Freaque wave the detective?

Freaque waves are undoubtedly always be the villain of many terrible tragedies. Would it be possible by any chance that freaque waves can serve any redeemable purpose? Well, the answer could be a qualified may be, by serendipity but not by design. This morning's Independent Online of South Africa article tells such a rare case: The recent freak wave damage along the Umdloti coast and the alertness of a few beachgoers led to the discovery of some human skeletons protruding from an exposed sandbank. It might be connected to the case of unsolved disappearance of six young girls in the 1980s. There were suspects on the run, who stayed nearby, and later committed suicide. If this television mystery kind of case, now rekindled, can be led to a conclusion from the new discovery, freaque waves would certainly deserve an ever minor claim of credit to have nudged it along.

Mavericks surf contest canceled

On the Mavericks surf website this notice has just been posted:

2007 CONTEST WINDOW CLOSES
The waiting period for The 2007 Mavericks Surf Contest® presented by Ask.com® is officially over. Bad news for surfers and surf fans alike, but Mavericks is an unpredictable place, and Mother Nature calls the shots. It takes near perfect conditions – swell, winds, tides, and weather -- to create contest-worthy surf at Mavericks. This year, that perfect day never came.

This is certainly a major disappointment for many. Mavericks is a world-renowned big wave breaking place located one-half mile off the coast of Half Moon Bay, California and 20 miles south of San Francisco. As their website describes that Mavericks has been in the foreground of modern big-wave surfing since the early 1990s,

. . . attracting the most elite riders to test its limits each time it breaks. These riders are presented with waves that have crested at over 50 feet, remarkably strong currents, dangerously jagged rocks and shallow reefs, and frigid water temperatures. In summary, Mavericks is like no other place on the planet.

The contest takes place every winter during the period from new year to the end of March. Ther're usually large waves out there. But somehow this year the "world class swell" just refused to show up. So now the wait for '08 begins.



For us non-surfers or a desk surfer like me, however, we can always take comfort in this real life experience of an inspired surfer by Cathy Hamilton published in the Lawrence (Kansas) Journal-World this morning:

. . . I skip into the ocean, cold waves lapping at my legs. I wade out, deeper and deeper, until the water is chest-high. Off in the distance, a swell is building and heading toward me. It looks big.

I’m stoked!

“Surf’s up!” I cry and hoist myself onto the board, hugging it and bracing for the ride of my life.

The wave starts to curl downward. It’s a FREAKING TSUNAMI! I start to kick my legs and paddle furiously to get out in front of it.

Before I can cry “Banzai!” the wave crashes down, pitching me forward in a gnarly whirl of blinding, salty foam. The board flies out from under me and, after a two-second head-over-heels tumble, I land facedown on the beach. My hair completely covers my face. My swimsuit is twisted into a wad, and I’m swallowing sand.

Something tells me I didn’t exactly rip it.

This rather humorous description of an esxciting but not so humorous experience is a master piece. I, for one who has never dreamed to be a surfer and is not waiting for the Mavericks '08, can certainly fully empathize what she went through! May be if I were much younger, I might have a part of me to think why not try it some time. But it is more than a humorous adventure, it can be much worse than swallowing sand. Anyway my nerve is definitely not made to do something like that!

Life Altered in the Blink of an Eye

"Life altered in the Blink of an Eye" is actually the title of a book review article in the Washington Post this morning. My hat tips to the WaPo editor who came up with this intriguing title. My first instinct when I saw it is to think that it is a perfect description of what happens when a freaque wave hits. Indeed the book being reviewed is a fiction that starts with the mysterious missing of a little girl on the beach in which rogue waves were mentioned as a possible cause among others. I am not at all interested in this soap opera kind of modern fiction. Just wish to registered here that I think this is an incredibly poetic as well as agile title. Much more than merely a book review article.

Spring/Autumn in Durban, S.A.

As North America is getting ready to welcome the early spring of 2007, I guess not too many people would wish that they were in the beautiful southeastern coast of South Africa along the Agulhas current near Durban. They are in for some rough coastal sea conditions in the last few days. Just take a look at some of the news headline that’s happening there:

Monster wave warning issued
KZN coast battered by freak waves
Surf wreaks havoc on KZN coast
KZN coast left battered and broken

and the following one is my favorite:

'Big waves' fear unfounded

While freaque waves have been explicitly or implicitly implied in all these reports, the coarse conditions are not unexpected. It's storm season and high tide, especially when there will be an expected alignment of the Earth, Sun, and Moon. Still some devastating cases happened inevitably, among others:

In Durban an unidentified man's body was found washed up on the beach at Shelly Beach on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast.

Another man was washed out to sea by the strong sruf was luckily being pulled out by an alert lifeguard. It is believed that he had gone to observe the enormous waves.

Two women at Durban's Blue Lagoon were washed off their feet when a freak wave crashed into the parking lot in the early hours. Netcare 911 spokesperson said the women were taken to Addington Hospital with cuts, bruises and lacerations. One of them was six months pregnant.

Just an ordinary spring/autumn time period, yea right!

Another nearshore freaque wave tragedy

Well, after reporting two happy endings from devastating hits of nearshore freaque waves, a tragic case depressingly come to my attention. Coventry Telegraph online yesterday published an article by Barbara Goulden entitled "Probe into wave tragedy" that starts with this sentence: "THE National Trust is carrying out an investigation following the deaths of a couple swept off a harbour wall by a freak wave."

