smithy09 50 Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I'm currently on a dive ship in the South China Sea, The Asiana. She is a 90 metre long dynamically positioned DSV. About a week ago a tropical depression sprung up somewhere south of Hong Kong. The ship left the job site and headed south to avoid the depression but it grew extremely rapidly then tracked East when it was meant to track North.... We got caught right in the middle of it. In the middle of the night we had a steady 60 knots trending up. The next day the wind increased to a steady 70 knots with gusts to 80 knots. The average wave height was 10 metres (estimated) but one in 10 would be a 15 metre wave, often breaking. We were steaming right into it at 80% engine power and sometimes stopping dead, averaging about 2 knots. Sleep was impossible, and we damaged a fair amount of gear on the back deck due to it being submerged at times. I talked to the skipper about what he would do in an abandon ship situation in this weather and he said lifeboats were out of the question, it was liferafts or nothing. This would be the first time I have been out in weather where I was concerned. Not scared but certainly concerned. Looking out at the breaking waves and horizontal rain, almost zero vis, and wind blown spume, I just cannot imagine what it would be like in a yacht.... I have a few photos but they don't do it justice. The video is better but I can't post them from out here.. This was certainly an eye opener for this fella! Link to post Share on other sites
smithy09 50 Posted June 27, 2012 Author Share Posted June 27, 2012 And there's another one on its way for the weekend!! Some pics... The waves were breaking about a metre above the flouro light on the crane pedestal base... Link to post Share on other sites
ab1974 1 Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Sounds like an interesting week at work Smithy. Glad all is ok. Not much fun in a liferaft in the pool, let alone that! Looks like plenty of wind. A you said photos dont quite do the conditions justice. I did a Sydney Hobart in 2004 and half the fleet retired. We were down to storm sails with estimated 6+ meter waves. The photo plane (Richard Bennett) flew past and took some shots. When I looked at them afterwards the conditions from the air didn't look anywhere near a bad as I recalled them from the deck of a 38' yacht! Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 This was certainly an eye opener for this fella! Yep know that feeling. Down south a few years ago on an icebreaker, 2000ton, 20m swell forecast, wind steady at 100knots. A low came through and sucked up another low from further south. So two sets of sea coming through at about 15 to 20m from two different directions. One came through like a freight train and picked us spun us sideways and took as for a quick ride, seemed like for an hour but was probably about 20 sec till we hit the bottom of the trough at 25knots, the roll meter hit 85 degrees(point of no return was meant to be 60). Needless to say the boat was a bit ofa shambles, tables ripped out of the floor, all store rooms destroyed, gallery gone, electrics gone, autopilot destroyed, bit of a mess really. The guys on the bridge reckoned it was over 30m tall. Can say they wouldn't of been far wrong, I handled about 2 minutes in the bridge and looking up at the swell and waves coming through certainly put the shits up me. Tis a wee bit scary to be 17m about the water and looking up at these waves coming through. Got to love the russian sailors though, two of them on the wheel laughing as they were arguing on which wave to try to dodge and swearing as we dropped of the back of a few into large holes in the water. Sort of one of those situations where you don't panic because there is nothing that you can do, just fix the mess up, grab a book, wedge yourself into a corner, no choice of lying in your bunk becasue you slide around everywhere and then get thrown out, and wait for the weather to settle. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Makes you wonder about people who say they won't get caught because their sailboat is fast enough to outrun them. Aso makes you wonder about those who say "keep sailing through it". I'll stick with my storm tactic of going to bed with a pillow over my head. Thanks for the post Smithy! Link to post Share on other sites
Grinna 2 Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Both of those comments must have come from people who haven't actually been out there in those types of conditions. Link to post Share on other sites
smithy09 50 Posted June 27, 2012 Author Share Posted June 27, 2012 Jeeze Curly!! I told some of the guys here about your post and they all went green... Funny enough, we stay at sea because if we go into port the client doesn't get paid.. Go figure!! Yes it was an eye opener. I think lying to a parachute and battening down the hatches would make most sense. Anything to keep the bow into the waves. Running down those waves, even with a storm jib or bare poles would be asking to be swamped from all I could see, as many of the bigger waves were breaking. With an open cockpit like the Marshall I reckon you would take on a lot of water... Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Jeeze Curly!! I told some of the guys here about your post and they all went green... I will see if I can find the photo I took of the barometer. It had a paper record of the pressure. I think it bottomed out at 911 that time, what was scary was the drop of 40 points in 24hours Was fantasticly stressful waiting to see what was going to happen.... Until you see those conditions your would make silly mistakes in thinking what you would done before following Orges advice. Don't envy you waiting for another system like that to arrive Link to post Share on other sites
