Tramore beach tragedy

Image: davidodriscoll via Flickr

The above is a nice picture of Tramore beach of Ireland. According this travel advertisement, "Meaning “Big Strand”, Tramore is one of the most aptly named towns in the region, with its famous 5 km golden, sandy beach surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, and one of the regions most popular resorts." But this Irish Journal just reported a tragedy happened here:

A WOMAN WAS DROWNED after being caught by waves as she visited a beach with her young daughter yesterday.

The 39-year-old, named by official sources as Mary Kelly, was walking along the shoreline with her family at Tramore beach in Co Waterford when they were hit by a freak wave, according to reports. Her daughter managed to reach safety but Mary was swept out to sea at around 8.40am.

The alarm was raised and crews at Tramore RNLI and the Coast Guard helicopter were dispatched. Gardaí arrived at the scene to find the child, believed to be aged under ten, safe but the mother caught in the waves, the Irish Independent reports. A local surfer helped bring Mary ashore and there were attempts to administer CPR, but she was pronounced dead after being airlifted to hospital, according to RTE.

According to the Irish Daily Star (print edition only), Mary’s mother also witnessed the tragedy as the family were on holiday in Tramore at the time. A relative told the paper: “From what we’ve been told, it happened all of a sudden. A wave came in and knocked Mary over and then another came in and pulled her into the water.”

The daughter is reported to be now back at home with her father.

A very tragic story -- but not surprising to this blog. How can anyone be expecting freaque waves when enjoying a stroll on a beautiful beach like this one? But that's always happening all around the world. This time it's the beautiful Tramore beach of Ireland. The more depressing thing is, however, that knowing the fact that no one is ever trying to do any practical research about it. So it just happens here, there, somewhere, sometime, somehow! May the good Lord bless Mrs. Mary Kelly's soul and helping her family to cope with this tragedy. Another little girl is going to grown up without her loving mother. But it can happen to the little girl or Mary's mother also. We need to find out what's going on and how to prevent them. Unfortunately at the present there is no one doing that. So when you go to the beaches, beware!

Nightmare on a fishing trip holiday

This 115-foot (35-meter) vessel, the Erik, sank about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of the port of San Felipe around 2:30 a.m. PDT (5:30 a.m. EDT; 0930 GMT) Sunday.

Nightmare on a fishing trip holiday, and freaque waves are to blame. According to the City News Service:

A chartered ship, packed with more than 40 passengers on a Fourth of July fishing trip, was struck by two rogue waves in the Sea of Cortez and capsized, prompting the Coast Guard to send a helicopter from San Diego to help search for survivors.

The ship, called the Erik, was sold-out for a four-night trip out of San Felipe, 200 miles southeast of San Diego. One person was confirmed drowned, 8 people were missing, and 37 souls had been rescued at sea or swam ashore, said a Mexican Navy spokesman at San Felipe.

The Erik is a “mother ship,” with supplies, sleeping berths and a galley for a fleet of “panga” boats that take fishermen to spots in the northern end of the Sea of Cortez. Trips are offered by a Dana Point company called JigStop and are popular with Southern California residents.

The vessel sank near Isla San Luis, Baja California, with 44 people aboard around 2:30 a.m. Sunday, according to the Coast Guard. Most passengers swam to shore, and some were rescued by other boats.

This is a truly nightmare as it happened after midnight in very early morning. They were struck by two freaque waves, but as usual no more detail about the waves that caused the nightmare. Here, again, shows that freaque waves make no distinction of where, when, how and why, when it happens, it just happens, even in the always safe Sea of Cortez. Hope all the missing ones be safely rescued, let the one confirmed drowned be rest in peace. May God bless us all always!

Update July 5, 2011

While the area is generally popular with the southern California residents, many in this case are actually from northern California -- they are Bay area tourist on an annual July 4th fishing trip as this updated local KTVU.com news reports:

By early Monday, 19 of the tourists and all 16 crew members had been picked up by the navy or other fishing boats after clinging to coolers, rescue rings and life vests for more than 16 hours.

Mexican navy Capt. Benjamin Pineda Gomez said he had no name or details about the man who died. But he said with the warm weather and water temperature, it's still possible the others missing are alive.

"A person who casts away can survive many days. That sea is calm," he said.

The 115-foot (35-meter) vessel, the Erik, sank about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of the port of San Felipe around 2:30 a.m. PDT (5:30 a.m. EDT; 0930 GMT) Sunday, the second day of a weeklong vacation fishing trip the men had organized for several years each Independence Day holiday.

The boat capsized less than 2 miles (3 kilometers) from shore, but the navy extended its search 60 miles (100 kilometers) deeper into the gulf later Monday after scouring the area by helicopter and airplane and finding nothing, Pineda said.

Most of the 27 men are from Northern California and had made the trip before, eating gourmet dinners on board every night and coming home with ice chests full of fish.

The part that the Mexico Navy Captain say people can survive for many days in the kind of condition there is certainly encouraging.

As behind every single count in the news report there is also a real human story there. The reporter talked to Kristina Bronstein, who is engaged to missing tourist Mark Dorland of Twain Harte, California.

She heard about the accident Monday morning from a trip organizer's wife, who told her Dorland, 62, was one of the first people to fall into the water. He wasn't wearing a life vest.

The couple are to be married next month.

Let's pray for the safe rescue of Mr. Dorland and all those who are still counted as missing.

