A rogue wave had hit the ship!

The Baltimore tv station, abc27_WHTM, has this headline item on their site abc27.com: Midstate woman on cruise ship rattled by high waves  by Al Gnoza. Of particular interest to us is this line: "People on board reported that a rogue wave had hit the ship, causing the top deck to collapse".


The cruise ship is Royal Caribbean Cruise's Grandeur of the Seas in the Atlantic Ocean. Maryland passenger Patti Hill Bocassini is onboard the 10 day cruise that visited places like San Juan and St. Thomas has this to report:

"The captain came on and said we were averaging 20 foot waves," Bocassini said on the phone. "This is the very high winds that are coming from the Nor'easter which is ahead of us. But the wind is still blowing down here and around Cape Hatteras is really bad any way."

Bocassini posted this update around dinner time: "waves still high boat still rocking deck has been repaired winds to die down tonight."- smiley face.

So this is a sighting of freaque waves encountered with no details as usual and no sustentative damage. All's well!

A fake happening can never be the real thing!

Here's an old fake scene of disastrous wave from the film "The Day After Tomorrow" which I have not seen and have no intention of seeing it.  I just happened to come across it while reading this article.

This scene is obviously fake, resulting from some of the Hollywood tricks no doubt. For the faint of hearts including grownups who tend to believe anything the modern lunatic media throw at them, this is down right frightening. But no matter what, a fake happening can never be the real thing!

Freaque squall blamed in Westmeath case!

They called it "freaque squall" in this case here, but it's the same freaque happenings nevertheless. Here's the article from Belfasttelegraph that gave the details:

By Adrian Rutherford – 22 March 2014 The angling tragedy which has left one man dead, a second missing and a third fighting for his life may have been caused by a freak squall.The men, all from Co Armagh, were on a fishing trip to Lough Ree in the Irish midlands when their boat capsized in bad weather.
Eyewitnesses described how a freak squall roared over the water shortly after the group set out.
The dead man has been named as construction worker David Warnock, who was 27 and from Richhill. His funeral will be held at Mullaghbrack Church of Ireland outside Markethill on Monday.
The missing man is Daryl Burke (30) from the Portadown area. A father-of-three, his wife is due to give birth to their fourth child in the next fortnight.
A third man, John Trimble (60), who is from Markethill, is critically ill in hospital.
They were part of a six-man expedition from the Portadown Pikers angling club who left Hodson Bay, in the south-west corner of Lough Ree, at 3pm on Thursday.

So it's "a freak squall roared over the water" kind. By the way the headline of this report is: "Freak squall blamed for Westmeath boat capsize that left one angler dead and another missing".  That seems pretty much tells the who story.  The term "squall" is now generally replaced by "meteoro tsunami" in academic circles, a special kind of freaque waves. I think the most important part of this report is the description "roared over the water"! Two things particularly characterize this case implied by the description: it made a loud sound and it came through a path, not the "appears out of the blue and disappears without a trace" kind.  But the roaring across the water is definitely an unexpected freaque wave!

A rescue after being swept off rocks by freak wave

One might say that this is just a simple rescue case. Of course nothing is simple. Every rescue case involves potentially life danger. Here's a news from Milford and West Wale Mecury :

Little and Broad Haven RNLI lifeboat was launched on Saturday (March 8) after reports of three teenagers in difficulty in the sea north of Broad Haven at Devils Bridge. 

Milford Haven Coastguard requested the launch of the Little and Broad Haven RNLI lifeboat after a call from a concerned teenager, stating his three friends were in difficulty in the sea. 

The incident happened after the four teenagers (two male, two female) had been sunbathing at Devils Bridge. One of the girls had been washed off the rocks by a freak wave.

After witnessing the girl struggling to make her way out of the water, two of the party jumped into the water whilst the other phoned 999. 

The volunteer lifeboat crew were quickly on scene and could see three people struggling to climb out of the sea and onto the rocks. 

There was quite a large swell at the time and the crew managed to quickly get into Devils Bridge and drop a crew member off to assess the casualties. 