It happened a week ago, when Stephen Tickell, aged 42, was walking hand in hand with his partner, Patricia Evans, aged 53, as "they were washed into the sea at Mullion Cove, in Cornwall, on March 4." They were subsequently being "pulled from the sea by an RAF helicopter" and "rushed to hospital but pronounced dead shortly afterwards." That is essentially what had happened. Another culprit of nearshore freaque waves, this one ended in tragedy. We certainly can not over emphasize the glaring danger of benign areas near and around the water edges. It happens all around the world and it's happening so frequently and we practically know nothing about them other than knowing the danger but whatever will be will be.

Freaque wave drags boys off rocks

If I did not make it clear the dangerousness of the nearshore freaque waves in my previous post on the case in Iceland, half way around the globe and a day earlier in New Zealand the following local TV News certainly underscores the utmost perilous all over again:

The dangers of rock fishing have been underlined after a freak wave swept two boys into the sea from their rock fishing spot in the Bay of Islands.

Colin Akuhata and his two nephews were fishing off the rocks on the normally placid Kerikeri inlet. The boys went around a headland to another fishing spot when they were swept into the sea.

Akuhata heard them screaming and ran a kilometre for help rather than leaping into the water to try to rescue them.

Police say Akuhata did the right thing.

"One of the locals was on a surf board and apparently found one of the boys and pulled him back into the shore. And the other boy made it back to the beach safely as well," says Constable Andrew Talea.

One of the boys was badly cut by the rocks but managed to walk up to the waiting ambulance. The other, who has suspected back injuries from being smashed against the rocks, was carried out on a stretcher.

Both boys were taken to Kawakawa Hospital.

Both this and the previous case are also very fortunate cases because they all survived. Happy endings are certainly always heart warming. We must say "Deo Gratias" again!

Waves drags car out to sea

Here's a rather terrifying and also hard to believe story that has happened yesterday as reported in Iceland Review Online (Hat tip to James Higham):

A resident in Eyrarbakki, south Iceland, was washed into the ocean when a tidal wave hit his car at the pier in the neighboring town of Stokkseyri Friday. A firefighter brought him ashore.

Halldór Jónsson, an electrician, was helping a friend bringing a boat to land, which was tied to the pier, when the incident occurred, Fréttabladid reports.

Jónsson parked his car on the pier with a trailer attached to it and was about to drag the boat onto the trailer when a huge wave swept him out to sea.

Jónsson managed to crawl out of the window on the roof of his car. “It felt like I was stranded on a desert island,” he said.

A firefighter arrived at the scene and tossed a rope to Jónsson. He tied the rope to his trailer and managed to save himself and his equipment.

The report described that the car was hit by a "tidal wave" is not quite accurate. James Higham correctly called to attention to the phenomenon of rogue waves. This is clearly a case of nearshore freaque waves which is more complicate and grossly under-explored than those deep ocean freaque waves. There were frequent reports of young children or adults being washed out to the sea along the beach fronts by sudden unexpected freaque waves, but a whole automobile being dragged out to sea is still truly incredible. Take a stroll along the beach or beach front can be dangerous, now take a ride along the beach front is not any safer either!

Storm waves at the Horn, Part II.

Here's another fantastic video took by PhysWizEP on his current South America cruise.

He indicated that the video was taken through their cabin window on deck 4 of the Prinsendam. According to his YouTube description: "We were in hurricane strength winds on the day we got hit by two rogue waves. I used the video option on the Canon S3 IS digital still camera."

As an ocean wave aficionado, I just wish to sincerely thank PhysWizEP for share his videos on YouTube with the rest of us! Please visit his YouTube site for other exciting videos.

Storm waves at the Horn

This is a follow-up to my earlier post (An encounter around the Horn.) in February. In which I noted that the traveler Jill on her cruise around South America reported an encounter with freaque waves around Cape Horn. There was no news report about the case. Even though it was a real happening with 40 injuries, I did not expect to hear about it again. But I was wrong! This morning I came across a confirmation from another passenger on that same cruise indicated the encounter was with "two rogue waves" on February 1, 2007. This passenger, by the name of PhysWizEP, posted the above fabulous video, on the YouTube, of the wave conditions that day that was taken through a window on the 12th deck bar shortly after the freaque waves encounter. And I was right, the cruise ship is Prinsendam.

A contrarian view point

I came across some interesting discussions in the newsgroup of rec.boats.cruising that was taken place in July of last year. It was started with someone posted the New York Times article by William Broad which I reviewed earlier. A person by the name of 'Bob' declared:

And as I said last time......... there are no such things as "...rogue or sneaker..." waves.

Just some really big ones that should be expected.

After some friendly and unfriendly exchanges he posted the following detailed viewpoint:

For me they are just really big waves that pop up from time to time and most times are rather predictable. Yes I did say predictable.

As I mentioned last time, with many not agreeing and many others posting monster wave pic as proof of rogue and sneaker waves, for me it is a way to view my relationship with the oceans.

I believe that there is nothing inherently sneaky nor roguish about the seas. The worlds oceans are simply doing what they always do. For me to live and enjoy the oceans I have placed myself, not as some macho able to beat and over come my nautical adversary, rather as someone there to enjoy all the amazing things that occur out there. For me to say I got hit by a rogue wave that came from nowhere and smite my vessel is to say that I am also just a hapless stooge who has no responsibility for my own safety. A rather childish approach if you go by that Transitional Analysis stuff from the early 70s.

