http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2008/11/04/massive_waves_a_mystery_at_maine_harbor/
This article talks about "rogue" waves that caused major water level changes in a matter of minutes. The story is interesting, especially if you were there, but it reminds me of something I saw in May here in Galveston Bay.
We (my two buddies and I heading to Freeport) were sailing down the east side of the Houston Ship Channel. It was probably my twentieth time down the channel and I've been down in all kinds of conditions. This time though was different. The day was a nice sunny day with about 10-15 knots coming from the SSE and we were pointing SE. The sea state was maybe 1 foot at max. I was at the helm and my friend said "what's that" as he was looking behind me. His eye sight isn't that good so I didn't think much of it as I turned around but low and behold, there was an 8' wave about 200 yards behind us and catching us pretty fast. It was wide, starting a hundred yards east of the channel and going all the way to the east side of the bay. Behind it fallowed two other waves, about 5' and 4'.
The boat just floated over it as it passed so that was cool. My first though was, wow...that was a big bow wave as the ships make 2-3' waves with their bow. As I though more, I had realized it wasn't a bow wave. First, the wave was going a lot faster then any ship out there as we saw the wave pass the ships as it headed all the way to Bolivar. The wave was also at a right angle from the ship channel, not the normal 45 degree angle a bow wave is.
We talked about that wave with each other all the way there and then the following day with the other sailors who made the trip. Turns out we were the only ones who saw it because we were the only ones who was outside of the channel. Nobody believed us.
On the way back we were sailing up the bay in the same area and I was thinking to myself, it would be weird if it happened again. I grab the bi-nocs and looked around. I saw something miles away and it looked different and I thought to myself "no way". 5 minutes later I looked again and this time I said "no way". My friends looked and they said it was something else. A few minutes later it hit us again, this time on the bow. The first wave was only 5' and followed by 4' and 3' but we were ready this time. We filmed a little of it. The recording didn't turn out that great as we used a camera but it was clear evidence something was different.
If I remember tonight, I'll try to find that and post it.
This article talks about "rogue" waves that caused major water level changes in a matter of minutes. The story is interesting, especially if you were there, but it reminds me of something I saw in May here in Galveston Bay.
We (my two buddies and I heading to Freeport) were sailing down the east side of the Houston Ship Channel. It was probably my twentieth time down the channel and I've been down in all kinds of conditions. This time though was different. The day was a nice sunny day with about 10-15 knots coming from the SSE and we were pointing SE. The sea state was maybe 1 foot at max. I was at the helm and my friend said "what's that" as he was looking behind me. His eye sight isn't that good so I didn't think much of it as I turned around but low and behold, there was an 8' wave about 200 yards behind us and catching us pretty fast. It was wide, starting a hundred yards east of the channel and going all the way to the east side of the bay. Behind it fallowed two other waves, about 5' and 4'.
The boat just floated over it as it passed so that was cool. My first though was, wow...that was a big bow wave as the ships make 2-3' waves with their bow. As I though more, I had realized it wasn't a bow wave. First, the wave was going a lot faster then any ship out there as we saw the wave pass the ships as it headed all the way to Bolivar. The wave was also at a right angle from the ship channel, not the normal 45 degree angle a bow wave is.
We talked about that wave with each other all the way there and then the following day with the other sailors who made the trip. Turns out we were the only ones who saw it because we were the only ones who was outside of the channel. Nobody believed us.
On the way back we were sailing up the bay in the same area and I was thinking to myself, it would be weird if it happened again. I grab the bi-nocs and looked around. I saw something miles away and it looked different and I thought to myself "no way". 5 minutes later I looked again and this time I said "no way". My friends looked and they said it was something else. A few minutes later it hit us again, this time on the bow. The first wave was only 5' and followed by 4' and 3' but we were ready this time. We filmed a little of it. The recording didn't turn out that great as we used a camera but it was clear evidence something was different.
If I remember tonight, I'll try to find that and post it.
