Rescue at Moi Hole of Oahu, Hawaii

There will be a National Geographic program tonight with this overview:

A four-day trip to Hawaii turns deadly in a few seconds. Hugh Alexander and his girlfriend, Katja visit a high cliff to view giant waves. Suddenly a freak wave crashes right over them, taking Hugh and Katja down instantly. Katja manages to keep her grip on the rocks, but Hugh is washed off the cliff towards the thundering waters and sharp rocks below. He is sucked into a deadly underwater cave, not once, but twice! After hours of working to rescue Hugh, lifeguards finally pull him free of the surf and rush him to the hospital. Miraculously, he recovered and is now on a mission to understand what caused him to survive. Well study oceanographic data from that day to pinpoint the exact characteristics of the surf to understand what really happened.

There's also video and pictures on this web site. It is exactly within the broad interest of this blog. That web site has the videos and pictures about the case. Actually the History channel had shown the same case about the rescue at Moi Hole before. Both programs told the story sufficiently. It would be better to take a look at both programs to get the complete story. While the History Channel concentrated on the rescue, this new National Geographic is trying to look into the data and some science about the wave. Somehow neither of the programs tell when that was happened. Anyway it's a dramatic case with a happy ending, that's the best part of the story. Thanks be to God!

Found and rescued the Lost at Sea!

This was in the Cayman Islands News a few days ago:

Sea search for missing vessel

Posted on Fri, 07/22/2011 - 17:18 in Local News

A 37-foot vessel, the Miss Janice, with six crew on board has gone missing on its way to Swan Island and the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service says it has launched a combined air and sea, search and rescue operation to find it, with the assistance of a visiting Navy ship's helicopter.

And here's a headline on 7/26/2011:



Now this is the headline in Houston Chronicle this morning: Houston-bound tanker saves 6 adrift for days! And the story written by Allan Turner, 7/28/2011:

Travis Hinds knows the ways of the sea. But even the lifelong Cayman Islands fisher­man was caught by surprise when the Caribbean turned mean, sinking his boat and leaving him and a crew of five adrift for nine days with little food and often no water.

For days, crammed in a raft and a tiny lifeboat and beseeching God with nonstop fervor, the crew of the fishing boat Miss Janice watched in despair as up to a dozen ships sailed past without stopping.

Then, in a driving rain shortly before noon on Tuesday, a British-flagged tanker bound for Houston slowed and turned toward the castaways.

"We thanked God. We were trusting in him," Hinds said Wednesday from the tanker, CPO Sweden, as it approached the Texas coast.Among Hinds' crew were his son, Elvis, and brother-in-law, Ernest Rankin. All were in good health.

Thanks be to God!

Now here's what had happened:

Hinds, speaking via satellite phone, said the ordeal began on July 17 as the Miss Janice, heavily laden with freight, left Grand Cayman en route to Honduras.

The 37-foot boat was scheduled to return to the Caymans with seafood. At departure, the water and wind were calm, the sun shining, he said. Five hours later, though, heavy waves pounded the boat.

"I think it may have been overloaded," Hinds, 50, said. "We were low in the water."

Waves slammed the deck as crew members desperately manned the pumps. Then, two giant waves swamped the vessel. Miss Janice's crew jumped overboard, then retrieved the raft and lifeboat from their capsized boat.

"Flash! The boat filled. It all happened so fast …" Hinds said. "We watched it sinking, going down, going down.

"Emergency rations — a little water and a parcel of nearly inedible food — soon were depleted.

After two days without water and hours of impassioned prayer, it rained. Hinds and the crew captured rainwater in a two-liter container, then, in ensuing days, rationed it a tiny cup at a time.

Spirits drooped as ships passed, oblivious to their presence despite efforts to signal them with a mirror.At 6 a.m. Tuesday, members of the Miss Janice crew shared a cup of water, embarking on a fast dedicated to God. A little more than five hours later, the Sweden hove into view.