So I say, sorry, no such thing as a rogue wave. Just lots of really interesting events that are possible at sea, that we need to be prepared to maneuver, and hopefully able to predict more accurately.

Call it all liberal BS semantics if you want. However, the language a person uses serves as a great window to see what they think. On the other hand, language also effects the way people think and behave (Worf-Sapier). So change the language and we might change how people think about the sea. Personally I do not want to be helpless and victimized by a sneaker. I would much rather say it the way it was.......... I got caught with my pants down because I was not paying enough attention to what was going on.

He certainly entitles to his view point. But it not quite a valid view point. He may have been out there with all the sea experience. In talking about his relation with the oceans suggests clearly he is one of the lucky ones that has not really encountered a real freaque wave. Not all large waves are freaque waves and not all freaque waves are large waves. As no one at the present can predict freaque waves, his adverting to predicton is especially baseless. I have heard one other public declaration of "There is no such thing as freaque waves" before. That was from Professor Willard J. Pierson, Jr. at a wave meeting before someone was going to present a talk on freak waves. Pierson is the founding father of the modern wave spectrum and Gaussian random process conceptualization for ocean waves which practically negates the existence of unexpected freaque waves. That was purely on academic ground. Bob is not quite in Pierson's league. Anyway it's a vast ocean world out there, a contrarian view can always be expected. He probably will not be alone either.

One good save deserves another

The title of this blog entry is the title given by the editor of Long Island's Newsday to this article in their print edition this morning. It's a good title, but does not quite conveyed the truly increditable and heart warming story behind it. The article was written by Erik German and staff writers Christine Armario and Emerson Clarridge. I think it's better to copy the whole article here for the story, which was started fortuitously by a freaque wave:

When a rogue wave swept Neil Maycock out to sea 37 years ago, only the bravery of a passing stranger saved the then-3-year-old boy's life.

The stranger, a man out walking his dog, dove into the waves and - with the help of his Labrador retriever - dragged the grateful boy back to the shores of his native Great Britain.

Yesterday, fate let Maycock return the favor.

Maycock, now 40, dove into Centerport Harbor to rescue a stranger who'd fallen into the icy waters just after 3 p.m. And Maycock's sidekicks in the rescue? Two golden retrievers.

Before he nearly drowned, the victim, Michael Johnson, 23, was attempting to walk across the thinly iced-over Centerport Harbor, fire officials said. Nearly across the harbor, about 40 feet from shore, the ice gave way, plunging the Centerport man into the water.

A woman standing on shore saw Johnson fall and shouted.

At that moment, Maycock happened to be strolling on the beach, his two sons beside him and two dogs trotting up ahead. At the noise, his sons, Harry 10, and Sam, 7, stopped.

But Maycock dashed toward the sinking figure, splashing forward in jeans and hiking boots, shoving aside chunks of ice as he began to swim.

"If I'd thought about it a little bit more, I wouldn't have done anything," Maycock said, reached later at home in Centerport. "It was just instinct."

The two retrievers, Alfie, 5, and Gus, 1, followed Maycock into the water.

At one point, Johnson slipped beneath the surface, but Maycock took hold of the man's right forearm and began towing him toward land.

Maycock kept his charge at arm's length, to keep both from going under. But Johnson seemed to need more support.

So Alfie swam alongside Johnson and the man draped his free arm across the dog's furry back. "It gave him something to hang on to," Maycock said.

The trio paddled together to safety. "It was an unbelievable job that this guy did," said Centerport fire Chief Kevin Kustka.

Johnson was taken to Huntington Hospital and treated for severe hypothermia, Kustka said. Maycock was treated for cuts on his hands sustained from sharp bits of ice.

"The dogs did not suffer," Kustka said. "They were able to recover quickly."

Watching his father's icy plunge at first, Harry said, "I was a bit nervous and scared." But reflecting later, "it seems like a big adventure," he said. "I can't wait to tell my friends at school about this."

Reading this story reminds me of the old Buddhist philosophy of Yin[1; cause] and Kuo[3; effect] most Chinese are probably familiar with. It's basically just an euphuism of doing good deeds leads to good deeds that should be the same under any religion. In general it means that God will reward or restitute a good deed in His own ways sooner or later. The brave passing stranger, who saved 3 year old young Neil 37 years ago, remained nameless. But that risky good deed was redeemed by Neil himself 37 years later. As he reflected later :"If I'd thought about it a little bit more, I wouldn't have done anything!" Anyone can understand that. But it always happens, at another place, another instance, and another time. Yes, if you'd think a little bid more, you probably will not have done it. There is this invisible hand juggling things out there effectively without our knowledge. Sometime we can clearly spot the Yin and Kuo, most other times we can't. Nevertheless, we should all be grateful for this mighty invisible hand brought us this heart warming story today. As an old Catholic would like to say: "Deo gratias!"

The Lock Ness thing?

This is definitely not of freaque wave by any stretch of imagination, but it is something of interest nevertheless. The Friday issue of METRO.co.uk carried this picture and brief news entitled "Is this Nessie of the lakes?":

Is that a monster in the water?

The water was still – then a 'thing appeared, diving and thrashing around,' says Linden Adams.

