On Sat, 01 Sep 2007 08:28:17 -0700, Chuck Gould
wrote:

A 7 foot wave
is tall enough that people standing in the cockpit of a boat lke the
one in the article won't see anything but a wall of water when they
are down in the trough. I'd have to drag out the Beaufort scale, but I
think you'd need hurricane foce winds to experience 7-foot chop.

I have seen 9 footers on Long Island Sound but only in howling
nor'easters with winds approaching gale force. Don't ask me what I
was doing out there but suffice to say, sail boat racers are a little
bit crazy.

I've been in and around Long Island Sound all summer and we have had
no conditions like that with the exception of a few brief squalls
several weeks ago.