Return of the rogues

Statistics show that a golfer stands a greater chance of getting hit by lightning on the golf course than a recreational boater has of running into a rogue wave at sea. Rogues however, like shark attacks, seem to spark our imagination more than lightning strikes and more often make newspaper headlines.

While a number of these huge waves appeared in far away places last year, they didn't really attract much attention from the mainstream press. This year is different. Recent close encounters of the rogue kind involving American citizens have heightened interest in these events and many are beginning to wonder if something's going on out there.

Rogue waves first made headlines this year in May when the 45-foot ketch Almeisan bound for Bermuda was hit one night, blowing many of its doors off their hinges and smashing windows. The Almeisan was on a voyage from Bridgeport, CT, when it encountered severe weather about 400 miles off Virginia Beach, VA.

"I was just coming off watch when we were rolled by a monster wave that left me hanging off my harness," said crewmember Lochlin Reidy. Captain Thomas Tighe and Reidy assessed the damage and began readying the life raft when another huge wave washed them into the open sea. "Fortunately, we were able to activate the ship's EPIRB before going overboard," said Reidy.

"We watched with horror as the raft, with much of our survival equipment, skittered across the wind-swept sea and out of sight like a balloon when it broke its tether," said Reidy. They were left alone, bobbing up and down, as gigantic waves swept over them for the next 24 hours.

"Both were wearing life jackets, but, after being tossed around in heavy seas for 24 hours, Tighe perished. I think Tighe's heart just gave out," said Reidy. "I tried to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to no avail."

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"Tom was one of the most experienced sailors I have known and I had sailed with him 16 times before--this was his 49th open sea cruise," said Reidy. "We had talked about going overboard one night and Tom said that our chances of being rescued would be nil."

"I don't think I would have been rescued if it wasn't for our life vest strobe lights and ships participating in a program called Amver," he added.

Reidy was taken aboard the Sakura Express, a Panamanian-flagged tanker, one of four merchant vessels searching for the survivors. "I was relieved to hear that our remaining three crewmembers were able to cling to the Almeisan and were rescued at daybreak Monday by the Coast Guard. Tom would have been pleased because he took such a personal interest in selecting his crew," said Reidy.

Amver to the Rescue

"I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for ships like the Sakura Express that went out of their way to search for us in extremely rough seas," said Reidy.

The Sakura Express was able to respond quickly to the emergency because it participates in the Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue System (Amver) program sponsored by the U.S. Coast Guard. Amver is a unique, computer-based, voluntary global ship reporting system maintained by the Coast Guard at its Operation System Center in West Virginia.

"The center provides the locations of ships that are near to a vessel in trouble," said Captain Steve M. Sawyer, Chief of Coast Guard Search and Rescue. "In the case of the Almeisan, we received an EPIRB signal and called West Virginia to give us the names of the closest ships, then we went ahead and contacted them to begin a search," he said.

Amver began in July of 1958 as an experiment, confined to waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, notorious for icebergs, fog and winter storms. Today, some 12,000 ships from over 140 nations participate in Amver worldwide with an average of over 2,800 ships tracked by the center each day. Over 2,000 lives have been saved by Amver-participating ships just since 1990, with 128 saved in 2004 alone.

Bahamas Return Ruined by Rogue

Another encounter with giant waves made the headlines in Southern Florida in June when two boaters were shipwrecked and left floating in the ocean for 30 hours on their voyage home from the Bahamas earlier this summer.

Experienced saltwater fishermen Roger Montz, a dental surgeon from Melbourne, FL, and his friend Rob Perdigon of Coral Gables encountered two rogue waves that sent their boat to the bottom and left them stranded at sea before a Coast Guard helicopter lifted them to safety.

"We expected to be rescued within hours, but the Coast Guard had trouble zeroing in on my EPIRB," said Montz. "They are still investigating why they couldn't receive our position," he said.

