Hi Tweets,

Christy Anderson writes:

>by their nature they are indeed random and disorderly, therefore
>unpredictable, and can rise even in calm seas with no storms around for
>hundreds of miles. "Trains of swells traveling in the same direction but at
>different speeds will pass through one another; when their crests, troughs
>and lengths happen to coincide they reinforce each other, combining their
>energies to form unusually large waves that tower mountainously for a few
>minutes, then subside. Such giants can suddenly reach several times the
>height of most of the waves around them..."
>
>So it sounds like even keeping a watchful eye out may not do a whole lot of
>good.

Interesting, and sounds like a fascinating book!

The original reason I brought this up with Scott Downes is that there have
been a number of fatalities on the Canadian east coast over the last few
decades where a person has been simply been overwhelmed and swept out by an
out-of-nowhere wave in calm weather. Admittedly, most of these happened not
on jetties but at or just above the water's edge. At the easternmost part of
Canada, Cape Spear, which juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, the Canadian
Government has posted signs around the lighthouse at the hill's top urging
tourists in the strongest possible language not to go to the water's edge
because of this possibility, as a couple of incidents happened there. While
the Gov can sometimes be a bit of a nanny--it's not usually--it obviously
takes this possibility seriously. And were I miles out on a jetty into the
Pacific Ocean--which, being bigger, has more room in which to get up to such
mischief--so should I.

Sounds like the Columbia jetties are more than high enough to provide a
safety factor, though, should one of these very rare waves rear up and try
to bite.

Michael Price The Sleep of Reason Gives Birth to Monsters
Vancouver BC Canada -Goya
mprice at mindlink.net