"Calif Bill" wrote in message
hlink.net...

snip


Well, to quote my school roommate. There was green water rolling down
the
deck of the ship. The ship was The CV Bonne Hoome Richard. And it is
a
smaller aircraft carrier. The DD and DE's were completely underwater
at
times. This during a typhoon off the Philipines. Which says to me
they
were a lot bigger than 30' waves. Maybe you ought to go see a large
surfing
break. Our local big break Mavericks will produce greater than 60' at
good
swell times.
Bill

I don't see those kind of waves here in Minnesota, but don't surfing
style waves depend on a bottom that slopes just right? I don't hear of
folks out surfing in the middle of the ocean....

I have been led to believe that even a tsunami is trivial in the open
sea, but a heck of a problem when the very long wavelength gets to
shore. But surely in this day and age there are satellite/airplane/bouy
measurements of wave height in open ocean. Or would that be too hard to
look up?

OK, looked at the navy wave height forcasts. Looks like they believe in
24-30 foot waves. Of course the wavelength and hence the steepness of
the wave isn't given. If it goes up 30 feet but the wavelength is 500
feet, then it wouldn't be a problem in a small boat. I presume that is
how people can fish on the west coast in 10 foot waves.

del cecchi

del cecchi