Does anyone know the status of the boat? Did it actually sink or is it
missing?

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 3 Nov 2008 09:29:27 -0800 (PST), John
wrote:

On Nov 1, 3:14 pm, slide wrote:
Richard wrote:
What about the effect of the Gulfstream possibly affecting the size of
the
seas?

If the gulf stream accelerated to 25 kts - possible.


I just had a look at the National Data Bouy Center web site, and
unfortunately the date in question falls out of the "recent data"
report but has not made it to archival data. It would be interesting
to go back in a week or so and review the archival data regarding wave
height in the area at the time of this event.


I was tracking the weather closely that week because there were
several south bound boats that I knew of that were out there. There
was a strong low pressure system centered over southern New England
which was bringing west to northwest winds, 20 to 30 kts to the
coastal areas, closer to gale force offshore.

The Swan 44 was about 100 miles east of Cape May which put them off
the continental shelf and into the western edge of the Gulf Stream.
The Gulf Stream is capable of creating very large, steep waves in any
strong wind with a northerly component. Whether or not they were 50
ft high or not is anyone's guess but it was very likely that the waves
were high, steep and breaking. Any 40 to 50 ft boat can be
rolled/capsized by a 10 ft breaking wave, and the conditions they
encountered were probably more than twice that.