The 15m 'creature' left a large wake as it swam in Cumbria's Lake Windermere, he claimed. 'I know what waves can do and this was no freak wave or a boat.'

Mr Adams, 35, may not have caught the clearest image but hopes his photos will help solve the mystery of Loch Ness.

I doubt the picture will "solve" the mystery. But no one can deny that the picture shows that there must be some "thing" underneath there. What thing is it? By the way the picture was actually taken in Windermere, the largest natural lake in England. According to Wikipedia: "Since ‘mere’ means ‘lake’, referring to Windermere as ‘Lake Windermere’ is tautologous, though common."

Rescued after lost at sea for 46 days

There is an incredible survival story worth noticing in this article entitled "Ignored at sea then found." It tells the story of a young man with his uncle and a friend got caught in a storm in the central Pacific Ocean and are lost at sea for 46 days before being finally rescued. Here, in essense, is what happened:

In their "tinnie" they survive by catching birds, turtles and even a shark with their bare hands. For drinking water they do their best to follow rain clouds and capture raindrops.

After nearly seven weeks of this and being ignored by “about six ships” the trio are finally rescued by a New Zealand ship.

The story is actually two years old. As much as it is worth recounting, may be because they were just some ordinary people, it took two years before some reporter is willing to hear what had happened to them. Nevertheless it is hard for any one to imagine what they went through. For instance, they needed rain, but the rain can overstay its welcome:

“You pray for rain, but when rain turned up and you filled up all your containers that was when you wished it would go away because it had been raining for two days and it was freezing cold and you cant stand it anymore, it was always up and down."

It is also hard to believe that some ship saw them but decided just left them there without trying to rescue them:

“You have plenty of hope, our first Sunday we saw a ship and it was coming straight for us and that’s when we thought ‘this is it, it’s over we are finally going to get rescued’ because it was coming straight for us then they just decided to go on a different angle and didn’t want to rescue us."

Of course drifting in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it would be almost inevitable they will encounter a freaque wave:

"It got pretty bad towards the end. A giant freak wave just came, it smashed on us so we were pretty much just floating in the water for two and half days . . ."

"In the water for two and a half days is when things got really bad, we couldn’t move much and our body was cramped. We found it really hard to breathe because we only had our heads sticking out of the water. We still had the boat but we couldn’t get the water out of the boat, it was pretty hard to bail it out because my Uncle is a diabetic and he came to that point where he just couldn’t move, we tried to give him one of our petrol containers to hold on to it like a floatie but he didn’t have the energy so we just thought we would just sit in this boat. The boat didn’t sink because it had floaties in the bottom of it so we just sat in it like a swimming pool; every wave that came you closed your eyes and held your breath."

Surviving all the ordeals, it's a happy ending at last, thank God:

". . . luckily a ship from New Zealand came straight for us and saved us."

I guess that's the best part of the whole story. Therein it's also setting forth the astonishing resilience God endowed us human beings for survival. But that's not always so apparent.

Further thoughts on Andrew McAuley tragedy

On Wednesday the Border Mail of Australia carried an article entitled "What drives adventurers, selfishness or selflessness?" by a columnist Doug Conway. He started with what I thought was a disheartening but plausible supposition:

ANDREW McAuley spent much of his final month looking at a photograph of his son Finlay, 3.
It was pinned up in the cockpit of his kayak on the 1600km Tasman Sea crossing that apparently cost him his life within 80 kilometres of his goal.
That photo doubtless helped drive him on what would have been an unprecedented paddle from Australia to New Zealand.

What I find intensely disargeeable, however, was his following paragraph :

But should it have convinced him to abort his mission, as he had done a month earlier when suffering hypothermia, and settle instead for dry land and a loving family?

I don't think Mr. Conway has any intention of disrespect to Andrew what so ever, somehow even a hint of aborting the mission, to me, it will be tantamount to insulting Andrew's incredible accomplishments last month.

One of the good old American sayings was used to be something like "When thing gets tough, the tough gets going!" But somehow the prevailing culture seems to have totally changed. I did not even fall sleep like Rip Van Winkle, and it seems the politically correct way of thinking nowadays has just become: "When thing gets tough -- cut and run!" In questioning adventurers' drives to accomplish their goals -- some may led to their unfortunate demise, I think Mr. Conway wittingly or unwittingly disclosed that he is probably a disciple of the new culture, even in Australia. Oh well, I digress.

What I really wish to point out here is that no one seems to overly concern about what role the freaque wave really plays in Andrew's tragedy. I can not prove it, but I firmly believe that this is specifically an encounter of freaque wave that caught Andrew in total surprise. For a whole month Andrew can handle with ease any storm, bad weather, rogue waves, and other possible 40th parallel trickeries, and he endured numerous capsizings without any problem. Then it was basically calm when he approached the final 80 km of his long journey. That must be what happened when this completely unexpected freaque wave sneaked its attack and caught Andrew with his guard down -- a little ahead of himself as he was probably preparing to reunite with his family, looking forward to hug his dear wife and young son. It was so close, he's almost there! People on land was preparing his welcome party, it's any minutes now, how could he got lost?

Well! In any oceanic journey, long or short, we just can not let the guard down at any time. Ocean is such a treacherous place, danger is always around the corner even when it's appearing calm. That's why freaque waves are so elusive and evasive, no satellite snapshots or nonlinear dynamics can expect to provide a tangible answer to the plight of freaque waves anytime soon!

