A freaque wave from the Bearing Sea

This news reported by the local KUCB News of Unalaska, AK:

A rogue wave on the Bering Sea knocked out the windows of a fishing vessel and soaked all of the navigational equipment. The 112-foot F/V Alyeska , out of Washington, was transiting 131 miles north of Akutan at about 2:45 pm Wednesday when it was stuck by the wave. Coast Guard Petty Officer Sara Francis explains the incident.

"The wave blew out several of their pilot house windows and damaged the ship's electronics," she said. "All of their navigational equipment failed because it was inundated with water. They managed to keep one VHF radio operational. But they were essentially piloting blind. So another vessel, the Pacific Challenger, a stern trawler based out of Seattle, escorted them into Dutch Harbor."

Conditions at the time were 27 foot seas and 55 to 70 mile per hour winds. They arrived safely in Unalaska at 10:30 Thursday morning and the Coast Guard Marine Safety Detachment is helping evaluate the status of the equipment.

The headline of this news is "Wave destroys ship's navigational equipment" I guess that's the good news -- nothing but equipment damage. Note that there is a NDBC buoy 46073 in the nearby southeast Bearing Sea recorded over 30 ft significant wave height earlier. So it is plausible that reported condition of 27 ft seas is about right. Of course, freaque waves can happen any place, any time, happen in Bearing Sea is certainly entirely possible.