Tourist Michael Ng of Belmont, California, was rescued with another fisherman as they tried to swim to shore for help, buoyed by a cooler. He was part of a group of 12 friends on the trip.

"I'm relieved I'm alive, but I'm scared for the people who haven't been found yet," he said, adding that he plans to stay in San Felipe during the search and hopes the others are still alive. "We were not very far from shore, so people were beached or stranded on some local islands."

"Some rogue waves hit the boat [and] it started sinking. They put on life jackets and had to bob in the water for a while," the survivor's wife Ya Ng told KTVU in a phone interview.

She said she spoke with her husband Monday morning.

"He said he was praying for his life -- praying for help. Just hoping someone would come by and rescue them," said Ng.

And

62-year-old Novato resident Richard Ciabattari works for the San Francisco Giants as an usher and was one of those who were rescued from the boat that capsized early Sunday morning. He was wearing a life jacket.

"He was one of the ones who were lucky,"" his wife Jan Askew told KTVU Monday night. "He was a good swimmer."

Askew said her husband has been emotional during his phone calls to her but was physically unharmed. He told her he spent 12 hours in the water. She has also dealt with conflicting emotions since hearing the news.

"Relief and sorrow," said Askew. "Sorrow for the other people who don't know about their loved ones. That's got to be horrible."

Askew told KTVU her husband and other survivors were staying at a hotel and trying to figure out how to get home with all their car keys and passports are at the bottom of the ocean.

These are all real life human stories that every this kind of mishap entails. May God's blessing be with those still missing and may they all be safely rescued.

Remarkable heroic rescue

This is a very encouraging rescue story:

After scouting the treacherous seas off Port MacDonnell for nearly four hours a feeble hand waved from the water showing signs of life from two courageous survivors. In pitch-black freezing water two men suffering from hypothermia clung to an esky for dear life. Two other men threw them a life-ring as relief washed over their faces.

That was happened in South Australia, as reported in the abc.net by Tash Impey. Here's the report:

Had it not been for the heroic deeds of local fishermen Gary Causon and Mark Moody these two Geelong men may not have seen another sunrise.

When two freak waves hit and subsequently capsized the vessel of Mike Fisher and Brad Neicho 15 kilometres off the coast of Port MacDonnell on Saturday a massive search and rescue operation was undertaken to bring these men back alive.

Skipper Moody and fellow fisherman Causon pulled them to safety onto the aptly named boat Remarkable.

"It was very remarkable named after my boat. It was very cold and I don't know how they lasted that long," said Mr Moody of the lucky men.

After a helicopter circled the area three times and failed to pick up the men bobbing in swells three and half-metres high, it was not until hours later that the infrared light from a Tasmanian search and rescue aircraft finally located the men.

Upon spotting the men through the aircraft's light, Causon said he was amazed to see a response from the water.

"They weren't real good I thought they were already gone until he actually waved.

"I think if it had of been another fifteen minutes or so they said they would have had to let go because they couldn't hold on anymore," he said.

Hauling the freezing six foot tall men onto the boat required enormous effort, said Causon.

"It wasn't easy to do they were big men. It took us all of our strength to lift them into the back of the boat".

Limestone Coast Superintendent Trevor Twilley believed the survivors owed their lives to Causon and Moody.

"Had it not been for the vessel Remarkable having gone out there to assist us in our coordination of the search then it's quite likely they may not have survived," said Mr Twilley.

The two men were admitted to Mount Gambier hospital suffering from hypothermia and were released the following day.

That was a remarkable and heroic rescue by any stretch of imagination. Thanks be to God! And it is always heart warming to read a story like this to start the morning!

By the way here's the boat and the heroes:

Freaque wave in the high seas

When I first saw the title "Freak wave in the high seas" of this article of Discovery News published a couple of days ago, I thought it's another science writer's rehash kind. I was wrong! Unbeknown to me at the time that the author of the article, Kiern Mulvaney, is actually a real sea going writer who was the author of the book "Whaling Season" and "At the end of the earth" among many others. He really knows what he was talking about in this article:

It was February 1993, and we were nearing the end of a Southern Ocean voyage that could charitably be described as vexing. A Force 11 pounded us, wave after wave coating the decks with bitterly cold water that rapidly froze into layer upon layer of ice. Our captain turned us into the storm, the wind so strong that even with the engines on full ahead the ship was making but a few knots. Overnight, as we struggled to sleep, the ship suffered a powerful blow, as I described several years later:

Nobody saw exactly what happened, but as best as anyone could figure out, the ship was hit broadside by an enormous freak wave. the wave was so powerful that it lifted the two-and-a-half ton Hurricane [a rigid-hulled inflatable boat] up in its cradle, snapping the straps that secured it in place. Only the stanchion next to the boat cradle prevented the boat from flying across the deck, although the pole itself buckled with the strain. Thwarted in its efforts to rip the Hurricane free of its shackles, the wave threw itself across the deck and slammed into the helicopter

The jolt from the wave shook the ship and its occupants; a few poked cautious heads out on to deck to survey the damage, and in the dusk saw the helicopter splayed sadly to one side, its leg struts snapped in half by the onrushing wave.

Some months later, safely back on dry land, I sat dockside and described the incident to a couple of friends who had not been on board. One, not accustomed to long spells on the open ocean, seemed disbelieving; if we had been steering into the waves, how could one have hit us directly from starboard? The other, a captain with whom I would later return to the Antarctic, stared ahead quietly.

"The sea," he said with the air of a man who is all too uncomfortably familiar with his subject, "does strange things."

