Norwegian Dawn
This cruise ship was forced to put into Charleston, SC owing to damage from
"80 foot waves." 4 passengers injured and many rooms damaged (flying
furniture?).
The NC NOAA weather has been saying 28 foot waves in the Gulf Stream off NC.
Ron Rogers
At 06:54 PM 4/16/05 -0400, you wrote:
This cruise ship was forced to put into Charleston, SC owing to damage from
"80 foot waves." 4 passengers injured and many rooms damaged (flying
furniture?).
The NC NOAA weather has been saying 28 foot waves in the Gulf Stream off NC.
I suspect that the report of 80 foot might not be in error. Understand that
what follows is just conjecture. I have read accounts of boats that got
into trouble in that area and have been suspicious that the northward
flowing Gulf Stream could turn very nasty if the current were opposed by
swell coming down from the north, created by some storm off New York or nearby.
Keep in mind that NOAA has several ways of knowing what the wave action is
like in a any given area of the world. Where there are fixed buoys the
reports from them. There is ONLY one buoy near Cape Hatteras, 41025,
Diamond Shoals. The nearest buoys are about 200 miles away. The QUIKScat
satellites do not make a pass over a given area, more than about once a
day. And the last method is visual reports from ships in the area.
If the Gulf Stream is flowing strongly north in the area in question and at
the last report within the last hour the 41025 buoy reports 11.5 foot of
swell, there may have been waves stacked up by the current and swell such
that there may have really been waves near 80' high.
Note that the report from 41025 yesterday at:
0416 3:50 pm N 29.1 35.0 19.0 14 3
was for swell 19 feet at 14 seconds. If this were to run into an opposing
current of 5 knots, the resulting waves could easily approach 60 feet or
more, with a period of 7 or 8 seconds. Such conditions would be enough to
make things very nasty even for a ship of 800 feet, with stabilizers.
Now I know what you are thinking. But, the 41025 buoy has not had any wave
heights above 28'. But suppose the buoy is in an area where the northbound
current was not over say, 1 1/2 knots, and where the ship was, the current
was 5. You get the idea?
Regards,
Mike
Capt. Mike Maurice
Tualatin(Portland), Oregon
From: Mike Maurice mikem@yachtsdelivered.com
If this were to run into an opposing
current of 5 knots, the resulting waves could easily approach 60 feet or
more, with a period of 7 or 8 seconds.
Mike - 60 feet at 8 seconds???? Or more? Seems awfully steep. If they were
that close, wouldn't they break long before they were 60' high? Maybe it was
just a typo-
Cliff
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE!
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/
The NOAA buoy gave the 28 foot wave interval as 12 seconds - that was
inshore and North of where the Norwegian Dawn was damaged. It appears that
these floating hotels can not take heavy weather when it hits the outside
stateroom. Perhaps they use conventional patio doors?
There were two other reported instances of these ships suffering water
damage to outside staterooms. One email correspondent said that he was
returning from England via Iceland when the captain asked the passengers to
go to the lowest deck to enhance stability. This couple did not comply. That
would have moved 200 to 300 tons lower.
He also stated that the autopilot had jammed!
Ron Rogers
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cliff DeLorean" cliffdelorean@hotmail.com
To: passagemaking-under-power@lists.samurai.com
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2005 9:17 AM
Subject: Re: [PUP] Norwegian Dawn
|
|
| >From: Mike Maurice mikem@yachtsdelivered.com
|
| >If this were to run into an opposing
| >current of 5 knots, the resulting waves could easily approach 60 feet or
| >more, with a period of 7 or 8 seconds.
|
| Mike - 60 feet at 8 seconds???? Or more? Seems awfully steep. If they were
| that close, wouldn't they break long before they were 60' high? Maybe it
was
| just a typo-
|
| Cliff
|
| _________________________________________________________________
| Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE!
| http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/
|
| _______________________________________________
| Passagemaking-Under-Power Mailing List
At 01:17 PM 4/18/05 +0000, you wrote:
Mike - 60 feet at 8 seconds???? Or more? Seems awfully steep. If they were
that close, wouldn't they break long before they were 60' high? Maybe it was
just a typo-
Good point, at that level of steepness, there would be some breaking. Keep
in mind we are talking about real waves, not imaginary ones. The real stuff
is not exactly as described no matter how the description is created.
Capt. Mike Maurice
Tualatin(Portland), Oregon