Waves and Hulls:
Just finished Susan Casey's "The Wave" and it got me thinking about some waves I have met.
We were in a 42' Monk through all these waves.
Scarey #1 was nothing really on the horizon. We were running past Ballinas and had just phoned in to be picked up in Nanaimo in an hour or so.
Looked to me to be about 4' South East swell and a few days earlier we had survived "6 metre North West Swell with 3 - 4 ' South East wind wave and 40 knot outflow from the inlets" according to the Marine forecast off Cape Caution.
So what could these small waves in the Salish Sea have to do with us?
Maybe because of the number of hours standing by the captain off Cape Caution and willing us through the next basher while wiping the windshield I was watching (quite relaxed) as we nosed into an unusual series and the bow went under the third wave. We had certainly had green water over the pilot house in the big swell but something about this series was totally different. For one thing it blew the Helmsman's window in and water and broken glass flooded the cabin. Now we were staring at the next waves with no glass.
What I wish to record:
I think the wave period (or related wave length) related to the hull's length is more important than the significant wave height.
I'm way out of my depth here but that is what I saw.
Scarey #1 was nothing really on the horizon. We were running past Ballinas and had just phoned in to be picked up in Nanaimo in an hour or so.
Looked to me to be about 4' South East swell and a few days earlier we had survived "6 metre North West Swell with 3 - 4 ' South East wind wave and 40 knot outflow from the inlets" according to the Marine forecast off Cape Caution.
So what could these small waves in the Salish Sea have to do with us?
Maybe because of the number of hours standing by the captain off Cape Caution and willing us through the next basher while wiping the windshield I was watching (quite relaxed) as we nosed into an unusual series and the bow went under the third wave. We had certainly had green water over the pilot house in the big swell but something about this series was totally different. For one thing it blew the Helmsman's window in and water and broken glass flooded the cabin. Now we were staring at the next waves with no glass.
What I wish to record:
I think the wave period (or related wave length) related to the hull's length is more important than the significant wave height.
I'm way out of my depth here but that is what I saw.
Ken LeDuc
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