After an examination, the crew decided to take the two girls straight to Broad Haven as medical attention was required. 

Broad Haven Coastguards who were on scene escorted the two other casualties straight to Broad Haven to be assessed by paramedics

So all's fine after all is done. It's all in a day's work. Thanks to and may God bless those brave volunteers!

Happened from a beach in Estoril

This Portugal news happened  yesterday:

Woman dies after freak wave washes her into Cascais sea

A 60-year-old woman who was swept into the sea by a freak wave from a beach in Estoril on Monday afternoon has died

The incident happened at around 3.40pm Sunday afternoon but by the time local rescue servicesarrived at the spot the woman had already been pulled alive from the rough sea by two locals after being knocked over by a wave and dragged into the water.
She was taken to Cascais hospital in a serious condition with signs of what was described as pre-drowning. But she did not survive the ordeal and died during the early hours of the next morning. 

This is the seventh death so far this winter relating to people drowning after being washed away by freak waves. 

However, the case where six university students drowned off Meco Beach near Sesimbra has attracted the attention of PJ police detectives. 

The students’ deaths were initially believed to have been a tragic accident caused after they were swept to sea by a freak wave, but the PJ’s summoning suggests suspicions that a crime may have occurred, with some sections of the media indicating the tragedy was the result of initiation rituals performed by students from the private Lusofona University.

Another case hard to contemplate. I was once in Estoril some 6 years ago. I strolled that beach a few times.  It was so calm and peaceful.  I remember thinking what if a freaque wave comes around, but it did not seem to be plausible.  It may not be the same stretch of beach I walked.  It is still hard to think that was what happened.  May God bless the victim and het family may she be RIP.

 

News from Goleta beach

This local TV news  video report tells a ferocious beach wave story happened at Goleta beach in California. There's an article written by Alys Martinez of KEYTNewsChannel 3 producer/reporter but I am not allowed to used any part of it. Anyway go visit the site and watch the video, it's worth watching! Note that they did use the term rogue wave in this report. Note also the article says restaurant employee swept out to sea in storm surge.  I am not certain that this is a case of storm surge. But the one that was swept out got stuck under the pier was able to get back safely with some injury is something good to hear! Deo Gratias!

A captured happening at Santa Barbara, California

An article in dailycaller.com tells this story with video:

The scene was pretty epic at breakfast on Saturday at Moby Dick Restaurant in Santa Barbara, Calif. 

The restaurant is located quite literally right on the ocean. A winter storm in the entire Southern California region generated waves so strong that they shattered a picture window in the dining room, causing salt water to barrel in and customers to flee their seats. 

“Great front row seats for the much needed storm in our area,” wrote surfer Jill Freeland in a caption below the video she captured and posted on YouTube

Go visit the article where there's the video. Here's the rest of the story in the article: 

As the clip begins, a cell phone records what appears to be gradually-building surf. Seconds later, a wave heaves against the window glass, breaking it, and causing chaos—but well-managed chaos in a wonderful “keep-calm-and-carry-on” sense.

Another spectator who was on the scene told NBC Los Angeles that diners and the wait staff initially froze for a split second. Then, they quickly and efficiently gathered themselves and evacuated the dining area.

Amazingly, a city official told the NBC station that no one was hurt in the incident.
Moby Dick is one of a handful of restaurants on Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara. According to Yelp reviewers, the place usually lacks ambience “other than the view.” While the food is “overpriced,” the seafood is “fresh” and the clam chowder is “pretty darn good.”

City officials have since closed the whole waterfront area until further notice.

That's quite a dramatic video that was captured.Well worth to watch it.  This case even got into the networks' national news broadcast with a small part of the video as part of the weather story. Now this is one wave case that the words of freak, rogue, monster, or giant were not used. Instead they came up a new adjective: gnarly, uhmm, gnarly wave -- probably it will not get into  the scientific literature. What ever adjectives you choose to use, that unexpected wave broken through the restaurant picture window can be considered to be a freaque wave!

By the way, here's the youtube version of the video -- it all happened in only a couple of seconds, isn't that the usual real life happening of a freaque wave encounter?