I don't think Andrew has any regret about his adventure and accomplishment. He has pretty much proved that it can be done and he had basically done it. He is neither selfish nor selfless. He's simply following his own ideal and aspiration, and his family was with him, cheering him on, every paddles he made. It is unfortunate that his son should growing up with out him. But young Finlay is growing up, and for the rest of his life, he will always be immeasurably proud of his father's aspiration, courage and accomplishments.

Andrew McAuley R.I.P.

I can’t believe that's what happening.

I can’t believe that’s what happening.

Two days ago I blogged about the solo kayaker, Andrew McAuley, who's completing a 1600 km trans-Tasman journey from Australia to New Zealand. With less than 100 km to go, he will be the first person ever to have done that by paddling a kayak. According to news reports, he has endured numerous capsizings, rogue waves, the attention of sharks, and the worst weather the Roaring 40s could throw at him. I ended my blog with the following words:

“He will be completing his adventure on Sunday, his family is already there waiting. God speed, Andrew!”

I don’t know him, but I certainly felt the joy of his accomplishment.

I was in total shock to notice tonight the NewsBreak headline in the Sydney Morning Herald: “Freak wave blamed for kayak mystery” as they found his kayak but Andrew is missing. Rescue efforts is intensely ongoing. That's not what was supposed to happen. It can't be!

Dear God, please, please, please help the rescue team find him, help them rescue Andrew successfully, bring him back alive. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Update: As we are in the early afternoon EST on Monday, it's already Tuesday morning in New Zealand and Australia. News report just reported that New Zealand authorities have decided gave up the search for McAuley as his friends said a freak wave may have swept him from his tiny craft:

Search and rescue officials had the heartbreaking task this evening of telling the 39-year-old's family they were calling off an aerial search - four days after McAuley issued a garbled radio distress call.
. . . it was a devastating blow for McAuley's wife, Vicki, but she refused to give up hope, even after his damaged kayak was found on Saturday in rough seas off New Zealand's South Island.
The craft was found just 80km from Milford Sound, which was to have been the final destination in McAuley's bid to become the first person to kayak across the Tasman.

. . .
"Regrettably, and despite the best efforts of the Rescue Coordination Centre NZ (RCCNZ) and all others involved in the rescue, we have been unable to find Andrew," said Peter Williams, Maritime NZ deputy director of safety and response services.
"Taking into account the wide search area that has been covered, and bearing in mind that Andrew has now most likely been in 15 degree (Celsius) seas for around 70 hours, we have decided to suspend the aerial search."

. . . Family spokeswoman Jen Peedom said McAuley had survived much harsher conditions during his voyage from Tasmania than those that existed on Friday.
A freak wave may have been to blame for swamping his kayak and tearing off a metre-high capsule designed to cover the kayak's cockpit and protect McAuley while he slept and also when he was in rough seas, she said.
It was possible that because McAuley - named Australian National Geographic Adventurer of the Year in 2005 - was in relatively calm waters, he may have had the capsule open.
The cover was not with the kayak when it was found.
"What appears to have happened, and one can only assume, is that he was hit by a wave while it (the capsule) was not up," Peedom said.

So it is no surprise that freaque wave is the culprit again. But what was sad was that he was so close to his goal. He may have already preparing his own arrival after over 30 days hard struggle in the sea, he may have just momentarily letting his guard down and everything appeared calm -- that unfortunately seems to be also the time a freaque wave is likely to attack, out of the blue. What a loss, what a wretched tragedy! It just happened. We know it happened before, and it will happen again. Why can't there be a miracle -- let Andrew be miraculously washed over or swam to some shore, there should still be time for that. Dear Lord, if you would, have a miracle now!

An encounter around the Horn.

Here's an encounter with freaque waves that has not and probably will not be reported in the news media. It appeared in an ongoing journal called "Jill's Trip to South America." Jill is currently on a 66 day cruise around South America. The encounter was reported in her journal entry of Sunday, February 4, 2007:

WOW

Goodness it has been an "exciting" few days. We left Ushuaia and had rounded Cape Horn when we ran into hurricane force winds and then 2 rogue waves. They were about 40 feet high. I happened to be in bed which was a good place to be. Things were flying all of the room and ship. We have just left most of it on the floor since we are liable to hit it rough again.

There were about 40 injuries, none real serious thankfully. Most of the china and glasses in the restaurants were broken and the kitchen was a real mess. We only had cold food for a couple of meals. Then the staff did a great job and got a hot dinner to us. Chairs had flown around and broke mirrors and walls. Some of the outside balconies had some broken furniture. I seem to have come through it fairly well compared to a lot of others.

We returned to Ushuaia to get the injured to the hospital and are now heading back to Antarctica.

She did not mention the name of the ship in her journal. As she did talked about Holland-American and the cruise is 66 days, the ship is probably the MS Prinsendam. Since we all know that Holland-American will not publicize this freaque wave occurrence, and no newspaper has paid attention to this case, except for Jill's journal the case will at most be reported on and filed internally. But 40 injuries and some needs hospitalization, it is by no means a minor encounter.

Jill provided an fairly mild and yet realistic description of what actually happened and the aftermaths. It is a terribly trying experience nevertheless, but it is certainly far less spectacular than what Hollywood production Poseidon movie depicts. So clearly we should never confused what make-believe Hollywood brandished for reality.

We wish Jill smooth sailing for the rest of her cruise journey.

