"Chuck Gould" wrote in message
oups.com...

JimH wrote:

Interesting. I went to my Chapman's to look up their definition of chop:

"The confused water action found at places where tidal currents meet is
called a chop, a term also applied to small, closely spaced waves
resulting
from wind action on small bodies of water."

So it looks like a 5 foot chop can be the same as 5 foot seas.

I don't boat on the ocean so I was not familiar with the first part of
the
definition. ;-)


Most boats can easily handle a 5-foot, 10-foot, or even larger ocean
*swell* if the waves are far enough apart (defined as a "period"
between swells) that they aren't too steep. You just go uuuuuuuup,
pause a second, and then go doooooooown. No big deal, unless you're
subject to sea sickness.

You certainly experience chop on the lake where you boat, as it is a
much shorter and steeper wave form created primarily by wind. With
enough fetch, even a lake of moderate size and certainly any of the
Great Lakes can become pretty nasty in 30-knot conditions.

Before you put Chapman's away, look up the Beaufort scale. My latest
copy is a 1985 edition and the scale is on page 327, but if you have
another edition it may be somewhere else in the book.

Look down the chart to Force 7 winds:

28-33 knots (32-38 mph). "Near Gale". "White foam from breaking waves
begins to be blown in streaks" BOATS REMAIN IN HARBOR; THOSE AT SEA
HEAVE-TO.
Effects observed on land: Whole trees in motion, resistance felt when
walking against wind.


I've been on a 900 foot cruise boat in 35 knot winds, and you get wet all
the way up to deck #6. Even with stabilizers, the boat rocked so much that
the housekeeping carts were rolling back and forth in the hallways. Seas
were 15-18 feet.