Hi Gary:

I must disagree respectfully. To label a wave as a "freak or rogue" to
justify the deaths of your passengers suggests that a mariner is
helpless, can do nothing to avoid such conditions. The wave is such a
random act the operator is helpless. It is too easy to say, "the reason
why all my passengers died was because an unexplained wave came out of
nowhere" is simply irresponsible.

Gary says, "...It is because they are out of character with the other
waves around at a given time. They do exist and are well
documented...." So we agree that unusual waves do exist. So they are a
part of marine environment. If that is the case they are not freaks, or
rogues, they are simply an expected, and therefore predictable, wave
that may lie outside that second standard deviation.

An analogy may be the following: When a drunk gets into a car and kills
a bunch of people is it a preventable crash or an accident that just
happened? You know the line, " and then the car went out of control.
There was nothing I could do!" Well there was something I could
do............ Duhhh, do not drive while impaired.

Sure different sized waves are seen from satellites. That is my point.
They are out there. There are many reasons why they are there. But I
believe it is very dangerous and irresponsible to blame the wave. Why
should we make inadequate knowledge or poor judgment a justifiable
reason for killing people who are on our boat?

How about this one, "people kill people waves don't." Agree of
Disagree?
Bob