Indonesian ferry disaster

The Indonesian ferry boat sinking disaster yesterday is now world wide news as typified by this AFP report:

TANJUNG BALAI, Indonesia — The captain of an Indonesian ferry which sank killing 29 people rejected claims of overcrowding Monday and blamed a freak storm for the disaster, as officials launched an investigation.

The search for survivors from the Dumai Express resumed for a second day off Karimun island, near Singapore, amid fears scores of people could be lost at sea or trapped in the wreck at the bottom of the Malacca Strait.

With the official toll standing at 29 dead and 250 rescued, officials arrived at Karimun to try to piece together what caused the latest in a litany of ferry disasters in Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands.

The 147-tonne vessel's capacity was 273 passengers and crew, but local police said more than 400 people could have been on board. Two survivors told AFP its decks were packed with undocumented passengers.

Here's the ferry captain's contention:

Captain Johan Napitupulu rejected the allegations and said he had no warning he was sailing into a massive storm when he left Batam island on Sunday morning.

"The weather was fine when we left Batam port. There was no sign of rain and we also didn't get any warning from anybody saying the weather could turn bad at sea," he told AFP.

"About half an hour later the weather suddenly turned really, really bad. The waves were higher than two metres (six feet), the winds and currents were strong."

The captain said the crew had done all it could to arrange lifeboats and life-jackets for the terrified passengers.

"The ferry was sinking fast, front first. Within 27 minutes it was totally submerged... There was panic, everyone was screaming," Napitupulu said.

The word "freaque", representing either freak or rogue, to a large extent implies some happening that's basically unexpected. The captain is not first one to blame the disaster on a freaque storm -- which means that the storm was unexpected. Now I can be persuaded that a wave comes up unexpectedly, but an unexpected storm is a little far fetched for me. It may not be predicted by the weather people, but a quick storm comes up quickly in the open ocean is something to be expected for the alert sailors if they kept an eye on the air when they are out there. Isn't keeping an eye on the air and weather the job of the ferry boat captain?

Expect the unexpected should be an axiom for everyone especially sailors. Some one has called freaque waves as unexpected waves recently. I think that could be a misnomer. Unexpected things always happen. I have began to feel that freaque waves should be "expected waves" rather than "unexpected waves". Because when one treats it as expected, then one would always be alert and prepared for its occurrence. I have recently noticed some discussion on "unexpectedness" which seems to be some new thinking into the rare occurring cases. I did not see any actual numbers yet, but it appears to me intuitively that unexpectedness must be a very large number. Only the expectedness (probably there is no such word yet) can be correlated with the general conceptual basis of rare occurrence. Freaque waves, and freaque storms for that matter, are expected albeit with very small "expectedness"!

Psalm 93 : 3-4

The flood has raised up, LORD;

the flood has raised up its roar;

the flood has raised its pounding waves.

More powerful than the roar of many waters,

more powerful than the breakers of the sea,

powerful in the heavens is the LORD.

Gigantic waves in eastern Atlantic Ocean

The ephotozine today has a message for big wave fun photographers: "If you're a fan of big waves you need to get yourself to the west coast of England this weekend as some big swells are forecast." with the following enticing pictures:

and this advice:

Although strong wind is always an accompanying force along with big waves, it is the increasing swell heights building in the mid Atlantic that are the most important to the photographer. Waves are predicted to be in excess of 30-40ft, but it’s the rogue waves that should be looked out for. Every twelfth or thirteenth wave seems to pack that extra ingredient, so with the right composition some truly spectacular images can be captured.

I am wondering how do they arrived at the "every twelfth or thirteenth wave seems to pack that extra ingredient" statement. Anyway it should be a place for big wave aficionados.

I also found this Youtube video of Longships Lighthouse took on the morning of March 10, 2008:



and this one "taken on the 7th of december 2007 in "Raz de Sein" at the western tip of France, in Brittany, on a (very) stormy day"!



More info on the lighthouses can be found here.

Happy wave watching!

Tragedy at North Carolina beach

The peril of a simple walking on the beach is manifested again from this report by Jeb Phillips in the Columbus Dispatch this morning:

A West Side woman on vacation at North Carolina's Outer Banks drowned Sunday after a wave knocked her down and she inhaled water.

Wilma Froggatt, 63, was walking on the beach with her husband and a friend after days of being cooped up by bad weather, said David Froggatt, Wilma's husband of 46 years.

The Froggatts had arrived in the community of Rodanthe with another couple the previous Monday, and remnants of Hurricane Ida had begun hitting the Outer Banks on Wednesday. A part of the highway serving the area was washed out on Thursday.

The roughest conditions had passed by Sunday, and the Froggatts and their friend went to the Rodanthe beach in the early afternoon, Mr. Froggatt said. They were near a sandbag barrier when a "rogue wave" hit, he said. It knocked his wife down, and she began sliding toward the water. As he went after her, another wave drenched them both.

