Rogue wave/wind??

[Ward H]

Had a great sail on the Barnegat Bay on Sunday. Near the end of the sail we experienced something which was a first for me in 5 seasons of sailing on the BB.
Over the 5 years I have seen a few waves that I have wondered about. They would be a single or double wave, sort of like a wake from a large power boat. However there has been no other waves/wakes behind it and no power boat in the area. The wave stands out as it has a bit of white crest to it. When I have seen it the water was pretty flat with little chop and the wave has only been 1' to 2' tall. Kind of like you would expect in high winds with a large fetch but that is not the case when I see these single waves.

On Sunday I was standing in the companionway with my buddy on the helm. He is an experience Hobie Cat sailor and use to watching the water for signs of wind. Wind was up and down during the day from nothing to about 7kts out of the west. We were about 1.5 miles off the windward shore on a starboard tack.

I saw this single wave coming towards horizontal to our beam reach. I had time to tell my buddy that I still don't know what really drives those single waves.
However, when it got to us I found out.
When the small wave hit us we got a wind gust that laid us way over causing a quick and violent rounding up into the wind. Probably the most violent and quickest wounding into the wind I have experienced and we were completely not expecting it.
I only had time to release the main traveler and that quick we were back to almost no wind. We quickly checked the sailboat that was about 75 yards in front of us and the one about 75 yards behind us. They were still sailing along like nothing hit them and probably wondering what the H we were doing.

There was no obvious sign that the wave was wind driven but now I know it /they were and are. It apparently is a very local, narrow and short lived wind gust that starts these single waves and this time we got hit with the wind.

I know there are several BB sailors on the site. Anybody else experience this on the BB or other locations?

 

[Gunni]

We saw some conditions like that on the Chesapeake this past Sunday. Winds were fluky and NW. Conditions were sunny to the south, and overcast to the NW. Clearly a front was working through. We had a 3' breaking wave pass us coming from the SE. At first I thought a big mobo was nearby kicking a wake, but there was nothing. Hit us abeam and set our lightly loaded rig to racking and swinging a boom. Then just as quickly it was gone with no more behind. Nearly simultaneously the wind got even more variable. We were closing on home port and decided to drop sails and motor in. By the time we were back at the slip the wind had shifted 180d and was building from the SE. I assume that wave we had experienced was launched from well down the bay and rode long SE fetch to find us in the dying wisps of our NW breeze.

This is the nature of open water waves, you often experience wave vectors that are well outside of your current weather system. It is why you have to know what is going on in both your locale and in the region. Read the sky my pappy always said.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

Hello Ward,
If it happened about 45 minutes after we left you, that wave could have been stimulated by Sue's outburst of salty language. She spilled water from the cooler onto the floor. I removed the floor board to let it drain into the bilge. Then I lifted the cooler out thru the companionway. Before I could return, Sue stepped backwards into the bilge. It was a very quick, violent outburst that may have had far-reaching effect.
Ah, but you said "end of the day". That can't be it. Must have been a more natural occurrence! Sunday was a gorgeous day to be sure!

 

[The Shadow Knows]

Ward,

Several years back, I was hit with 2 rogue waves.
I was single handing that day & had my autopilot on.
It was a 10KT day seas maybe 1-1.5 ft. off the beam
in about 15 ft. of water. I had 2 trolling lines out & was
at the stern rail when I saw this cresting 10 footer about to hit me broadside.

It hit on the STBD side & I no sooner grabbed the top side section of the sternrail
that it hit. I was going almost 6 KTS with both main & 150 deployed full.
My boat rolled to port when it hit & not only did the lower part of my 150 fill with water
but my toerail was underwater & I was stretched across the helm seat watching water flood my cockpit.
I figure the angle of heel was 50-60.° I quickly rounded up just in time for the second 8 footer to hit.
This wave hit me bow-on sending a 4 ft. wave straight down the deck to my open hatched cabin top & cockpit.
I estimate maybe 30 gallons or more of green water poured into my cabin. What a cleanup mess it made.

Then it was right back to calm seas. It was frightening to say the least.
I'm just happy me or if I had passengers were not up on deck. The outcome could have been worse.
I always keep a watchful eye but in this case, I was completely caught off guard.
The saying about, "The Prudent Navigator," well again, I was caught off guard.