That's a fabulous first hand experience of an encounter with real life freaque wave in 1993! I am wondering if their encounter with a freaque wave ever made it into the statistics counter. Most likely not. But that was clearly a freaque wave they had encountered, eventhough "Nobody saw exactly what happened" that is probably should be another characterization for freaque waves!

On the crest of a freaque wave

There are a number of articles with semi-interesting titles floating around the media in the last few days, they are On the crest of a freak wave by Pete Wilton in PhysOrg.com and Freak Waves Could Spring from Clash of Wave Patterns by Jennifer Welsh of LiveScience.com. Another article "Cause of Mystery Freak Waves Discovered" by Talia Tolliver of Gather.com that needs a sign in to read -- but I signed in and still can't access it! And also this one "Mystery of towering freak waves may be solved" in msnba.com which is actually the Jennifer Welsh's article above article listed above.

All of these articles are in essence reporting the new speculations from a new paper just published in the Proceedings of the Royal society A with a paper title: "Did the Draupner wave occurs in a crossing sea?" According to the abstract of the paper:

This paper investigates the directionality of the Draupner wave and concludes it might have resulted from two wave-groups crossing, whose mean wave directions were separated by about 90^° or more. This result has been deduced from a set-up of the low-frequency second-order difference waves under the giant wave, which can be explained only if two wave systems are propagating at such an angle.

I guess one special feature of this new work, unlike the previous theoretical works, is that they employed ECMWF's modeling corroboration -- what they called "backed up by a hindcast". May be that's what persuaded the media writers to come up with the optimistic headlines like "discovered" and "may be solved" to characterize the new speculation. It is just another speculation. We have no way of knowing of how do "two wave-groups crossing, whose mean wave directions were separated by about 90^° or more" to come about in real oceans to produce the freaque waves.

I just wish to add that Jennifer Welsh's article included a video clip of real life freaque wave encounter from the Discovery Channel TV show "The Deadliest Catch" that's well worth watching! And I find myself being intrigued by the title "On the crest of a freak wave" so much so that I choose to use it for the title of this posting today. Really, how do you feel or what do you see if you can somehow manifest yourself onto the crest of a wave in the ocean? To me, I think, an immediate reaction would be to look for where is the trough. Now the trough is certainly there somewhere nearby, but most definitely it will not be directly underneath the crest as the modern conventional single point wave measurements would imply! This new paper stems from thinking about the directional spreading -- an antiquated conceptualization of the late 1950's. In the 2nd decade of the 21st century, isn't it timely for us to think about spatial wave measurement now?

Surf waves in the Sun

Wow! NASA has discovered that there's surf wave in the Sun! Here's the news report in the World Bulletin:

"The waves we''re seeing in these images are so small," said Thompson. "But they''re only the size of the United States," she said.

Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities usually occur when two fluids of different densities or different speeds flow by each other. In the case of the solar atmosphere, which is made of a very hot and electrically charged gas called plasma, the two flows come from an expanse of plasma erupting off the sun''s surface as it passes by plasma that is not erupting.

What ever, this belongs to the "Something Of Interest!" department.

Beware the bombora!

Narooma News reported today the bombora escape case with this headline: "Another boat swamped by a wave at Bermagui; beware the bombora" that tells another case happened last month :

On May 15, Russell Hayley, his 16 year-old-son Brodie and his mate Geoff, all from Albury, went fishing off Hoyers Reef about half a nautical mile offshore, near the entrance to Wallaga Lake.

The sky was blue, the swell was small and Russell was sitting back having a cup of coffee. He looked around and saw a large wave swelling of the reef.

He got to the ignition and turned it on but did not have time to put the boat into gear.

The boat rode out the first wave but unfortunately there was a second bigger breaking wave immediately behind.

The second wave rolled the boat. Russell and his son were tipped out but unfortunately Geoff was trapped under water.

He managed to get out about 15 seconds later.

They retrieved lifejackets from the boat. Brodie, a strong swimmer, swam for shore to raise the alarm while Russel stayed to assist his mate who had a severe gash and a broken leg. Russell then towed Geoff to shore.

Geoff was airlifted away at about 2.30pm. Marine Rescue, the surf patrol, the police and ambulance and rescue helicopter attended the incident.

This report has provided more details on what had happened than one could expect and the unexpectedness of the incident was described quite vividly and with a little poetic flavor. It was two waves in this case that caused the damage.

But again it's good that all are safely rescued and a happy ending by any means. Of particular interest to me is this comment by the commander of the Marine Rescue unit:

“With a bommie or shallow reef like Hoyer’s Reef, the waves can stand up very quickly out of nowhere so always be aware of where these are and stay well away.”

Now as I alluded to yesterday, this should be theoretically feasible to manifest -- may not be the out of nowhere part. So here is interestingly another new (?) implication on freaque waves occurrences that has not been examined by the freaque waves community -- it can happen over an underwater mount. Indeed, beware the bombora!

Lucky escape from bombora!

Here's a simple news from Australia's ABC with a headline of "Lucky escape for fishermen":

Two commercial fishermen have been rescued after big seas damaged their boat south of Narooma, on the New South Wales far south coast.

The men were fishing near a bombora about 2km off Wallaga Lake yesterday.

They were treated by ambulance officers after being towed back to shore by Bermagui Marine Rescue.