So it was a case of "two giant waves swamped the vessel" but no one has blamed it on freaque waves yet. But regardless the semantics, the two giant waves were certainly not expected and unwelcome -- typical of what most likely what had happened. Another case of vulnerable fishing boat in trouble. I must say that I really admire the faith of the fishermen, never despair or dispirit, placed their total trust in God. And God duly answered them! Thanks be to God!

An encounter in Lake Michigan

News of freaque waves in the Great Lakes has not been very frequent in the Google News. But there is one reported yesterday by WWMT, NewsChannel3:

NEAR TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – Tuesday saw a massive Coast Guard rescue in Lake Michigan.

Dozens of people were rescued by helicopter on Tuesday after their tour boat was damaged by a wave Monday night.

This happened by Sleeping Bear Dunes near Traverse City.

Officials say a rogue wave crashed over the boat's bow, smashed a window and fried the boat's electronics.

More than 60 people were on board the tour boat at the time.

Two people were airlifted with shoulder injuries, everyone else is expected to be okay.

The above photo of the involved 60 ft tour boat "Pictured Rocks" was taken from another news item in MLive.com by Zane McMillin of the Grand Rapids Press. Here's the Associated Press report:

Authorities say dozens of people waded to shore and two were rescued by helicopter from a tour boat that was damaged by a wave in Lake Michigan near Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

No major injuries were reported.

The Coast Guard says the operator of the tour boat Pictured Rocks called for help Monday evening after a wave reportedly went over the boat's bow, smashing a window and causing the boat's electronics to malfunction. The boat had 61 people aboard.

The boat's operator told the Coast Guard he grounded the boat near the shore in Empire in part to prevent further damage.

All but two of the passengers waded to shore. The Coast Guard says two with apparent shoulder injuries were lifted from the boat by helicopter.

So it's basically a minor incidence that called fore Coast Guard support. Probably other similiar minor occurrences that did not request Coast Guard help may have just been skipped the reporters' attention. Anyway it was unquestionably a case of freaque wave encounter. Fortunately there have not been a whole lot of this kind of reports in the Great Lakes area. Count our blessings!

Happened at San Jose Del Cabo

It's always sad to read a tragic story, this one in Vancouver Sun yesterday is especially so. It should not have happened. Only if they knew the wave was coming and stayed away. It's so unnecessary . . .

Fighting a relentless Pacific current with a damaged right shoulder, Dale Clack pulled his 15-year-old son's arm from around his neck and said, "I love you, son, go get help."

Then he drifted away.

Clack, a 51-year-old Stony Plain, Alta., resident, was found dead Tuesday morning, less than a day after a wave swept him from the shores of a San Jose Del Cabo resort on the west coast of Mexico.

The medical examiner told family Clack had drowned, said friend Fred Fudger, whose daughter has been dating Clack's 15-year-old son Dakota for a year.

Clack was at the Hola Grand Faro resort for the wedding of his 23-year-old daughter Karchiri. On the second day at the resort, he was wading up to his waist with Dakota.

"A big wave knocked Dale down and pulled him out further," said Fudger.

"He yelled to Dakota, 'I can't touch the bottom and I can't swim.'"

A rotator cuff injury from work several years ago left Clack unable to swim, despite two surgeries to fix it. Dakota went after his dad. He reached him, but was unable to pull him to shore. The current kept pushing them out.

"Another wave took both of them out farther and farther. Dakota struggled for some time to get his dad back to shore," Fudger said.

Clack went under the waves. Dakota reached down and pulled his father up by the neck. Clack clenched his chest as his lungs filled with water. As Dakota pulled vainly against the wave, Clack grabbed his son's arm from around his neck, pulled it off and told his son he loved him.

"I think he probably knew he wasn't going to make it and if Dakota kept trying, Dakota wasn't going to make it," Fudger said.