Flying sideways can at times, be an adventure.
Always keep a keen eye on the sky & water my friend.

 

[Roland5048]

Had the same thing happen to me a few years ago. About ten nm out cruising north toward Clearwater, Fl. Just crossed the Tampa Bay shipping lanes. Beautiful day, ten knots of wind on the beam, seas less than one foot. Saw what looked like a black line on the horizon. Closed everything up and radioed the big ships anchored outside the shipping lanes. One ship reported back that they weren't seeing anything unusual. Then!...Wham!...I got hit with about a 60 knot gust that heeled me over about 60 degrees. No rain. Green water pouring in the cockpit. Seemed like an eternity but was probably less then two minutes to regain control. Wind went back to about 15 knots and I had a nice beam reach to Clw. No worse for the wear but a bit shaken. Later on, I was relating this to an airline pilot. There was a big thunder storm in Clw. that afternoon, about 30nm from where I got hit and another storm about 30nm south. He said that I most likely got hit when the outflow from these two storms funneled a strong wind between them. Seems to make sense but I'm no meteorologist, either. Haven't had that experience since although I have been caught out in some monster t-storms. Let's all be safe out there.

 

[capta]

For those of you sailing on bays like Barnegat, I think it's quite possible that what you are experiencing are tidal bores. If you check the tide tables you'll probably find it was a flood tide. In most areas these only happen a few times a year when all the conditions are right, and then there's the Bay of Fundy where it happens regularly and quite spectacularly.
When I was out on the bay 5 or more days a week, I saw several bores a year, most often between Angle IS and Tiberon. Some were quite spectacular at 4 to 6 feet, on occasion.
As for "rogue" waves on inland waters, isn't that like, an oxymoron?

 

[Scott T-Bird]

Capta, our tide variation is only about 1' or even less on the bay (no more than about 2' at the inlet). I don't think a tidal bore would explain the wind either.
Ward, we sailed in on a northwest wind Sunday morning - strong enough that we sailed pretty well on genoa alone until it died out just before arriving at our corner of the bay - and it had been blowing northwest all night long over at Tices Shoal. I was hoping for a peaceful night sleep on Saturday after we had a rather boisterous south wind and choppy water all night the night before (Friday night/Sat morning). It seems that we only have smooth water after sunrise, for a short time until wind kicks into gear again. This year, I've not yet experienced much calm sleeping. Anyway, I've always found that there can be some remnant gusts after a strong northwest wind finally blows out, even hours later. It was pretty common during the days when I used to windsurf on BB for almost a decade. You probably experienced one of these.

 

[sailnoproblem]

I agree with T Bird. the BB has been real weird wind wise. Will be spending the weekend at Tices weather permitting. Friday looks a little wet.

 

[David in Sandusky]

I've heard two stories of unexpected knockdowns by 40+ it winds coming out of "nowhere" in otherwise low winds on Lake Erie. The cause was thought to be a packet of cold air "falling" off the top of a thundercloud 10 or more miles away and forming a linear wind when it strikes the water surface. The captains in both cases spoke of water torn by the wind rather than one or more anomalous waves.

Sounds a little like Shadow's explanation.

 

[Kermit]

I've seen waves with no apparent boat on Lake Murray and have wondered about them. I've never been caught in one, though. Chances are they were made by boats that I didn't see. But it's interesting to see that they could be naturally-occurring.

 

[Ward H]

As for "rogue" waves on inland waters, isn't that like, an oxymoron?

Yeah, I doubt we will see any real "Rogue" waves on the BB.
I've only seen tidal bores shown on the weather channel. The single waves I've seen near the inlet could be very small tidal bore type waves caused by conditions at the inlet but the one on Sunday was off Barnegat Beach, far from the inlet.

Gunni probably hit on it. The wind had been from the NW and had died down a bit. 15 minutes or so later it picked up again from the SW so it was probably associated with the change in wind direction.
What struck me as odd was there was no indication on the water of the impending strong gust. Behind the wave the water was flat. The wind must have been above the water with just enough pressure to push the wave. And the gust was very localized as it didn't hit the boats in front and behind us.

Always fun to read about and learn from others similar experiences.

