Ahoy, matey: Capt. says rogue waves possible in Northwest waters

August 4, 12:23 PMSeattle People ExaminerLaura Vecsey

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 So, what's on your list today of summertime activities? A trip to Ocean Shores? An Argosy cruise around Elliott Bay? A ferry ride to Port Townsend or Whidbey? Or, maybe you'd like to stroll Cannon Beach, or maybe take in some whale watching near Neah Bay?Just watch out for that ... rogue wave.

You don't have to be a physicist, like Peter McClintock, to know that big waves can be really scary and monstrously detrimental to planning normal summertime fun at the beach and on the water, like all the things we do here in Seattle when it's August. Then again, if you were a physicist, you might be able to understand the complex mathematical diagramming that McClintock has just released that delineates the origination and make-up of ... rogue waves.

Just in time for the home-stretch of summer and McClintock and his physcist cohorts have released a study about how rogue waves are formed. It sounds like the dry stuff of laboratory work, but don't let the high-brow mathematical terms fool you: What McClintock and Co. have proved is that rogue waves -- the stuff of maritime legend -- have finally had their unsolved mystery origins proved, to a great extent.

For some of us beach-lovers and riders of maritime vessels, the idea that a rogue wave could come and sweep us out to sea has always been an unsettling thought. So with the news that rogue waves are NOT just the stuff of maritime legend, I thought I better seek some solace from a local expert on the subject. 

But instead of finding solace in the idea that rogue waves would not be plausible in the bays and straits around the Washington state coast, I found the exact opposite to be the case. Captain Richard Rodriguez (pictured left) a rescue tug captain out of Friday Harbor and an instructor for Master's (Captain's) Licensing, is the author of a maritime blog called BitterEnd. Capt. Rodriguez took a moment out of his busy tug boating day to assure me that indeed, rogue waves are perfectly capable of forming in and around the inlets and bays.

"Given the right meteological conditions and currents, rogue waves can and have formed in our waters,'' Capt. Rodriguez said.

Indeed, Capt. Rodriguez's blog carried a post about a rogue wave report that hit the Olympas, an orca-watching boat, off Port Townsend last August.

Yeah, maybe this August is a good time for Lake Chelan.

Happy sailing, matey.