As usual, not much information about the waves that caused the damage. But anything that can have the word "lucky" attach to it should always be good news. For me two things are educational here. First, for us outsiders a little geography lesson, Wallaga Lake is "296 km southwest of Sydney, Australia" according to Wikipedia. And secondly the word "bombora" is a strange new word for me. Again Wikipedia has these to say:

Bombora is an indigenous Australian term for an area of large sea waves breaking over a shallow area such as a submerged rock shelf, reef, or sand bank that is located some distance from the shoreline and beach surf break. As the wave passes over the shallow area its shape is raised and steepened, creating a localised wave formation. The size and shape of bombora waves makes them attractive to surfers willing to take the risk of riding what is generally considered a hazardous pursuit. These formations can pose a significant danger even in good weather as a bombora may not be identifiable because it may not always have breaking waves.

I am wondering if my Australian friends know about all of these! Now the description "As the wave passes over the shallow area its shape is raised and steepened, creating a localised wave formation . . ." seems to have a very distinctive theoretical flavor. May be all wave books should have a chapter on bombora waves! So here we are, bombora waves, anyone?

A 21st century cruise to Antarctica.

On a hot summer day in the northern hemisphere, it's natural to find an article about Antarctica adventure interesting. I am talking about the article in Sydney Morning Herald entitled "In memory of Mawson" a couple of days ago. The memory is about Sir Douglas Mawson's historic 1911-14 expedition, according to the article "it's timely to remember one of the great Antarctic heroes of the 20th century. An Australian geologist from Adelaide, Mawson was on Shackleton's 1908-09 Nimrod expedition." I guess for those of us who might not have heard of Sir Mawson, we have at least heard of Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton -- that's how I got interested in reading the article in the first place. It's a rather long article, I am not very certain if this is a travelogue about his adventure on the Antarctic cruise or advertise it as travel report. Nevertheless it's a good article to read. I am especially intrigued by this paragraph:

The swell builds all day until, that night, it peaks at 10 metres. At dinner, we hold on to our plates and watch the windows of the dining room submerge, like the doors of front-loading washing machines on the rinse cycle. After dessert, a few of us put on wet-weather jackets and stand at the stern railing watching a procession of monster waves chasing us, the 90km/h winds blowing rain squalls and salt spray in our faces, until a couple of rogue waves catch up to the ship and splash over the aft deck, forcing us inside. It's a rolling night; the sea breathes deeply under us.

Somehow the writer alluded to freaque waves very casually as "a couple of rogue waves catch up to the ship and splash over the aft deck, forcing us inside" but no panic, no damage, no big deal as one might imagine when a cruise ship encounters the freaque waves. The academic freaque waves community still has yet to come up a viable definition, the cruise shipping folks seems to have already taken it for granted -- no big deal!

Anyway I find the article is educational for me to learn some more about historical Antarctica expeditions. I don't think I might be interested in participating in one of those cruises, but it is always of interest to read someone else' adventures. Oh, yes, at the end of the article there is this note: "Louise Southerden travelled courtesy of Orion Expedition Cruises." So the author is indeed obligated to advertise his cruise adventure. Is that the reason why he talked about the freaque wave encounters so unexcitingly?

Are we ready for an alert service?

A news release today from PRNEWSWIRE has the following item that attracted my attention:

Rogue Wave Alerts in GlobalView

AWT is the only company to provide severe motions and rogue wave alerts in its fleet management system, providing an extra level of safety and precaution that can be taken by shore-based fleet managers. GlobalView now shows areas to avoid that have the potential for rogue waves, which are constantly changing based on conditions at sea.

Rogue waves (also known as freak waves, monster waves, killer waves, extreme waves, and abnormal waves) are relatively large, spontaneous ocean waves that occur in the open ocean in deep water, and can be a threat to any vessel. The scientific definition is a wave whose height is more than twice the significant wave height (SWH), which is defined as the average of the largest third of waves in a given area. Rogue waves are not always the largest found at sea; they are, rather, surprisingly large waves for a given sea state and are normally steep faced and often breaking. AWT has developed a proprietary global model to forecast where current focusing rogue waves are likely to occur.

I must admit that I have not heard of this AWT (Applied Weather Technology,Inc.) company before. Providing alert for possible freaque wave occurrences is certainly a very useful and needed service for ocean shipping enterprises. But I am not aware that the science and technology world is ready to locate a freaque wave before it occurs yet. We still in the realm of not knowing where, when, how and why a freaque wave occurs -- only know that it will occur somewhere, some time, somehow. An alert would be welcome, of course, but how accurate or effective can it be? We need more, much more, measurements all around the ocean world to learn the where, when, how and why. Without actual and systematic data availability, how can anyone making an "alert" that's not just some fancy speculations no one can refute or dispute? Before learning more about how do they do it, I am not skeptical but just unconvinced.

Rogue waves captured, really?

Science News just published online this article entitled "Rogue waves captured" by Devin Powell. The article reports the latest work published in Physic Review Letters, Vol. 106, by Chabchoub, Hoffmann, and Akhmediev, which is the subtitle of the article: "Re-creating monster swells in a tank helps explain their origin" and the works was done in this lab wave tank:



It seemed that that writer did observe the experiment as he described:

To make a Peregrine soliton, Chabchoub wobbled a paddle back and forth at the end of a long water tank. Regularly spaced waves about a centimeter high emerged and rolled across the surface. Then he gave the paddle a precise jerk – introducing an anomaly.

“It’s possible that the wind could generate a similar modulation or perturbation in the open sea,” says Chabchoub, who describes the experiment in a paper in the May 20 Physical Review Letters.

