Tsunami Impacts on High Seas Cruising Boats
 

Curiosity? Should not the Tsunami wave affect a high seas cruising
boat? I have seen no mention of it anywhere; but would have thought
there would be some damage to boats at sea. ??

- Art

At sea, where the depth is sufficient to prevent the Tsunami from breaking,
all boats would feel would be a rise in altitude (I wonder what their GPS's
said?).

--
Dennis Gibbons
dkgibbons at optonline dot net
"Art Mosher" wrote in message
...
Curiosity? Should not the Tsunami wave affect a high seas cruising
boat? I have seen no mention of it anywhere; but would have thought
there would be some damage to boats at sea. ??

- Art

These waves are only a few inches high in the open ocean but they are
traveling hundreds of miles an hour and are miles between the crests. They
have only rarely been observed in the open sea and then only in calms where
they are not masked by other wave action. This is one reason why there is
little warning.

When the waves reach shallow water, the enormous energy of their high speed,
and the tremendous volume represented by even a few inches over the very
long wavelength, translates into very high waves as the wavelength is
shortened by the shallow water.

--

Roger Long



"Art Mosher" wrote in message
...
Curiosity? Should not the Tsunami wave affect a high seas cruising
boat? I have seen no mention of it anywhere; but would have thought
there would be some damage to boats at sea. ??

- Art

On Tuesday 28 December 2004 9:56 am in rec.boats.cruising Art Mosher wrote:

Curiosity? Should not the Tsunami wave affect a high seas cruising
boat? I have seen no mention of it anywhere; but would have thought
there would be some damage to boats at sea. ??

They would probably never notice it, just a long swell added
to the existing shorter waves. The tsunami only gets high when
it hits shallow water.

--
My real address is crn (at) netunix (dot) com
WARNING all messages containing attachments or html will be silently
deleted. Send only plain text.

Art Mosher wrote:
Curiosity? Should not the Tsunami wave affect a high seas cruising
boat? I have seen no mention of it anywhere; but would have thought
there would be some damage to boats at sea. ??

- Art

Tsunamis at sea are almost unnoticeable, unless they reflect from
shore and meet themselves somewhere like a standing wave on an antenna.

They are a long, large, deep waves which only become catastrophic as
they hit shallow water, which makes them pile up as they try to
bounce back out to sea. Lissajous studied wave interference and his
theories predict constructive and destructive interference of waves,
which work similarily for water or radio waves.

Terry K

We are a cruising boat and was anchored in one of the bays on the
southwest side of Phuket (Thailand) when the tsunami struck. We were
anchored in 14 metres of water some half a Nm from the beach. The boat
swung around at anchor as the water level initially fell. As the water
returned the water rose about 2-3 metres just like a massive tide rise.
At this stage the wave had not broken. As the water was within 100
metres from the beach where the depth was about 3-4 metres the wave
broke sending huge volumes of water onto the beach and surrounding
foreshore area. About 100 cruising boats were anchored in the bay (all
survived).
Cars and buildings were hurled into the air as the force was dissipated
along the foreshore. A friends dinghy on the shore ended up on the top
of a concrete structure about 6 metres above the water line. A power
transformer neerby was torn from the concrete pole and landed near the
dinghy. The tops of concrete structures were literally blown off the
buildings. Other cruising boats at sea felt no effect of the tsunami.
I guess the luck we had was the deep water bay and distance we anchored
off the beach.
Tony
S/V Ambrosia

Which beach were you near? I just got an e-mail from Phil Roberts on Wind
Dreams at Phi Phi Don. He experienced about the same thing. He was in 45'
of water and bumped the bottom as the water went out. Said it was more like
a bathtub draining and refilling really fast. The wave didn't crest until
about 200 yards from the beach. A lot of smaller boats closer in were
picked up by the crest and thrown ashore. (At leat the S140 I sold him held
through two 360 spins.)

Ton Sai Bay is a total wreck. Judy went ashore to help out in a makeshift
first aid station at the Cabana hotel and Phil has moved his boat around to
Loh Moo Dee on the East side in clear water and is running his watermaker
full blast to help supply the hotel.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

wrote in message
oups.com...

We are a cruising boat and was anchored in one of the bays on the
southwest side of Phuket (Thailand) when the tsunami struck. We were
anchored in 14 metres of water some half a Nm from the beach. The boat
swung around at anchor as the water level initially fell. As the water
returned the water rose about 2-3 metres just like a massive tide rise.
At this stage the wave had not broken. As the water was within 100
metres from the beach where the depth was about 3-4 metres the wave
broke sending huge volumes of water onto the beach and surrounding
foreshore area. About 100 cruising boats were anchored in the bay (all
survived).
Cars and buildings were hurled into the air as the force was dissipated
along the foreshore. A friends dinghy on the shore ended up on the top
of a concrete structure about 6 metres above the water line. A power
transformer neerby was torn from the concrete pole and landed near the
dinghy. The tops of concrete structures were literally blown off the
buildings. Other cruising boats at sea felt no effect of the tsunami.
I guess the luck we had was the deep water bay and distance we anchored
off the beach.
Tony
S/V Ambrosia

wrote in message
oups.com...

We are a cruising boat and was anchored in one of the bays on the
southwest side of Phuket (Thailand) when the tsunami struck. We were
anchored in 14 metres of water some half a Nm from the beach. The boat
swung around at anchor as the water level initially fell. As the water
returned the water rose about 2-3 metres just like a massive tide rise.
At this stage the wave had not broken. As the water was within 100
metres from the beach where the depth was about 3-4 metres the wave
broke sending huge volumes of water onto the beach and surrounding
foreshore area. About 100 cruising boats were anchored in the bay (all
survived).
Cars and buildings were hurled into the air as the force was dissipated
along the foreshore. A friends dinghy on the shore ended up on the top
of a concrete structure about 6 metres above the water line. A power
transformer neerby was torn from the concrete pole and landed near the
dinghy. The tops of concrete structures were literally blown off the
buildings. Other cruising boats at sea felt no effect of the tsunami.
I guess the luck we had was the deep water bay and distance we anchored
off the beach.
Tony
S/V Ambrosia


Thanks for the informative, first hand report of the situation from a
cruiser in the tsunami effected area.

Although we are all saddened by the tremendious loss of life in these areas,
it is heartening and reassuring the hear what impact this tsunami had on a
cruising boat at anchor or at sea.

I plan to print out this report/information and past it into one of my chart
table reference books. I just hope I never have future need of it..

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

wow...good luck to all sailors / crusers in the effected areas...so far
us media is reporting 10 countries effected..(all the way to africa)...
50,000+ dead, 1/3 of them children......the images we are getting
are un-real.........nature can be so powerful.......

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 07:26:34 -0800, "Steve" wrote:


I plan to print out this report/information and past it into one of my chart
table reference books. I just hope I never have future need of it..

You may. Consider this a Notice to Mariners to correct their paper
charts: Sumatra isn't where it used to be.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/041228/1/3pim1.html

R.