Mystery of monster waves solved

Electronic Telegraph ^ | January 6, 2002 | By Tony Paterson in Berlin

[philman_36]

Search Landing Ship Dock

[Sceaming_Gerbil]

Landing Ship Dock

[tet68]

Dangerous place that,one of the members of our fishing club had almost run out of fuel and had stopped at a fuel dock on the main pass,his two friends jumped out to handle the lines and he stayed in the boat to handle the nozzle.

A big freighter came up river and the bow wave sucked the waterlevel down about 8ft,his boat went UNDER the dock,chrushing the bimini and leaving him stuck under water.

After a little bit the trough came again and the boat come out,he survived.

I love fishing there but it IS a wild place.

[aculeus]

The quality of responses on this thread gives the lie to the claim by some that FR is simply the home of fundy-dumbyism (to coin a forgetable phrase).

[d4now]

fyi

[CWRWinger]

RE: Post 101, Thanks for the information.

[ofMagog]

Had friends working on Gulf rigs years ago. Tough jobs!

[MississippiMan]

Paging Dirk Pitt, paging Dirk Pitt!

Read a Dirk Pitt novel a coupla months ago. Cussler can spin a tale of grand proportions.

MM

[www.corvettewave.com]

someone post a video. i would really like to see this wave in action...

[Rebelbase]

"we hit a container "

That is what scares me the most about ocean sailing.

[Rebelbase]

This ship lost 300 containers in a storm.

[Orual]

Perhaps I'll never forgive you for compelling me to go back and read some of the brilliance on this thread. But, on the other hand, I guess I will.

Crossing the Indian Ocean during the monsoon season on a ship that began the trip in Singapore and was headed for England via the Suez, we encountered the worse storm I have even seen. Our cabin doors were chained open so that when we disembarked we would have the same number of arms and legs that we started out with. Ropes were set up in all passageways for those brave enough to venture out of their cabins - no one went to the dining room, we were all too violently ill. We were absolutely forbidden to go out on deck because the waves were crashing over the bow with such volume and force that it would have been suicide to do so.

In a case that can only be described as idiocy born out of desperation, I snuck out with a friend because I was so sick that I was convinced I was going to die in that cabin, and thought I would feel better if I could only get some fresh air. We made it up to sun deck - the top deck - found two deck chairs and managed to unfold them and lie down. The bow was actually dipping below the surface of the sea and tons of water were washing up over the decks below us. Within an instant a huge wave crashed over the sun deck and pulled both of our chairs towards the rails which had gaps large enough for the wave to have washed us through them and overboard. I don't know how we managed to hang on, but we got out of there fast and fled to the safety of our cabins. The storm lasted seven frightening days and when we made our first stop in Djibouti, it was quite a sight to see all those pale, skinny passengers weakly stumbling down the gangplank. And now I'm very grateful that we didn't bump that statistic up to 201.

[dighton]

First-rate post and replies.

Here's a poem to go with them, and whoever has The Flying Dutchman should play it.

[Orual]

and whoever has The Flying Dutchman should play it.

[aculeus]

You win the 'Best of Thread' scary sea experience.

[Orual]

You win the 'Best of Thread' scary sea experience.

I would humbly like to thank the Academy, my mother and father for having me, the Indian Ocean for being there, and the east coast of Africa for stopping us.

[Snow Bunny]

I love you Cobby......thank you for sharing this.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Thanks for the ping.
I was in the tail end of a typhoon off of Japan in March '69 on my Destroyer.
I saw 60-80 ft waves during that storm.
Waves were going clear up to the signal deck which was above the bridge.
The ship took a 47 1/2 degree roll and I saw steel bars bent from the impact of the waves.

[COB1]

I love you, too, Snow Bunny.
Someday when you have time to write it down, I'd love to hear about your USO experiences when you were overseas with Bob Hope.
I'm going to freep FallGuy and tell him to dampen your modesty long enough to tell us some stories.

[d4now]

Wow. Not something I'd like to witness first hand...gives me the willies just thinking about it.

You be careful come this spring - ya' hear?