Now it is all fine in the laboratory. But the question is still how do we expect to see the wind doing the paddle wobbling and give it a "precise jerk" in the real world out there?

A video of surfers in action:

For a non-surfer like me, it is always fascinating to watch surfers in action in pictures. But it will be even more exciting to watch a video of surfers in action. Here's a pleasant discovery of this wonderful site of Australia's Surfinglife that has plenty of both pictures and a video. The article is authored by Tom Dawson with pictures by Andrew Shield. I embedded their video below where we can meet some of the surfers and see their actions:

Fiji Webisode Two from Surfing Life on Vimeo.

I am particularly intrigued by this picture, both the wave and the surfer, probably it will not be selected for the cover of a surfing magazine:



Enjoy!

Freaque wave injuries on a Whale Watching boat

Some reports say it was a monster wave, some say giant wave, of course some say rogue wave as this one reported by Boston Globe's Jenna Duncan:

Five people suffered non-life-threatening injuries, including one person who had a possible broken leg, after a rogue wave hit a whale watch boat off of Cape Cod this morning, authorities said.

At 10:23 a.m., the Coast Guard received notification from the Barnstable-based vessel Whale Watcher that a rogue wave between 5 and 7 feet had hit the boat, Coast Guard spokesperson Connie Terrell said.

The wave came up the bow of the 106-foot-long boat where a group of people was standing. The boat was five miles north of Race Point in Provincetown, Terrell said.

The boat docked in Provincetown and the injured were transported from MacMillan Wharf to Cape Cod Hospital by firefighters, said Police Officer Glenn Enos.

Police received the call at 10:36 a.m. from the Coast Guard reporting the incident, Enos said.

What ever it was reported, it was clearly unexpected -- so it was most likely a freaque wave without resorting to any definitions. Now what can be more safer than on a well established Whale Watching boat? But still it is not immune from freaque wave encounters. Now what can science say to the injured young people? Probably nothing more than "Better luck next time!" or something like that. What else? Scientists have more important stuffs to do research on, a few whale watching injuries? It is gratifying to see it is being reported in the first place.

There are at least three strikes against doing research on nearshore or offshore freaque waves: it is too complicated to be measured by standard instruments or can be easily amenable by tractable formulations, and it is generally not important enough to warrant attention of the politicians. Science can sent people to the moon and beyond, but can't tell where, when, how, or why the next freaque wave is going to be encountered!

Swamped sailors rescued off Nantucket

Cape Cod Times published this story entitled "Swamped sailors rescued off Nantucket" by Robert Gold this morning. It is not exactly a happy ending since their sail boat was irrecoverably damaged, but the two sailors on board were rescued, safe and sound. So it is nevertheless a nice freaque wave story to read:

FALMOUTH — A pair of longtime sailing buddies were enjoying their third straight day at sea Tuesday, but they were on a course to disaster.

Heinz Fragner of Austria and Manfred Jabbusch of Germany were bringing their friend's 45-foot sailboat, Eva, from the United States to Greece.

After sailing from Florida to a small town near New York City for repairs, they set off Sunday for their trans-Atlantic journey.

The weather started nicely but eventually they encountered rain and strong winds. Still, the waves weren't mammoth or overly worrisome, according to Fragner.

"They weren't necessarily rough but (they were) very long," Fragner said Wednesday evening in a telephone interview with the Times.

But one wave changed everything Tuesday, swamping the sailboat about 120 miles off Nantucket.

"It was like a monster wave," Fragner said.

The boat capsized, he said, with the mast flung out into the ocean. Their food was gone and the sailboat was taking on water. Parts of the vessel's deck were torn up, he said.

Fragner was not hurt but Jabbusch, who is in his early 70s, suffered a back injury, which made it impossible for him to stand up at first.

"The biggest problem we had was to call for help," the 66-year-old Fragner said. The GPS system and radio were damaged and no longer working.

Fragner searched the boat for a 10-year-old, handheld GPS system. He figured it was the pair's last hope. They found the device under a swath of bed sheets. Using a satellite phone, they called in their location to a German rescue station, which connected them to the Coast Guard Command Center in Boston, Fragner said.

According to the Coast Guard, the stricken mariners reported at 1:45 p.m. Tuesday that the Eva's pumps weren't working. The pair also reported winds gusting to 35 knots with 12-foot waves. The boat still had its life raft, according to the Coast Guard.

A Falcon jet and Jayhawk helicopter headed to the scene from Air Station Cape Cod. Less then two hours after the initial call, the two men were hoisted into the helicopter and taken back to the Upper Cape air station. "They were absolutely perfect," Fragner said, marveling at the Coast Guard rescue team. "It is incredible what these people are doing, so fast, so precise, just perfect."

According to Fragner, the two sailors were evaluated at Falmouth Hospital and released. Since Tuesday night, they have been resting at The Admiralty Inn & Suites.

The Austrian man said he and Jabbusch were waiting on some insurance information before hopefully flying to Germany later this week.

"It is a very bad thing to lose the boat. It will take days or weeks to understand all this. It is very sad when you lose it. Of course, life is more important," he said.

Yes, life is most definitely more important, especially when that one unexpected, unpredictable wave, that can happen to anyone, swamped their sailboat. It is gratifying to know these two mature, experienced sailors are being successfully rescued, safe and sound. That aborted trans-Atlantic journey still represents a valiant and aspiring endeavor for every one to admire -- particularly at their age group of these two sailors.