A 1600 km journey on kayak

Let's face it, we don't usually know much about what's happening down under. Our perceptions are usually masked by ignorance. For instance when I took a flight to Sydney and the plane first landed in Aukland, New Zealand, I felt that I am already arrived. So when I got this news:

Trans-Tasman paddler Andrew McAuley is almost within sight of his goal of becoming the first person to paddle a kayak from Australia to New Zealand.

With around 100km to go, McAauley is expected to arrive in Milford Sound on New Zealand's South Island on Sunday after enduring numerous capsizings, rogue waves, the attention of sharks and the worst weather the Roaring 40s could throw up.

My first outsider's reaction was wondering whether or not it's a big deal. But the mention of rogue waves intrigued me, so I did some further searching and here is the geography of the story:















That's 1600 km route no one ever paddled a kayak across before. I also found the official site of this adventure and the description of the rogue wave he encountered, happened in the early days of the journey, from the journal his wife kept online on land:

A bit of excitement on the water, or rather IN the water today — Andrew was capsized by a huge wave, but nothing he or the boat couldn't handle. Apparently the only tragedy was that he didn't capture it on film!

I wish he could capture the huge wave also. Well being capsized by it, who can have a cool mind to think about taking pictures!? He will be completing his adventure on Sunday, his family is already there waiting. God speed, Andrew!

In quest of freaque wave encounter cases

How many ships encounter freaque waves in the ocean? It is really difficult to ascertain. The detail event regarding the actual encounter, if an encounter has ever happened, is even more difficult to grasp. Obvious sources are news media and Google search. But they are still inevitably limited. Understandably cruise or maritime industries are generally disinclined to publicize freaque wave encounters. All in all we can nevertheless reasonably surmise that there are more freaque wave encounters than reported, and that there are more freaque wave occurrences than encountered! As in the list of freaque wave encounters I compiled previously and continuously update it, it is by no means even remotely possible to encompass all cases. For instance, I just came across today the following news items from different sites where rogue waves were mentioned in bold face, only the first and the last are confirming each other by different sources -- a new case added to the list. But I am not ready to add the other cases yet.

From http://www.maritimematters.com/shipnews2002b.html

HANSEATIC Meets Rogue Wave
December 15: The 1991-built HANSEATIC berthed at Lyttelton, New Zealand at mid-day today after a voyage at reduced speed from the Chatham Islands. The ship was struck by a rogue wave which broke one of the bridge windows and damaged electrical systems. The ship was on a coastal cruise around the New Zealand Coast. She remains in port and may not sail until December 27.

Freak Waves In The Media
November 15: The British newspaper, THE OBSERVER carried an interesting story concerning freak waves. The report written by Robin McKie and Mark Townsend, called for a tightening of safety design as scientists admit to having no explanation for rogue waves. Often dismissed as legend or perhaps very rare events, research has revealed that "killer waves" do exist and regularly sink vessels all over the world. For no known reason, massive walls of water rise up and destroy dozens of ships and oil rigs each year. These giant waves cannot be predicted by standard meteorology, they are not tidal waves or tsunamis, nor are they caused by earthquakes or landslides. An example of a possible freak wave disaster was the LASH ship MUNCHEN which disappeared while sailing to the USon December 7, 1978. Despite a massive search, all that was found of the ship and her 26 member crew was a severely battered lifeboat. The official enquiry concluded that "something extraordinary" had destroyed the ship. (However, Hapag Lloyd was later informed that a Soviet boomer on partol off the US South Atlantic did hear the MUNCHEN break-up as it sank and provided its coordinates). Now scientists believe that these so called rare events are more common than previously thought. The liner QUEEN MARY was hit by a 75 ft wall of water while carrying 15,000 troops in December 1942, bringing her within moments of capsizing, it was later reported. In 2000, the cruise ship ORIANA was struck by a 70 ft wave that smashed windows and sent sea water cascading through the ship. In the same month, eight men were killed when a freak wave struck a trawler 87 miles west of Loop Head off Ireland. Previously, scientists generally asserted that waves at sea should not reach much more than 40ft. Walls of water up to 100ft are being observed, thus suggesting that something is wrong with current meteorology theory, although the origin of the freak waves still baffles scientists. British Minister of Parliament O'Hara has tabled a Commons motion expressing concern over ship safety in freak weather. The design of hatches and resistance of windows, he says, has to be considerably improved. A BBC2 documentary will air on the subject this week.

And from http://www.cruisejunkie.com/events2006.html

March 28, 2006, Seabourn Pride of Seabourn Cruise: The transatlantic cruise ending today in Lisbon arrived several hours late -- the delay was explained as the result of heavy weather and a fault with the exhaust system which is needing repairs. But a passenger reports meeting someone who said those crossing the Atlantic were lucky to escape with their lives as there had been a fire in the engine room on the 3rd day as well as an encounter with a rogue wave. The fire was apparently very bad and there was lots of smoke although it was put out within 15 minutes so pax weren't called to the lifeboats. Interetingly, the ship moored on the port side in Lisbon to hide the large mark on the side where all the paint was burned away. The captain also moored like this in Madeira but once the passengers got into town the large patch of rust was there for all to see & comment on.

and from http://www.cruisejunkie.com/events2002.html

December 15, 2002, Hanseatic of Hapag-Lloyd: While on a coastal cruise of New Zealand the ship was struck by a rogue wave which broke out one of the bridge windows and damaged electrical systems. The ship was expected to remain in port until December 27.