Mr. Froggatt was able to pull his wife away from the ocean, but she had trouble breathing. She managed to talk for a few minutes.

"She told me, 'I'm not going to make it,' " he said. "She told me she loved me."

By the time the first emergency responders arrived, she had lost consciousness, said Mike Daugherty, chief of the Chicamacomico Banks Fire Department. Daugherty was one of those first responders.

Mrs. Froggatt was taken to a Rodanthe helicopter pad and then flown to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Norfolk, Va., where she was pronounced dead. The chief medical examiner's office in the Tidewater District ruled the death an accidental drowning.

She had always loved to travel, especially to the East Coast, her husband said, and had a positive outlook on life.

"She was a wonderful companion," he said. "She was the rock of my life."

Our heartfelt sympathy and condolences go to Mr. Froggatt and his family and friends. The kind of freaque wave hit can not be considered as uncommon, but the damage it caused is of immeasurable human tragedy that no one should expect to suffer. Similar things happen all the time all around the globe. We don't know how to prevent it or predict its happening. We need more measurements for real research all around which are not presently available. A few academic textbook or computer exercises are grossly inadequate. When will the power that be be expected to pay attention to this kind of research needs?

Warnings on wave watching!

Wave watching is exciting -- only if you are certain at a safe distance away from the action. Here's a picture of watching waves at the Portland Bill near the southern central Dorset, England north side of the English Channel

as published in the DorsetEcho with the following report:

FAMILIES risked their lives to get a closer look at the monster waves hitting Portland during hurricane winds, coastguards said.

The Portland Bill Coastguard Rescue Team found hundreds of people had clambered over flood defences designed to keep them a safe distance back from 30-foot-high waves described as the roughest in 10 years at Chesil Cove.

They were shocked to find parents and their children among those strolling along the beach seemingly unaware that a wave could climb the beach and drag them into the stormy seas at any moment Coastguard and flood bailiff Bob Naerger said: “It was madness. One day somebody is going to lose their life down here.

“It is quite something to see down here and nobody wants to stop them looking at the waves but just be more responsible.”

Mr Naerger said he helped one girl aged five or six over the sea wall who told him she was ‘really scared’.

He added: “Parents don’t realise they are putting their lives at risk as I don’t think they’ve got a clue what the consequences could be.

“I don’t know what goes through their heads.”

A team of four coastguards warned people to stay behind the flood defences as waves threw pieces of wood and pebbles the size of tennis balls on to the beach and promenade.

Coastguard Nick Gould said: “All of a sudden you would get a rogue one and that could catch you out. You could be whipped off your feet and dragged down and then you are gone.”

Mr Gould said children were most at risk.

He added: “It was very careless behaviour because people with kids on the sea wall were letting them run around.

“You don’t need a big wave to wash a little kiddy away.

“There were people putting their kids over the floodgates and they need to be aware they are putting lives at risk.”

Nigel McColm, Portland Bill Coastguard station officer, branded the behaviour as ‘stupid’ in what he said was the ‘roughest sea at Chesil in 10 years’.

He said: “I liken it to playing football on the Dorchester bypass. If you get dragged into the sea you’ve got no chance of getting out.

“When those waves come up over the beach and it all drags back the pebbles you’ve got a hell of a drag going back with the pebbles.”

A coastguard spokesman said they recorded storm force 10 at Portland on Saturday and are expecting up to gale force 8 again this week.

I am wondering why people tend to ignore the obvious dangers involved. Mr. Gould of Coastguard gave very sober warning that everyone should remember first and foremost: “All of a sudden you would get a rogue one and that could catch you out. You could be whipped off your feet and dragged down and then you are gone.” That kind of things had been happened so many times all around the world, it is really no excuse not to be aware especially for family with small children. Wave watching is really not fun and game at any rate!

Today's Gospel

Jesus said to his disciples:
"In those days after that tribulation
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from the sky,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

"And then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds'
with great power and glory,
and then he will send out the angels
and gather his elect from the four winds,
from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.

"Learn a lesson from the fig tree.
When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves,
you know that summer is near.
In the same way, when you see these things happening,
know that he is near, at the gates.
Amen, I say to you,
this generation will not pass away
until all these things have taken place.
Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will not pass away.

"But of that day or hour, no one knows,
neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

(Mk 13:24-32)

A case happened in Japan

This case reported by CKWS TV of Kingston, Ontario that was just happened in Japan but not much details, just these:

A dramatic rescue from Japan, 28 people were plucked from a sinking ship off the coast of Japan. The crew said a rogue wave hit them thirty kilometers from shore, forcing the ship onto it'a side. The Japanses Coast Guard sent three helicopters and six vessels to the scene and saved everybody.

The last statement about "saved everybody" is certainly music to everyone's years.Good job for Japanese Coast Guard!