A tragedy happened at Lough Mask, Ireland

This news was in the Mayo News of Ireland this morning reported by Anton McNulty with the headline "Romanian man dies after freak wave capsizes fishing boat":

A ROMANIAN man who died after his fishing boat was capsized after being struck by a ‘freak’ wave had only arrived in the country the day before.

The tragic accident occurred on Lough Mask shortly after 1.30pm on Sunday afternoon when the deceased man, Mircea Ungar, along with another Romanian man and boatman, John Bourke were returning to Tourmakeady.

Mr Ungar, who is in his 50s, and a married father of two teenage girls, had arrived in Ireland along with five other businessmen on Saturday afternoon for a business holiday. Five of the party went fishing on Lough Mask on Sunday morning and were only five minutes from returning to the pier when the tragedy struck.

John Bourke from Tourmakeady who operates a boat hire business on the shores of Lough Mask explained that they were all thrown from the boat when it capsized after a wave filled his 19 foot boat with water.

“We were thrown out of the boat, all three of us, but our lifejackets inflated and we held onto the boat and we knew that there were other boats close by,” a shocked John told The Mayo News.

“We were in the water for about 45 minutes before we were picked up and he was beside me in the water and talking to me. I thought once we held onto the boat we would be picked up and okay. However, he was pronounced dead at the pier and that was a real shock.”

Other reports indicated that the death was caused by a heart attack. John Bourke the boat operator also explained that the conditions were calm in the morning but they decided to return at about 1.30pm when the water started to get choppy and

“We were half way across and about five or ten minutes from the pier when the wave struck us. I never experienced a wave fill a boat in one complete sweep before. The boat filled up with water and we turned over. Usually when a wave comes into the boat you will have time to empty it but with this wave we were not able to bail out,”

According to John the water was cold and when they were waiting to be rescued the waves hit the boat and turned it over, making it difficult to hold onto. So the tragedy was caused by the freaque wave encounter nevertheless. Our deep sympathy and condolences go to Mr. Ungar's wife and two teenager daughters and his friends. This is something that no one expect it to happen but unfortunately tragedy is always lurking.

For us non-Irish who are not familiar with the area, Lough Mask (Irish: Loch Measca) is a limestone lough (lake) of 22,000 acres (89 km²) in County Mayo, Ireland. According to Wikipedia, the lake is visited for its trout fishing. Lough Mask feeds into Lough Corrib through an underground stream.


Update May 11, 2011

A new article in the Mayo News also by Anton McNulty reports that results of the postmortem on Mr Ungar showed the cause of death was asphyxia due to drowning, and that the water entered his lungs through the tracheotomy -- not heart attack as previously reported.

Again, dreadful case recurring . . .

This is a local news item of a local newspaper, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, under their "Police and Fire" beat. The editors gave it a routine headline as "Missing kayaker's body found in sea." But it is a dreadful recurring case that happens all around the world and there is nothing we can do about it other than notice it as another case for the statistics:

The body of a missing kayaker was found yesterday off Windward Oahu.

Firefighters found the man's body at 2:51 p.m. His identity has not been released.

"It's a hard thing on Mother's Day," said Honolulu Fire Capt. Robert Main.

The man was kayaking Saturday afternoon with a group that made it to the Mokulua Islands off Lanikai.

They were resting on the rocks when a rogue wave washed two people off, and only one of them made it back to the island, Main said.

The man's friends couldn't find him and called for help at 6:08 p.m. Firefighters suspended their search at about 7:35 p.m. because of darkness.

The Coast Guard scoured the sea overnight with a helicopter and a vessel.

Firefighters resumed their search at dawn with a helicopter and two personal watercraft. Divers with the Fire Department also looked for the man underwater.

Firefighters found his body in the ocean outside the Mokulua Islands, and a helicopter brought it back to shore.

Yes, that appalling line seems to have becomes a matter of fact: "They were resting on the rocks when a rogue wave washed two people off, and only one of them made it back to the island, . . . " which is in disguise of seemingly the same repeating plot we have been reporting over and over. Let's pause to pray for the poor lost soul, may he rest in peace. Can we ever be able to figure out how, when, or where do this kind of things happen and why, so that we can expect to prevent it from happening again?

Update Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser has a detailed report by Rosemarie Bernardo with full identification of the victim along with a video report called Kayaking Death. It certainly can not by any means lessen the deep anguish one feels about the whole sad case.

A successful rescue at Berwick, Scotland

Here is a successful rescue story from Scotland reported by Worldfishing.net:

08 May 2011

Berwick lifeboat crew rescued two local fishermen after their fishing boat capsized, leaving them clinging to the side of their upturned vessel for 90 minutes before the alarm was raised.

The Jas N was hit by a freak wave his week and overturned 1 mile north of Berwick Pier. The two men were hanging onto the overturned fishing boat for an hour and a half before being spotted by a member of the public, who raised the alarm.

Both Berwick lifeboats were launched and preceded to the area where the boat had been spotted. On arrival they spotted the two fishermen hanging on to the upturned boat.

Robert Frost, Coxswain of the all-weather lifeboat said: ‘They were glad to see the lifeboat heading towards them and were very lucky that they had been spotted from the shore; they were both cold and wet.’

The lifeboat crew managed to get the two fishermen aboard the lifeboat and examined them for hypothermia, both were found to be well. The upturned fishing boat was then made safe with buoys and towed back to Tweed Dock, where it was lifted out of the water by a waiting crane.