After he finally let go, Dakota himself nearly drowned, struggling for nearly an hour to get back to shore.

Unlike those along the Caribbean coast, resorts along the west coast of Mexico — including Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta — are notorious for strong currents, said Lesley Paull, owner of Paull Travel in Edmonton. These areas are usually marked quite clearly, Paull said.

"You have to be careful where you swim. We always advise people going to Mexico to be careful of the red flags."

In February, a Calgary couple was holding hands with family members on a beach in Cabo San Lucas, about 30 kilometres away from the most recent drowning, when a rogue wave washed them and their family into the sea. All except one were swept into the Pacific.

Dale McDougall, 62, and his wife Linda McDougall, 59, were killed.

Paull said the San Jose Del Cabo area isn't known to be as bad as Cabo San Lucas, but it's still dangerous.

Clack has already been cremated. Funeral plans have not been finalized.

The wedding will go ahead Thursday, though it won't be on the beach as planned. Clack would have wanted the wedding to go ahead, Fudger said.

Yes he would have certainly wanted the wedding to go ahead. But how can anyone be still joyful as a wedding should now! All it was was an unexpected wave at the beach -- and nothing is the same again. May God help the family to cope with this tragedy and bless Clack's soul, may he rest in peace!

Happened during a regatta race

Freaque waves are certainly not immune to anyone including enthusiastic sailors during a boat race. This story reported yesterday in thisisthewestcountry.co.uk:

A BURNHAM sailing enthusiast was rescued after her boat was capsized by a ‘freak wave’ during a regatta race.

Sue Walker had been competing against around a dozen other boats with husband Andy when their 16ft vessel was struck and she was tipped over the side.

She was in the water near Stert Island for about ten minutes but fellow Burnham Sailing Club members came to her aid.

Sue said: “It happened so quickly. We saw a wave behind us but we couldn’t really do anything about it. It tipped the boat and my weight was on that side, and over I went.

“I’m a strong swimmer, so I wasn’t frightened and stayed surprisingly calm. We were doing well with the race and thought we were in for a chance – but that was cut short.

“There were no injuries, except to my pride, perhaps. It was comforting to know there were other people around and everybody rallied around – but I didn’t want to spoil their race.

“The lesson is these things happen and you have to be prepared.”

Burnham RNLI was alerted at 1.34pm, following the incident on Saturday, but stood down five minutes later.

Club president Dave Humphrey said: “I was on the committee boat and the race was going well but, unfortunately, due to the weather, the boat was tipped over. Other boats were nearby and Sue was picked up within ten minutes, so all’s well that ends well.”

Mrs Walker has not been deterred from sailing and took part in a race the following day, where they came ninth out of 11 competitors.

I guess the lesson to be learned from this story is the comment by Mrs. Walker: “The lesson is these things happen and you have to be prepared.” It is easy to say than done. But one just can not over emphasize such a life lesson by any means!

Life or death struggle

This story from Australia as told in the Ballina shire Advocate today under a headline of "Life or death struggle" :

A FISHING trip quickly turned into a fight for survival for Ballina men Ray Fox and Barry Fuller, after their boat capsized on the Richmond River bar earlier this month.

The pair was returning from fishing at the 48-fathom line when a freak wave hit portside and flipped the boat upside down.

“I’d gone to have a look at the bar early in the morning and I watched five boats go out with no problem,” Mr Fox said.

“So we decided to go out.

“We came back to the bar just before 2pm and were coming across when it just came out of nowhere.”

Mr Fuller said the bar was “pretty low” and that as soon as they hit the river, there was a “washing machine effect”.

“It all happened very quickly,” he said.

“I didn’t even realise what was going on until the boat was up in the air.”

Both men were trapped in the water underneath the boat.

Although they were wearing lifejackets, these actually prevented the men from escaping easily.

“It was such a weird sensation,” Mr Fox said.

“I was plunging down into the water, the noises were all distorted and I knew I had to get out of there.

