Calif Bill wrote:
"del cecchi" wrote in message
...

"Calif Bill" wrote in message
rthlink.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




Mavericks is a reef break. The bottom comes up to 45' in a very short
distance. In July when the swell is nil, is some great fishing over the
reef. They do surf some offshore breaks. But they are pinnacles the come
to the surface. We have swells and waves. We fish 8' swells in my 21' boat
with no problem. Then in the afternoon the winds come up and we get wind
waves. 2-3'. Then things get wet and nasty. waves at different angles
than the swells, so you get beat up if having to run uphill into the slop.
Normally we try to be in by noon, when the slop arrives, but we go North and
then can come home with the wind, to ease the pain.
For a Mavericks video and the Mavericks web sites.
http://www.mavsurfer.com
http://www.maverickssurf.com/





So here you've explained exactly how you've been deceived.

The "wave" wasn't 60 ft it was a big swell (energy is moving NOT water)
that suddenly met a substantial obstruction (the bottom), the energy
then bounced up (it had knowhwere else to go at the time:-)) the water
now exceeded the allowable height for the base & it fell over so became
a breaking wave.

A big ship can have the same effect even on small waves & a genuinely
big wave say 20 or 30 ft will look huge once it's been stood up &
provoked to breaking point & even more if the observer has no idea at
what angle the boat is, usually ploughing bow well down into a trough
getting ready to go through the next crest.

K