Berwick Lifeboat Operations Manager, Tom Wakenshaw, said: “This is a prime example of how the sea can be so unpredictable and even catch out the more experienced amongst us, you never know when a freak wave will hit you even on a relatively calm day, so when going to sea be prepared and carry the correct safety equipment.”

So here are these two fishermen, who were unlucky to be encountered a freaque wave, but they were very lucky to have been spotted from the shore quickly and rescue effort was immediately launched. It is always gratifying to read a successful story and everyone is happily ever after, but danger is out there all the time. I am particularly impressed by the comment of Mr. Wakenshaw, Manager of the Berwick Lifeboat Operations. It is a sound advise indeed as I put special emphasize on the above comment so that every mariner should be mindful of it at all times!

Another tragedy, another place!

Similar story. familiar plot, another tragedy, another place! As reported in Herald Sun it happened yesterday at the rocks at South Australia's Kangaroo Island:

Five men and a woman from Melbourne and an Adelaide man had walked on to the rocks at Point Ellen, the western headland of Vivonne Bay, about 60km from Kingscote.

One said they had been watching the sea and admiring the view for a few minutes.

The two men had their backs to the ocean and were about to have their photograph taken.

"It was a larger wave, and it (the wave) was a shock for everyone," the friend said.

The other members of the group were forced to jump to safety. When they turned back, both the men had been swept out to sea.

Neither could swim.

Nuriootpa visitor Bill King helped retrieve one of the men's bodies from the well-known holiday spot and fishing area.

"We came to admire the view and we saw people looking out to sea," he said.

"A body was floating out. and a bloke swam out and put a life buoy on him and we brought it in."

A doctor and a woman performed CPR on one of the men for several minutes, but he couldn't be revived.

The men's bodies were recovered about 5pm.

One of the men was believed to be an engineering student.

Constable Craig Oates, from Kangaroo Island police, said: "The men had gone on to the rocks to take a photo. A large wave swept two of them into the water."

Let's do the only thing we can do for now: pray for God's mercy and blessing for the souls of the victims, may they rest in peace!

Freaque wave with a bang!

Here's a scary story with a happy ending, reported by Damian Bathersby in Sunshine Coast Daily of Australia, that had happened over three months ago:

BLOOD pumping from his foot, Jeff Kitchen was tossed through the dirty water like a rag doll.

“I remember the wave ... then a big bang like someone putting a gun next to your ear and pulling the trigger,” he said.

“Then I woke up and I was underwater.”

The Noosa Coast Guard boat had just been flipped by a massive wave on a notorious bar.

Jeff collided with the propeller as he and three others were smashed by the freak wave.

It cut through his foot, from ankle to toes.

He pulled the emergency cord on his life jacket and floated to the surface.

Jeff said he had no doubts he would have died from blood loss had it not been for a nearby surf lifesaving jet boat, which snatched him from the pounding surf within minutes.

More lifesavers arrived at the scene to rescue two of the coast guard crew who had been trapped under the flipped vessel, and a fourth crew member who had dived clear of the craft.

Jeff does not remember much else from the January 15 accident.

After almost two months in hospitals for surgeries to save his foot, Jeff is back home and on a long road to recovery.

Now I think the important part of the case is Mr. Kitchen's first comment: “I remember the wave ... then a big bang like someone putting a gun next to your ear and pulling the trigger”. Because here's again something that has not yet received any attention in the academic research world -- the sound effect! While I usually skeptical on people's general claim of encountering a freaque wave, I wish they could tell me more details than just the claim. But in this case Mr. Kitchen remembers the big bang. I think that's the one important detail many people involved might be easily overlooked. So I think this is a real freaque wave case that just came to light. I wish to congratulate Mr. Kitchen's grit on his full speedy recovery, his riverboat wedding, and a long everlasting happy marriage life!

World oceans in a nutshell!

Here's an interesting site I just came across that's entitled "The World's Biggest Oceans and Seas." It starts with this rather unusual satellite picture:



and continues with pictures and explanations of the top ten: The Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, and Arctic oceans, and Arabian, South China, Caribbean, Mediterranean, and Bearing Seas in reverse order. I have never seen them being presented all together with pictures like this before. I find it is very informative and educational for me. I just can't help wondering at any given moment, how many freaque waves might be happening in all of these bodies of water? How can we ever make a concerted effort of measuring any of them? If we don't measure them, how can we ever really know what is going on out there?

Disaster aftermath

There was a terrific article in late March in the Financial Times by their Asian Managing Editor, David Pilling, entitled "Japan: the aftermath". In there he provided detailed personal on-site observations of this historical disaster. I was particularly impressed with this reporting:

When I talk to people, many of them fishermen, they scoff at reports that the tsunami was 10m tall. No, they say, this one was at least 20m, perhaps 23 or even 24. One man swears it must have been 30. However high it was, it crashed in like a wild beast, breaching the once-formidable tsunami-defence wall, parts of which now lay toppled on the ground. The water picked up houses and boats and cars and people. It then sucked back before lunging at the town again, the debris in its churning waters now transformed into lethal weapons that smashed through walls and metal and teeth and bones.

The tsunami that attacked Ofunato was the terrible progeny of a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, the fourth largest in recorded history, which struck some 70 miles off Japan’s Tohoku coast at 2.46pm on March 11. When the tsunami started its life out at sea, reports said, it was travelling at 500 miles an hour, the speed of an aircraft. As it approached the shoreline, it slowed, first to the speed of a bullet train, then to that of a car and finally to that of an athlete. Still, for those who had not managed to flee to higher ground, its progress was unstoppable and its vengeance was swift.

