. If I heard a forecast like the one above then it’s the pub every time. Being out in that is not fun, even in a big boat.

The shipping forcast the other evening did catch my ears, its not often that I have heard storm force 10, then Hurricane force 11 and 12 issued… must have been one to be in port for.

Oddly enough, I don’t think I’ve ever heard the shipping forecast before, but it was on the radio as I was driving on Monday night and thought it all sounded a bit “bigger” than I would have expected.

stuartie_c – Member

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-VWeu-pKu8

That’s definitely not footage from the ferry to the Shetland Islands, the uniforms are all wrong and the tables/chairs are all secured to the floor with a length of security cable on the real thing, Fortunately I’ve not been on the boat to the Orkneys in anything higher than a force 8.
SM

Enough please. I’m on the ferry between Ireland and Scotland tomorrow. Paper bag at the ready!

You’ll be alright BlindMelon, my mate’s the Chief Navigational officer on the Belfast/Cairnryan ferry, he could do the crossing in his sleep, and i imagine he prob does……….. 😀

aye the shetland ferry now goes via New Zeland

Cruise ship Pacific Sun hit by tropical storm CCTV full version 7 Min
The impact of massive waves that struck a cruise ship during a storm off New Zealand have been revealed by CCTV footage posted on the internet.
Pacific Sun Cruise liner, carrying 1732 passengers and 671 crew, was caught in a severe storm on July 30, 2008, encountering seven-metre swells and 50 knot winds.

That video is funny but absolutely gut wrenching at the same time, had i been on that ship i think i would have been praying to the god i never believed in.

As an aside my uncle was a deep see merchant navy captain, he had a term for yachtsmen. WAFID’s.

Free pint to the first correct answer 🙂

I’m on it regularly so it will be grand. Last winter I had a crossing that was very bad, when I drove my car onto the ship in Cairnryan I thought the steering on the car was faulty. It wasn’t it was the ship moving while tied up in port. No food taken on that crossing

Used to work offshore in the North Sea.. my “record” was I think 12m according to the heli-deck heave monitor. When you are sitting on the bridge and all you can see is water you know it’s going to dig in with a thud.

My mother reckons when we went to Guernsey many years ago that the crossing was nearly cancelled due to high winds but they decided to go for it. Many folk decided not to go but we did. She recalls it as being force 11. I thought they said 10. Was sick after a few hours but it was fun trying to walk about!

Hope the lady who face planted the pillar was ok..jeez that would have hurt!

langylad – Member
That video is funny but absolutely gut wrenching at the same time, had i been on that ship i think i would have been praying to the god i never believed in.
As an aside my uncle was a deep see merchant navy captain, he had a term for yachtsmen. WAFID’s.
Free pint to the first correct answer
POSTED 5 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

Wind
Assisted
F##king
Idiots…..

I got caught up in the A$re end of a big swell going across Biscay in a 40 footer on delivery 45+ knots plus huge swell we ended up going out to deeper water to get away from the swell off my head I think the shelf goes from 3000m to 300m almost instantly!

F11 is the biggest Ive been in in the Atlantic…..wasn’t that bad, I was so busy and tired you didn’t have time to worry!!

The things you do in your early 20s! 😆

This might be interesting once it brightens up http://www.fishkilkee.ie/feed.htm

Cherbourg to Rosslare in December is one good crossing for short queues in the restaurant sometimes.
Portstewart looks lovely this time of year too. 😆

I’ve sailed for 40 years, I am an RYA Yatchmaster. Have raced all round the uk, inshore and off. If I heard a forecast like the one above then it’s the pub every time.

Snigger

Someone here implied that yachtsmen are reckless and foolish. Very very few don’t know what they are doing and the experienced have a very heathy respect for the sea and value their safety!

Not all small craft are equal however. Motorboats have no chance of surviving high seas, some yachts fair much better, others are designed to take a pounding. It’s all about keels and hull design. EG A 26ft Contessa with her long keel hull would be vastly better than say a modern Bavaria 32. The Bavaria is twice the volume of the Contessa with little low down weight, so would be far more prone to getting knocked down, but would feel much more uncomfortable/dangerous. When the tired a nd scared crew of the Bavaria would be seeking a port of refuge, the Contessa would be coping well.

Sustained very high winds with a very long fetch will.produce phenomenal wave heights.

The Atlantic swell is often quite big because of the fetch, but it’s less pronounced offshore.

Depth affects wavelength, hence steeper sided more dramatic looking (and dangerous) waves form in the shallow waters by the coastline.

Given that it would take a long time for these waves to form and high winds were being experienced, it’d only be a suicidal blind idiot who would put to sea in such conditions. The warning signs are obvious and abundant!

Only yachts that are on long passages with no port of refuge would be affected, but I’d hazard a guess that transatlantic skippers heading to and from the UK would be giving such voyages a miss at this time of year due to the general weather trends of winter, especially given the sustained windy weather of late. When making long passages and the inevitabke bad weather approaches, yachts often reroute to avoid weather systems. The skippers who sail the Atlantic are usually far better qualified than the majority, who make short coastal hops.

saw this on a kayaking forum. shetlands on monday…

Hope this link works (from my iPad)

Only one thing to do when it’s windy…..

Big Jump

You need to weigh about two stones to get air like that!

FB, friend, offshore just posted weather forecast for 20m waves ! They usually get them right, I have seen swell that big before but never waves.

Last windsurfing vid before you all fall asleep.. Triple forward attempt.

Reason I’m posting these is Pozo in Gran Canaria constantly gets 60knt winds and its a haven for big wind windsurfing, many mahooosive jumps and combinations of loops have been both attempted and nailed.

Biggest wind I’ve been out in is a paltry 53knts here on the Coast just off West Witterings back in 08, never again, it was wind over tide mental.

23m waves have been measured off NW SCotland over the last few days.

23m!?

this just needs the Hawaii Five-O music playing;

you can always reely on the Cook Strait for a bit of a chop.

WAFID = What a fearless idiot. 😉

Wwaswas, I think the boat in the clip, the Suiliven, used to be the P&O ferry which used to sail between Aberdeen, Orkney and Shetland.

West of Hebrides wave buoy measured nearly 17m significant wave height on Monday. Sig wave height is an average condition, which means that there would have likely been an individual wave of nearly 30m (max wave height = 1.82 x sig wave height).
some useful observations to see wavenet