Anyone ever seen a rogue wave?

[over50visits]

With the earthquake in Cuba today, centered 27 miles southwest of Guantanamo which appears to be in the ocean, I was wondering about tsunamis and other surface waves that can be caused by such disturbances. Since that's part of the Western cruise, I wonder if anyone has ever seen or heard of a rogue wave affecting a cruise ship? I read the QEII is designed to withstand 100 foot seas, because they have an itinerary across the ocean that they can't really change to avoid storms, as most cruise ships can. DCL and others can easily stay away from hurricanes, but how about these waves? Anyone have any experience?

p.s. I'm not to worried it will EVER affect me on a cruise, just curiosity about this rare occurrence.

 

[tvguy]

Go to You Tube and search "rogue wave cruise ship".

It happens, just like it did at the Maverick surf competition last month south of San Francisco. Frankly after that incident, I think I'd rather be on a ship than on the shore when that happens.

 

[dylan'smom]

No, I haven't seen one, and do NOT plan to!

Not sure I even want to see the youtube thing, lol, but am also curious to know if anyone on the boards has seen one....... and how it might affect cruise planning....

 

[Tinked]

Wasn't there suppose to have been one recently in the Med? A smaller cruise ship was slightly damaged and put into Barcelona.

 

[truck1]

Personally I have not seen one, though I have seen the videos on the one off of Bermuda about a year ago or so, as well as 1 or 2 others.From the little I remember from researching the subject for a similar question not long ago, the Carribean,(including the Bahamas) are not well suited for rouge waves.Ill have to look to find it again.
A rougue wave though, is a wave that is larger by comaprison to the waves that are already generated at a given time. A rougue wave that comes up suddenly would be at least twice the normal wave height that a ship is experiencing.There would be 3 of them if Im not mistaken.Ill have to look.Some can be a hundred feet or so high, as I understand it.They are rare, and usually in the North Sea.Theres others that are out there at 1 point or another, though they generally dont encounter ships.

A tsunami you generally wont notice at sea.Its when the tsunami encounters shallow water that it becomes an issue.Even then they are not the movie type waves that are hundreds of feet high wiping out everything in its path.A tsunami is more like a swell(for lack of a better term) that usually pushes inland sometimes pretty far.

The Louis Majesty was the ship hit by a rougue wave in the med at the beginning of the month. The wave that hit her was about 30 feet tall.The one that hit the NCL Norweigan Dawn by comparison was 70 feet tall, and that was off the Carolinas, I beleive.

 

[justmestace]

We were on a Western Caribbean cruise a few years back (not Disney) and a rogue wave hit. We were in a stateroom on the highest (room) deck on the ship, facinf forward, and it hit so hard it popped our verandah doors out of their tracks and they flew open. It took two of us to close them. We didn't have a lot of water coming into the room, but the staterooms below ours did.
The way it hit, it didn't tip/rock the ship (although plenty of other waves that night DID), because it hit almost full forward. It did make the ship dip forward quite a bit. We had movement going every-which-way that night...up, down, back and forth, and then it would go "bump bump bump"....unbelievable.
Almost everyone on the ship, including crew was sick that night and half the next day. But we lived through it, and now when there are smaller waves, it almost feels like they are "nothing" compared to that.