"John Cairns" wrote in message

When I got back from the crossing, one of our club members was talking
about a club cruise to a destination about 40 miles from here, blah, blah.
I laughed a little bit about it, they were slightly hurt and adamant about
how nasty it was. The seas can get real nasty in these parts, but it's
generally when everyone has hauled out for the winter. And in any event,
nothing like running into nasty weather well offshore.

Would that account for the fact that the statistic of shipwrecks per a given
period of time in the GLs is many times that for virtually any other body of
water in the world? I'll take 40 footers on the ocean any day before those
same wave heights on the GLs, with their short periodicity.

Granted most GL sailors are fair-weather types, and don't get much
experience with the sort of weather that occurs between October and March,
but to imply that the GLs are a picnic compared with offshore is not borne
out by the statistics. And a chat with any merchant seamen from abroad
who've experienced the GLs at their most violent will probably change your
mind.

Max