The loss of Ocean Challenger

There is a saying that goes something like “all news is local!” which is certainly true. In this era of internet, one would expect that important news can also made global rapidly. I have been relying on the Google Alert to hear about freaque wave occurrences around the world. But this news of October 2006 on the loss of commercial fishing vessel Ocean Challenger in the Aleutian Islands area somehow missed by Google Alert. I came across this case this weekend from this North Pacific blog and this Forum, and this news article of Anchorage Daily News.

As I have noticed continually that vessels in th 15 to 25 meter size range have loomed up to be most vulnerable to freaque wave or large storm wave attacks. This Ocean Challenger, a 58 ft commercial fishing boat, is certainly belong to that vulnerable group.






























Here's what had happened that day according to this blogger:

It was about 10 o’clock in the morning of October 18, when the 600 foot car-carrier, M/V Overseas Joyce, heard the mayday call from the 58 foot F/V Ocean Challenger. The freighter was close enough for her crew to watch with shock as the fishing boat deployed her life raft in seas nearly 3 stories high. Shock gave way to horror as the smaller craft capsized, sending all of her crew into the frigid waters of the Bering Sea.

The master of the Overseas Joyce immediately relayed the distress call and location - approximately 60 miles south of Sand Point - to the US Coast Guard. Air Station Kodiak launched a C-130 air plane, an HH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter, and the USCG cutter Munro. The car carrier and a second freighter, the R.J. Phifer, a 500-foot container ship, remained to help in the search.

The Jayhawk arrived on scene approximately an hour after the call. The conditions were reported as 50-knot winds, 30-foot seas and a temperature of about 45 degrees. Brutal on land, deadly at sea.

The crew of the Jayhawk, locating the only man wearing a survival suit, lowered a rescue basket into the frenzied waters and hoisted , Kevin Ferrell, 28, originally of Lynchburg, Va. to safety.

The Coast Guard rescue swimmer reached the skipper, 51 year old David “Cowboy” Hasselquist of Hoonah, and 26 year old Walter Foster, of Westport, Washington only to have them pronounced dead by the flight surgeon.

Still missing is Steve Esparza, 26, of Kodiak, Alaska.

Coast Guard C-130 pilot Lt. Jerred Williams said he arrived on scene in the afternoon with a second crew to look for the missing man. “The waves were so high you actually got white caps at the top of the wave,” he said. “And, then, with the wind streaking across the blue water, and the white turbulence everywhere, it made it very challenging to find a person in the water.”

The high waves and wind eventually made the search almost impossible by air so only the Munro continued the search for Esparza into the evening. The Coast Guard called off the search just before 8 p.m. that Thursday night. The search covered approximately 1,730 square miles, and lasted 46 hours and 20 minutes.

Kevin Ferrell was flown to the Cold Bay Clinic, about 50 miles away, then to an Anchorage hospital.

Yes, this is a local news story. But it is a local news of real people. The 51 year old skipper, well liked and known to the locals as simply "Cowboy," worked his way up the ranks from a deckhand to skipper while capturing fishing experiences in the Aleutians and Bearing Sea and supporting a loving family. As this Forum member named 'itdincor" from Sand Point, Alaska, commented:

"Cowboy was a good man, and a good captain. But the sea is a liar, who will kill you and not even notice. And the Ocean Challenger was a very good boat. Sometimes it is not possible to survive what the sea gives.

"You may not care, but we in this town do. Try to remember this, the next time you have a fish dinner. Men often die to bring you dinner."

For a non-fishing mortal like me, I must admit that I always enjoy sea foods but hardly ever think about the hardship where those wonderful things were come from! But as a freaque waves researcher, I do share the trials and tribulations of having to face the freaque waves daily without knowing where, when, why, what, or how to effectively cope with the menace of those freaque waves at the present. What a pity we spent tons of funding resources to wrangle about a possible temperature increase 100 years from now, but no research attention in terms of funding is at all available to help extricate those commercial fishermen's daily plights here and now!

Three large waves this time . . .

It's not quite 4 weeks into the new year, this following reported episode just happened yesterday. Not exactly unexpected, but the story line is almost the same as those happened before, which makes it dreadful to think that this is at the present still something inescapable and to think that it's not really a matter of whether or not but when, where, and how often it might happen. It's always one or two unanticipated larger waves occur abruptly. Vessels with lengths in the 15 m to 20 m range in the nearshore area seemed to be most vulnerable. This time it's three larger waves -- three sisters?! This time it's a 58 ft commercial fishing boat along the Oregon Pacific coast with one life lost, according to this Bellingham Herald's report no longer available online (also see here or here or here.):

GARIBALDI, Ore. — Three large waves struck a 58-foot fishing boat just off the Pacific Coast, rolling it three times in an accident that killed one of four crew members and threw the vessel onto a jetty, the Coast Guard said Friday.

The three survivors from the Thursday night accident had hypothermia but were in good condition early Friday, said U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Brian Fischer.

An injured 50-year-old fisherman went into cardiac arrest and died at a hospital after he was pulled off the boat by a rescue helicopter, Fischer said.

The 58-foot Starrigavan was trying to cross the bar of Tillamook Bay about 9:30 p.m. Thursday. A witness saw it list heavily and its lights go out, Fischer said.

