OK Navy guys & gals, having spent much blue water time, you may or may not have encountered this.

I just watched Poseidon, and in that movie, and in the Perfect storm, both boats were hit by Rogue Waves. I did some research on this, and found that 20 - 60 foot waves have been encountered, but scientists largely dismissed the notion that 100-foot waves were possible at sea.

However, in 1995 & 2001 (In the Atlantic) and in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Katrina (2005), 80 - 100 foot waves were noted. (There was a Navy guy at my job who said the waves on Perfect Storm were BS, and that no wave could ever reach 100 feet).

So, you long-term Navy guys, have you ever encountered a Rogue wave?

What I have read, said a 100 foot wave exerts 100 (Metric Tons) MT/Square Meter, and ships are built to withstand 15 MT/sq. meter, and that ships as long as 600 feet have been rolled and sunk by rogue waves. They went on to conclude that the wave that probably sank the Andrea Gail was probably a bigger version of the same rogue wave that hit the ship earlier in their trip. Submariners probably wouldn't know, but you surface guys... Ever seen anythign like it?

 

30 meter waves is pretty close to 100ft. They do happen.

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMOKQL26WD_index_0.html

 

I haven't seen the waves (my Navy job confined me to a room with no windows and a super size AC unit, no weather deck for me unless the sun was out), but I've been on small boy ships that were rolling so much that when you walked down the p'way (that's a hallway for all you non-sea going folk) you would walk up the bulkhead (wall) during a roll, then down on the normal deck, then back up on the opposite bulkhead...it seemed like you were walking straight, which you were, but the surface you were walking on constantly changed..

I don't think the seas we were in during that were all that much...15-20ft at most..

R/
Craig

 

Ive been in the Coast Guard for 5 years and have been on 2 boats during that time. Ive sailed on a 378ft High endurance cutter for 3 yrs and a 210ft medium endurance cutter for 1 1/2 years.
I sailed THROUGH Katrina when she was going through the gulf. We were working off of the Keys and tried to evade the storm by going above the Keys. Bad move. We encountered waves in excess of 30 ft. I know by looking at the weather and wave forcasts for that time that they were reporting waves in excess of 70ft.
I believe rogue waves are very rare. Ive never encountered a true rogue wave, however, Ive seen 30ft and bigger.
I know of Coasties who talk about 60ft + waves up in the bearing sea and have seen pictures.
So to answer your question, yes, I can say that a 100ft wave is possible.

BTW, if you look in my gallery I have a picture posted of when we were trying to run outa the way of Katrina. Look in the MISC folder.

 

Aye Aye Ayeayeyayeya Eyayre Eyaye Ayeyeyey!!!!!

 

It was wavey on my lake yesterday. I would say the waves were about 4 or 5 inches high. Pretty intense stuff. I was scared.

 

WTH is that?! Made me laugh out loud though trying to read it!

 

http://www.livescience.com/forcesofn...804_waves.html

 

Which 378 were you on? My husband is a 23+ year Coastie, he did 1 year on the Sherman, 2 years on the Midget and 3 on the Mellon.

 

Hersh, I watched a show on the discovery channel about this exact same thing.

They are possible, but the ocean is SOOOOOO big, how can it be known that they "don't exists" or "100 foot wave is BS?"

It was a while back, and it was pretty interesting. After watching that show, I'm convinced it's possible to see a 100 foot wave.

 

I watched the discovery channel's coverage of the true story behind "The Perfect Storm", and they had eyewitnesses talking about 40, 50 & 60 foot seas, green water (From all the churning), and generally the worse weather ever seen by modern man in the North Atlantic... Many people claimed 100 foot seas, but since the bouy's were destroyed, they didn't know "scientifically" for sure. It wasn't until recently- when they started anchoring the bouy's to the sae floor, that they were able to "scientifically confirm" 100 footers.

There was an oil rig in the Gulf that got hit (By waves churned up from Katrina) for sure by 80-foot waves, and damage was found 98 feet above the normal sea level, that could only be attributable to a wave, but they didn't substantiate it...

What's scary is, on deadliest catch, they said the north Pacific is far more treacherous than the North Atlantic... I dunno, you never hear of Hurricanes skirting up near Alaska, but they skim the Eastern seaboard every once in a while... One Cat 4 nearly "New Orleaned" Manhattan in 1938.

When I watched the "extras" on the Perfect Storm DVD, the para-resuce guys said they were trying to resuce those people (On the Mistral) in seas that were near 100 feet. So high,and so fast that one second, the para rescue jumper (if he timed it right) had a 6 foot drop to the water, but, if he missed the wave, it would be a 100+ foot drop. That's how Millard Jones was killed (Missed the wave, and probably broke something when he hit the water, never surfacing...

 

That's funny, but it's not at the same time.

 

Former Submariner here... I've sailed under and through a cat 5 hurricane while it was still very far from land. We came up to pariscope depth at the storms fiercest. We encountered 80-100 foot waves, we basically drove through the waves and surfaced in the troughs. Of course we didn't open the hatches but we did take some pics through the periscope. It was incredible.

FYI we were still rocking from the waves after we had dove several hundred feet. No-one onboard had ever experienced anything like it. Subs aren't designed to take large waves (round bottom hull) and we really felt the effects. Most everybody got sea-sick, even the most salty.

 

Wild-mtn-rose: I was on the Gallatin out of Charleston SC for 3 yrs (02-05), and now Im the OS1 on the Confidence in Port Canaveral FL.

Speaking of programs everyone saw.... Did anyone catch the program on Killer Waves last night on Discover Channel? At first, they were saying that they used to think 100ft waves were impossible based on computer graphs they had, then in 95 ( i think that was the year they said) they recorded a 30meter wave with some of their electronics out in the ocean. At the end of the show, they were showing Sattelite Radar images that showed 4 or 5 80ft + waves around the world.

Guess that answers the question

Had to laugh though cause the program literally came on while I was reading the replies to this topic.

 

An east coaster. We've spent the better part of the hubbies career on the left coast. He's retiring in March next year. Going to be strange to not pack up and move every 2-3 years!