On Sep 10, 11:12?am, HK wrote:
Chuck Gould wrote:
On Sep 10, 10:25?am, thunder wrote:
On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 09:43:36 -0700, Chuck Gould wrote:
This link will take you to a photo of George C. Scotts's 80-foot Ditmar
Donaldson "trying this at home" back in 1979. Same location. Wave height
was estimated at 20 feet.
http://www.yachtworld.com/capehorn/index.html
For more details, select "About the Photo Above" from the bottom of the
options on the LH margin of the page. (My friend Mike Zarkos owns this
brokerage- but this is purely an invitation to view a photo and you can
do so without wading through a lot of boats for sale).
A little larger view of the same shot:

http://www.mv-dreamer.com/Mojo.htm

I wonder what those people in the smaller boat were thinking.

"How fast can we make that last 40 yards to get behind the
breakwater?!"

or maybe, "Darn! Those were my favorite trousers!"

"Chuck said those waves weren't really as big as they seem...they're
only two to three footers..." :}- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

That's a bit funny- but I think the photo of the Ditmar Donaldson
punching through that surf *does* serve as a good reference for wave
height. The USCG review of the incident reportedly refered to that as
a "20 foot" wave. A legitimate 8-footer would still be 40% as large-
so I do try to bear that in mind when I hear boaters describing rather
extreme wave heights. Most people routinely overstate wave height- at
least IMO formed by years of observation. No need, really; 4-5 footers
can make for some really challenging conditions when expressed as
short interval chop.