A survivor reported the vessel was hit by three 20-foot waves and rolled three times, said Petty Officer Shawn Eggert of the Coast Guard.

The witness called 911, and at about the same time an emergency signal was transmitted from a safety device aboard the Starrigavan to the Coast Guard, Fischer said.

Eggert said the winds at the time were reported at about 17 miles an hour, waves at 11 feet. "It’s possible they were hit by rogue waves," he said.

Eggert said that at the time of the wreck, the bar was closed to recreational boaters and uninspected passenger vessels, but open to commercial fishing vessels such as the Starrigavan.

The vessel was on the rocks of the jetty Friday, and an environmental team was to inspect it before any attempts were made to get it off, Eggert said.

None of the crew members had been identified as of Friday morning. (Update: the lost fisherman has been identified to be 50 years old Kenneth Venard of New Port.)

Story of a hero I know

This story is over five years old. I have heard about pieces of this story when it happened and I remember the Gold Medal in Heroism. I only came across the details of what had happened recently from the article in Santa Barbara News-Press as reproduced in here. I know the hero's father well, Robert E. Lee Pickett, who is an old retired and respected colleague of mine. I think it's self-explanatory why I would like to preserved it here this heart warming freaque wave encounter story in my blog, but it is an exemplary heroic story nevertheless and it's all because they had encountered a dreadful freaque waves on an essentially calm day!

Skipper honored for saving his crew

11/18/01

By JANE HULSE, NEWS-PRESS ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR

The way skipper Mark Pickett recalls it, the water off Point
Conception was calm that day a year ago, but in a flash a
20-foot rogue wave bore down on the research vessel Ballena.

It tossed the 60-foot boat upside down like a toy, trapping
the skipper and two scientists inside the cabin underwater.
In the darkness, they fought their way to the surface.

The skipper swam, exhausted, to shore about a quarter-mile
away, and when he saw that his two companions would likely
drown, he swam back out and pulled each of them to safety.

The Ballena, worth at least $500,000 with its high-tech
surveying and research gear, was wrecked. But the trio was
alive -- and for that, Lt. Cmdr. Pickett of the National
Oceanic Atmospheric Administration Corps received the U.S.
Department of Commerce's Gold Medal in Heroism on Nov. 7.

The skipper, who lives in Monterey, got a standing ovation
during a ceremony in Washington, D.C. But the honor was
tinged with some sadness -- the Channel Islands Marine
Sanctuary had lost its only research vessel.

"When I first heard about (the honor), I didn't want
anything to do with it," Lt. Cmdr. Pickett said Saturday.
"We lost the boat."

That could be construed as "screwing up."

But there was an investigation, he said, that cleared
him of doing anything wrong.

His father helped him realize that as the skipper that day,
Nov. 4, 2000, his passengers were his first priority -- not
the boat. That message hit home recently when the wife of one
of the rescued men told him, "Thanks for bringing him back."

The Ballena's final voyage that day was part of a U.S.
Geologic Survey mission to sketch the sea floor using sonar
scans. The boat had been a familiar sight at the Santa Barbara
Harbor, where it was used for marine research and surveying.
Teachers took chartered trips on it to learn more about the
Santa Barbara Channel's plants and animals.

Lt. Cmdr. Pickett, the brother of Channel Islands Marine
Sanctuary Manager Matt Pickett, is a veteran vessel commander
of 17 years and had skippered the Ballena before. He was
called in to skipper that day because the vessel's usual
captain was not available, according to sanctuary officials.

With USGS scientists Guy Cochran and Michael Boyle of
Menlo Park aboard, the boat capsized about 11:30 a.m.
trapping them and the skipper.

Once out from under the boat, they climbed into a small
life raft, but ditched it fearing it might smash on the
rocky shore. They would swim instead.

"We all thought we could make it," he said. It was only
200 yards. They quickly found they were fighting for
their lives in the cold current.

"I thought I was going to die," he recalled. He managed
to make it to shore, finding a patch of sand amid the rocks.

When he saw the other two men were in trouble, he stripped
off his shoes and went back out, rescuing one as he was starting
to go under. Lt. Cmdr. Pickett was so exhausted by the time he
hauled that man ashore, he had to wait a few minutes before he
could go back out and bring in the other man.

Although one of the men couldn't walk or even crawl, somehow
they all managed to climb the rocky cliff barefoot and trek a
couple miles onto Vandenberg Air Force Base. Finally, a bus
full of military personnel picked them up.

"We were all bloodied up and beaten up bad," he said.

Waves in the Sky

The picture in today's "Earth Sciences Picture of the Day" (EPOD) interested me immediately with its title "Waves in the Sky." It's not freaque wave, but an interesting picture nevertheless.















While it is not extremely rare, it is considered as unusual clouds. Another similarly intriguing one is given here as the Kelvin-Helmholtz wave cloud shown below. (In EPOD's description, Helmholtz was misspelled.)














It is usually being formed at the interface of two layers of air mass with a warm layer on top a cold layer generally led to instability and Kelvin-Helmholtz wave cloud. Actually the EPOD picture shows better that the two air mass layers.

Apparently there is no equivalent freaque wave in the sky. But to the extent that freaque waves sometimes being described as "a hole in the sea," it is not hard to look up in the sky and find a hole in the cloud -- though not of the freaque wave kind. There are freaque waves in the stock market, but probably not in the sky!