@Scott T-Bird, as sailnoproblem mentioned, seems like we are getting a lot of weird west winds this season. We went up past Cedar Creek to #39 on Sunday. I found the cove Dick told me about that is just north of CC that is a good alternative to Tices when the wind is out of the west. You might want to try that the next time Tices is uncomfortable.

 

[Gene Neill]

I just spent some time at Wikipedia, studying a list of well known rogue wave incidents. First entry says:

"On 11 March 1861 at midday the lighthouse on Eagle Island, off the west coast of Ireland was struck by a large wave that smashed 23 panes, washing some of the lamps down the stairs and damaging beyond repair the reflectors with broken glass. In order to damage the uppermost portion of the lighthouse, water would have had to surmount a seaside cliff measuring 40 m (133 ft) and a further 26 m (87 ft) of lighthouse structure."

Spooky.

 

[Justin_NSA]

My friend's brother was drowned by a rogue wave a few years back. He and his wife were walking on the beach! His wife was rescued but it was too late for him.
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Anthony-P-Jurich-Professor/125451

 

[Scott T-Bird]

We went up past Cedar Creek to #39 on Sunday. I found the cove Dick told me about that is just north of CC that is a good alternative to Tices when the wind is out of the west. You might want to try that the next time Tices is uncomfortable.

Any further north and you will have to cross under the bridge or sail in Toms River. Those coves don't look deep enough to get into on the charts, but there are docks in there and google maps make it look like the water isn't all that shallow. We will have to poke our nose in there sometime. It definitely would have been good protection on Saturday night.

 

[jssailem]

wave could have been stimulated by Sue's outburst of salty language

Scott... Are you suggesting evidence of the "Butterfly Effect"?
While crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca 2 weeks ago we had a rogue come up. I chalked it up to the West wind coming down the strait. We had been in 2-3 foot swells on 9 seconds when out of no where comes a single breaking swell that is 6-7 feet. Only one we saw all day. We were able to turn into it and avoid being tossed about. Now I am wondering ... did Sweet Sue have something to do with this out of the ordinary wave... Shades of X-Files....

 

[Chief RA]

Rogue waves appear to be much more common on the Pacific. Bodega Bay area is wide open to the incoming seas and our weather is rough most of the year. Many times the only way we know we got a rogue is it's just bigger than the regular 8's of the particular day. I saw 15' swells last fall and no rogue or storm! Chief

 

[JohnShannon]

Well as I recall from my safety at sea seminar you can expect a 2X wave once an hour. If the bottom is shallow relative to the 2X wave it can break and then you are in trouble. We had an incident in SF with a boat called Low Speed Chase that focused a lot of attention on this phenomenon. Outside the Golden Gate there is an area called the potato patch or four fathom shoal and you can find photos of very nasty single breaking waves when the conditions are right or wrong?

 

[Chief RA]

John: As you probably know, the shallow conditions are present at the mouth of Tomales Bay as well as the Potato patch. It gets some big stuff and classified as one of the most dangerous entrys. I have been going in and out of it for 30 years. My friend caught a rogue while he was exiting Tomales (during wrong tide conditions) and the observing fishermen said all you could see of his 26 MacGregor was the mast! Chief

 

[jssailem]

Yes the Potato patch is a known site for SF Bay sailors. It is just one of many sites that will either make you a sailor with respect for the sea or chew you up and not think a moment about it.

We were in 60 to 80 fathoms, on a broad reach, enjoying our fortunes to be on the water in the sun with wind in our sails and favorable sea. It would have been easy to close your eyes and just lie back and snooze as the AP guided our way. Fortunately I was not. I was enjoying but watching. I saw the breaking crest at about a half mile. Out of place with the rest of the seas state. No vessels on the horizon, 3-4 miles from the Washington coast.

Got up from my seat, grabbed the helm waited for the wave to show near us, cranked the helm over, rode the rollercoaster, then returned to our quest for our evening port.

I have been learning about all the similar Potato Patch sites up here. They have a folklore of their own.

 

[Chief RA]

jssailem: I am surprised Stu hasn't come on with what all he encountered running North up our coast! Have you got to meet him? He stopped in Bodega Bay on his trip and we got to meet he and son Morgan. Great guys! Chief