“I had no time to think about anything.

“It was a desperate and life-threatening situation.”

Mr Fuller said waves were breaking over the top of them, but then he caught a glimpse of sunlight.

“I thought I was gone,” he said.

“I’d been trying to get out and I couldn’t.

“This was definitely life or death.

“I’ve been on the water for 16 years and nothing like this has ever happened before. I would never want to go through something like that again.

“But this bar has been getting worse and worse.

“We are going to have another death here unless it is dredged – something has got to be done.”

Mr Fuller and Mr Fox are “extremely grateful” for the assistance provided by Marine Rescue Ballina, Ballina Jet Boat Surf Rescue, Ballina Lighthouse and Lismore Surf Life Saving Club and two young men on jet skis.

They also appreciated the assistance from Ballina ambulance, Ballina police and the staff at the Ballina Hospital.

“Those organisations do such a good job – I don’t know what would have happened to us if they weren’t there to help,” Mr Fox said.

Is this an unusual happening? I doubt it. But it always seems to have happened unexpectedly -- especially to the ones that got entangled. But when it happens, "it just came out of nowhere"! That seems to be the basic characterization of a freaque right now. It is to be expected even though no one expects it in general. So when it happens it becomes a life or death struggle. In this story Mr. Fox and Mr. Fuller are the fortunate ones. They became the clear winner of the struggle. Thanks be to God!

Happened at Logan's Beach Warrnambool, Victoria.

This news story by Jono Pech in The Warrnambool Standard :

THREE children and a man escaped injuries on Sunday after a monster wave swept them from Logan's Beach's stair walkway.

Two Melbourne families were left in shock as a father and his seven-year-old daughter were swept into the ocean, during a visit to the popular whale-watching lookout.

The father of the two other children, who were hit against the cliff face, yesterday questioned the beach's hazard signage and suggested blocking access during dangerous conditions.

Passing through Warrnambool on Sunday, the two families stopped at Logan's Beach for lunch after spending four days holidaying in Mount Gambier.

While taking photos on the beach's stair walkway, a wave came up to the tenth step and totally submerged the tourists, dragging one man and his daughter to sea.

Melbourne resident Terence Alvares said his two children, aged 12 and 14, were hit against the cliff face but managed to grasp onto some long sea grass, while the others waded back to shore.

"I was on the tenth step and water hit me around my waist; it was that high," he told The Standard yesterday.

"We weren't anywhere near the water. You wouldn't expect anything like that and if you can't swim you'd be in trouble.

"My friend's daughter lost her glasses and lost her shoes."

Mr Alvares said the children just wanted to have a play and had no intention of going in the water.

While car park signage warns of large surf and overtopping waves, there is no reference to the stairway being hazardous at Logan's Beach.

Mr Alvares said he was amazed there were no signs on the beach and access had not been closed in the dangerous conditions.

"There was a real danger of loss of life," he said.

"I want to make sure someone else doesn't have same situation as us.

"My kids were having nightmares last night."

Now this is a good news/bad news thing, the bad news is clearly that it happened and it gave the children nightmares, but the good news is that everyone was safe and sound, nothing worse had happened, thank God.

According to this Olive Journey blog post,

Logans Beach is said to be one of the finest whale viewing location in the world. The whales perform their annual pilgrimage to Logans Beach between mid June to early October to give birth and prepare their babies for the long journey to Southern Antarctic.

So this is the right time for whale watching there and it's certainly should not be surprised that whatever or wherever a freaque wave case will always make its appearance.

Olive Journey presented this picture in the March 11, 2011 post.

I don't know if this is the same stairway as reported in the above news article. But whatever if wave can comeup to 10th steps of the stair way, it is frightening not only to the children. Thankfully this story had a basically happy ending. Still it is again a sober reminder that freaque waves are everywhere and anywhere. When it happens it just happens. Beware!

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!