I can only attempt to describe the devastation it left behind. . . .

And he certainly did an absolutely superb job in describing them masterfully. Please read his original article: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d7fac1ca-55b9-11e0a00c-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1JQ4WWhgn. It is definitely well worth the time!

Today The Sun published a terrifying video that shows the vivid terror of tsunami attack, that of "the water picked up houses and boats and cars and people, . . ."



Against the onslaught of tsunami forces, the human creature just seemed totally helpless, hapless, and hopeless! As we earnestly pray for the people victimized by this disaster, we can not help but sincerely thank Almighty God for keeping us away from the disasters. Hope the human ingenuity can be successful in making accurate and efficient predictions someday to minimize theses human tragic happenings !

Not easy to be a rescuer

It is certainly not easy to be a rescuer as this New Zealand case reported by Kate Saunders in Taraanaki News:

A rogue wave flipped two rescuers as they tried to help a kite surfer off Waitara yesterday.

The Waitara Surf Lifesaving IRB was launched just before 4pm after three kite surfers got into trouble when winds changed off the outer reef.

Acting Senior Sergeant Royston Betteridge said police were called by a member of the public and by the time they arrived two of the men had made it back to shore.

"The third man was in the water for quite some time, but when the IRB went out to get him it got into difficulty and flipped, which caused it to lose power."

Because of the low tide and conditions, other boats could not be sent out, he said.

"They had all their safety gear on, so they were in no real danger. It was unfortunate that they went to help and they ended up having engine problems."

The crew flipped the vessel back over and swam it back into shore – ironically with the help of the third kite surfer, who they had been sent to pick up.

After starting on the New Plymouth side of the sand bar, they washed up 200 metres along the beach, on the Urenui side.

Mr Betteridge said the kite surfers had been caught off guard by a changing offshore wind. It is believed one of the men lost about $2000 worth of kite surfing gear.

We know this is happened in shallower water nearshore during low tide, as usual there is no further information than just calling it a rogue wave. But luckily this case ends with everybodybeing safe and sound, a happy ending. Thanks be to God!

By the way, according to Wikipedia, Waitara is the name of a town and a river in the northern part of the Taranaki Region of the North Island of New Zealand.

An ultimate extreme surf spot list

SurfToday.com just published an interesting article headlined with this intriguing picture. The article provided a list of carefully picked "ultimate extreme surf spot" that included a video of actual local waves for each spot. It is not only useful for the surfers but also for wave watchers and wave aficionados who are simply fascinated by the waves in general. The article calls the waves shown on the video "insane wave" that certainly makes the list and videos a valuable source of enjoyment for wave watcher like me. Now the question in my mind is in what role can science play in these "insane wave" processes? Oh well, just enjoy them will be sufficient for now!

This week!

This past week I have been in Vienna, Austria attending the EGU2011 where my friends Prof Alex Babanin started a successful new Wind Waves session this year, and Prof. Efim Pelinovsky organized yearly Extreme Sea Waves session is again in full blooming. This afternoon there was a very active poster paper session, all the old and new friends were there mingling and enjoying the final intellectual swing. It was my good fortune to have the opportunity meeting two brilliant young Russian scientists, both are Pelinovsky’s students. To my exceeding surprise that they both admitted reading my blog, yes this blog, and kindly encouraged me to continue doing it. Thank you so very much, Ira and Irina. I have been doing this blog for my own information and amusement as a personal blog. I really had never expected that there are actually people out there interested in reading this blog at all. Now I have to brag about it, you made my day!

Hokusai in politics!

I guess it is inevitable that sooner or later wave will be used in political cartoons sometime. But this Hokusai is a good one, it's not political, it's common sense! Why couldn't the politicians so generous with other people's hard earned money recognize it? Thumb up to Mr. Michael Ramirez.

Happened at Blackpool seaside

Here's another depressing case just happened at Blackpool seaside and reported in metro.co.uk:

A man has died after being hit by a freak wave in Blackpool, despite desperate search and rescue attempt.

The victim was standing on steps near the resort's Cocker Square, close to the water's edge, when he was swept away in front of shocked onlookers.

Officials said a huge rescue mission was launched with coastguard officers from Blackpool and Lytham St Annes joined by a helicopter from RAF Valley and Blackpool RNLI inshore lifeboats.

The man, aged 44, was eventually recovered from the water and taken ashore to a waiting ambulance.

However, he was confirmed dead at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

Su Daintith, Watch Manager at Liverpool Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre, said: 'The man, we believe, was about to enter the water at the bottom of the seawall steps when he was swept off without any warning by a large wave which was a result of the overnight weather conditions

'Our thoughts are with his family and friends during this tragic time'

This case is depressing because it is so unreal. The man was ready for the water, how can he lost his life this way? Ah! that's the freaque part of the freaque wave. "He was swept off without any warning by a large wave" as the news report indicated. No one knows what really happened yet. This is not an unheard-of case. A possible scenario is that the victim might have hit his head when he was being swept off unexpectedly. We'll never know the force and how extensive the force might impose. Many tragic cases had happened similarly over the years all around the world. We don't know how to predict it and we don't know how to prevent it. It is depressing just to think about it!

For those of us who's not familiar with the area, Blackpool, as shown by the picture at the beginning of this post, is a seaside town in northwest England, 30 miles (48 km) north of Liverpool, and 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Manchester according to Wikipedia.