Janet & I were members of the OCC and SSCA. I still am. Two nice boating organizations.
http://www.oceancruisingclub.org/
http://www.ssca.org/cgi-bin/pagegen.pl?pg=home&title=Home
On the OCC website I noticed a link to video of a major storm in Australia.
https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10151370654993770
This video reminds me of some friends who were in the Mediterranean in a marina in a bad storm. Their breakwater had a small road inside it and their boat was ‘Mediterranean moored’ to the edge of the road. In their case, that means that there is a large rope that comes from a strong chain connecting huge concrete blocks in the middle of a narrow waterway. It is attached to their bow and they have their stern tied to the edge of the road. With the lines all quite tight and similar boats on each side of you, it is the normal way to do it in the Mediterranean. They were doing OK, but concerned.
A friend drove down this small roadway to their boat and stopped her car just by the stern of their boat to see how they were doing. The boat owner’s husband and two other men were on shore talking to the woman in the car. The woman that owned the boat went down inside her boat to get something and heard an indescribable noise. When she stuck her head out to see what the noise could have been, she took several seconds to grasp what had happened. Unlike in the video, only small amounts of spray had been coming over the breakwater. But, a rogue wave, that is one that is dramatically larger than the previous or following waves, came over the breakwater with such force that it washed the car off the roadway and onto the lines at the stern of the boat. It washed all the people standing there, into the marina and the current it created, was quickly flushing them out to sea. You may correctly guess that ‘out to sea’ was not a good place to go just then.
Fortunately, a marinero in a small, high speed, inflatable heard the noise and came to see if everyone was OK. The wife said, “NO! My husband and two other men are in the water, injured, and being carried out the marina entrance!”
Well, you did not have to tell the marinero twice. He saved the day. I can’t recall if the car sank, but all the humans lived to tell about it, although with injuries.
Stories like this are fun to hear about. Not so nice to experience first hand. In the video, the woman filming is being frequently washed with salt spray. Her camera is not long for this World unless it is an underwater model.
Dave
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