John B 106 Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 What latitude are you at Smithy? Link to post Share on other sites
zk-cessnaguy 1 Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 There's another TC developing east of the Phillipines. I deal with them at work from an aviation perspective, but it's amazing to see live action shots of the storm. Very glad I'm on dry land Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 It's so darn annoying that the camera just does not show what it is really like. Link to post Share on other sites
smithy09 50 Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 Yeah the videos are better but still not that impressive.. When you really know it's howling is when you get a sustained gust and it just demolishes the tops of the waves turning them into spume. I can now understand how people cannot breathe if they are floating around in life jackets in this stuff and why they fit spray hoods to them.. John B, I have no idea. I will go up to the bridge and check later today.. (It's a long way up there for a lazy tech!! ) Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Yeah the videos are better but still not that impressive.. When you really know it's howling is when you get a sustained gust and it just demolishes the tops of the waves turning them into spume. I can now understand how people cannot breathe if they are floating around in life jackets in this stuff and why they fit spray hoods to them.. John B, I have no idea. I will go up to the bridge and check later today.. (It's a long way up there for a lazy tech!! ) And lazy tech??? go see.... Link to post Share on other sites
smithy09 50 Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 Yeah the videos are better but still not that impressive.. When you really know it's howling is when you get a sustained gust and it just demolishes the tops of the waves turning them into spume. I can now understand how people cannot breathe if they are floating around in life jackets in this stuff and why they fit spray hoods to them.. John B, I have no idea. I will go up to the bridge and check later today.. (It's a long way up there for a lazy tech!! ) And lazy tech??? go see.... It's all dark up there at the mo. I'll wait until dawn.. I haven't even looked at the gym on here, so I will be buggered by the time I get up there. Not a good look for the SIMRAD.. Just about killed me last time. Took a week to recover from the 100.. Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 One thing about experiencing ruff seas is that you learn a lot about the boat(and yourself) and what it can get you through and next time it doesn't seem quite so bad. The biggest battle I have and I would say most have, is the fatigue and the wanting of it all to stop. I was so fortunate that the only time I have ever been in anything approaching 10m, I was able to get into Wellington harbor and out of it. Plus the wind was only 25-30kts. Being in the stuff up the East coast was nothing to do with how ruff, but simply the endurance and I think that was harder than coping with size. I think. The one thing I will never forget though, is that the mountains of water just seem to defy all logic of how such a mass of water could be up there. The biggest seas I "think" I have ever been in I am not sure. It was at night on the Ferry and in the same place we struck the stuff we were in ourselves. But I remember the lights of the ferry lighting up a patch of foam way above us in the inky black and I thought, stuff!!! how big are those waves. I will never forget the sound of the wind screaming. We were the last Ferry to sail for 3 days. Link to post Share on other sites
smithy09 50 Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 Huizhou Oil field. 21.17N 115.07E. About 120 miles SE of Hong Kong. Just heard we are steaming into Hong Kong to wait out this next one.. Hooray! Link to post Share on other sites
Megwyn 2 Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 It's so darn annoying that the camera just does not show what it is really like. yes, but if you look closely at that pic that Smithy posted wheels, you can see how the sea has been flattened by the wind. Scarey stuff indeed. Not really sure how I would react having never been caught out in such weather (touch wood). Been at anchor, and it was rather freaky, but I never once felt scared as I knew we could reach land if it all turned to custard. I had a plan . . . . but out at sea? Don't know if I would remain that calm . . . Link to post Share on other sites
smithy09 50 Posted June 29, 2012 Author Share Posted June 29, 2012 Here's a better one. This wave is about 10-12 metres... There were much bigger. Like I said, up to the flouro light... Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 Ok - that is seriously ugly. Link to post Share on other sites
Absolution 7 Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 That looks ugly Smithy! There is some good stuff like this on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7ASvFEmMuk Link to post Share on other sites
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