{"id":11940,"date":"2010-07-04T16:15:55","date_gmt":"2010-07-04T21:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/?p=11940"},"modified":"2010-07-04T16:20:46","modified_gmt":"2010-07-04T21:20:46","slug":"passage-to-portugal-a-big-wave-reminder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/passage-to-portugal-a-big-wave-reminder\/","title":{"rendered":"Passage To Portugal – A Big Wave Reminder"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Big-wave-day-7.jpg\"<\/p>\n

We’ve just had a lovely run down the coast from Vigo, Spain to Cascais, Portugal. Twenty one and a half hours for 240 NM at reduced revs, with some great surfing thrown in. But the most important aspect of the trip was \u00a0reminder of why we design as we do. The photos which follow were taken on an average day with the “Portuguese Trades” blowing, courtesy of the Azores high. The wind is in the 25 knot range, not that strong, yet combine its waves with swells from a force eight gale nine hundred miles away and it is enough to generate waves which essentially bury a very large trawler from our view standing on the deck of Wind Horse<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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\"Big-wave-day-9.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Waves are both chaotic and transitory in nature. 99% may be benign from a design perspective, but it is the one in a thousand that you need to be thinking about when buying, equipping, building or designing. Look at the hole in the ocean off the bow of the trawler, and then think about taking this sea on the beam.<\/p>\n

\"Big-wave-day-4.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Here is a photo looking down our side deck in the same stretch of water. Not that bad in terms of trade wind seas, and we are running with them.<\/p>\n

\"Big-wave-day-6.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Now, check out the crest in the background of the photo above. Do you want to meet it without sufficient handrails, fiddle rails, or a wide open interior which invites bodily harm if caught unattached when this wave impacts the boat? That is a easy 25 foot (8m) wave.<\/p>\n

\"Big-wave-day-1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

If you are into surfing, these same conditions invite play, which is why we waited two days in Vigo for the seas to develop.<\/p>\n

\"Big-wave-day-2.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The waves are big enough and sufficiently steep to get the forward ten feet (three meters) of our bow suspended in air. Radical, Dude!<\/p>\n

\"Big-wave-day-13.jpg\"<\/p>\n

This LPG carrier is having rather less fun than are we. Note the sea just off their port bow.<\/p>\n

\"Big-wave-day-14.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Here is a close up. You better have your hydrostatic act together when surfing the face on the other side of that steep wave back.<\/p>\n

\"Big-wave-day-16.jpg\"<\/p>\n

We’ve got some company on this day. They have come to check out our pressure wave (minuscule so the porps leave quickly).<\/p>\n

\"Big-wave-day-15.jpg\"<\/p>\n

But more keep coming by.<\/p>\n

\"Big-wave-day-19.jpg\"<\/p>\n

We are both enjoying this boisterous afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"Big-wave-day-3.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Most of the the seas look like this, moderate, maybe eight footers (2.4m).<\/p>\n

\"Big-wave-day-5.jpg\"<\/p>\n

But we know that given enough time at sea we’ll end up meeting one of the big ones smack on the quarter or abeam. \u00a0That is when the trade-offs pay us back. The rest of the time, we don’t have to worry about what happens when we do meet “the wave” so we can enjoy our trip to Portugal.<\/p>\n

\"Big-wave-day-20.jpg\"<\/p>\n

And the wonderful sensation of being at sea in a yacht which can cope.<\/p>\n

\"Big-wave-day-21.jpg\"<\/p>\n

For a high res slide show with lots more seas and some incredible photos of the two ships\u00a0click\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve just had a lovely run down the coast from Vigo, Spain to Cascais, Portugal. Twenty one and a half …Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dashew-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11940"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}