"Rob and I had just finished competing in a tuna and wahoo tournament and had taken first place with a 96-lb. tuna when I tuned on NOAA weather to get a forecast for the return trip to Ft. Pierce. I was concerned about Tropical Storm Arlene and the rough waters that were due over the weekend." said Montz. "We moved up our departure to Friday where the forecast of 4 to 6-foot seas was less than what I've encountered on many of my trips to the Bahamas, so I wasn't concerned" he said.

They were about 31 miles from Ft. Pierce, FL, when suddenly two gigantic waves came at the boat from about 45 degrees off the stern, swamping the 34-foot powerboat Extractor within seconds. "We just had time to grab our life preservers stored topside and activate my EPIRB as water poured into the boat," Montz said. "The swiftness with which the waves engulfed us still haunts me to this day," he added.

Montz remains undeterred. Big game fishing is in his blood and the loss of his boat hasn't kept him from the ocean. "In fact, my wife gave me a new rod and reel for Father's Day," he said. Meanwhile, after the odeal his buddy, Perdigon, said that he might take up golf and risk lightning strikes instead.

Cruise Ships Take Their Hits

While the sinking of the Extractor was a local story, the cruise liner Norwegian Dawn's encounter with a 70-foot high wave last April off the coast of North Carolina made national news. Within seconds the vessel, longer than three football fields, was suddenly smacked by a freak wave that broke windows and flooded 62 cabins.

It took on all the elements of drama fit for primetime news when the ship had to divert to Charleston, SC, to be checked out by the Coast Guard for any structural damage. Although there was only minor damage, many passengers opted to return to New York by train rather than take another chance on the high seas.

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A recent suit filed by Miami lawyer Brett A. Rivkind, representing passengers from the cruise, hopes to prove that the wave that hit the Norwegian Dawn could have been reasonably expected and was not an extraordinary event, as many oceanographers believe.

In the suit, 25 passengers claim they were taken into danger intentionally and that the captain of the ship was negligent in proceeding to New York through stormy weather that routinely produces these waves.

"The Norwegian Dawn encountered conditions conducive to rogue waves," said Susanne Lehner, an associate professor of applied marine physics at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. The northeasterly storm threw strong winds and waves against the fast, intense current of the Gulf Stream along the East Coast. "If you have waves against currents, you can get very high, singular waves," Lehner contends.

But the Bahamas Maritime Authority has a different view stating, "The captain took appropriate action to reduce the effects of the weather on the ship." The report went on to state that the captain took proper precautions including reducing speed, altering course and initializing the ship's stabilizers and keeping the crew, passengers and on-shore officials informed of the ship's progress approximately every four hours.

"The sea had actually calmed down when the wave seemed to come out of thin air at daybreak," said Norwegian Cruise Line spokeswoman Susan Robison. "Our captain, who has 20 years on the job, said he never saw anything like it," she said.

Rogue waves have hit two other cruise ships, inflicting minor damage this year. The Voyager, sister ship of the Norwegian Dawn, was hit by a rogue wave in the western Mediterranean off the coast of Spain in February, and the University of Pittsburgh's Semester at Sea's chartered M/V Explorer encountered a 50-foot rogue wave that temporarily disabled its engines in the Northern Pacific in April. The University recently dropped sponsorship of the Semester at Sea program, citing concerns about safety.

"Looking back on my open ocean ordeal, I would recommend that every crewmember have their own personal EPIRB," said Almeisan crewmember Lochlin Reidy. "I would also add a pair of swim goggles to my survival kit because the salt water from the constant breaking waves restricted my vision and almost caused me to miss seeing the Sakura Express, he said.

Fisherman Roger Montz has no qualms about making the passage from Florida to the Bahamas again. "I have no doubt that the rogue wave that hit the Extractor was a rare event and I doubt that I will ever encounter another," he said. Judging from the bookings on cruise ships lately, it seems that most Americans agree it's safe to go out on the high seas this fall.

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