South shore Ocean voyage, How far off beach?

I've seen 5's in the Hudson, never anything bigger than that. Now in the East river and Hell's gate, I've seen boats throw huge wakes. the kind that break over the bow. A 12' wake in the Hudson would wash the train off the track along the river.
 
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Alex F said:
I have a hard time accepting such statement.
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That was what I was told, having not been there I did not know any different. I must admit it did get my attention and kept me on my toes going in. We had a smooth ride, except one of our crew hit a log head on... no damage though.
 
Was just outside of the Hudson, where the river meets the ocean (basically if you draw a line from the tip of NJ to bottom of Long Island that is the area). I tried to get a pic of the back of the Tanker but it was moving so quick by the time I had a chance to far for the iPhone.

Slowed to minimum planing ~15 knots right before the waves (only going 19knots anyway so the guys in the Cruisers could comfortably cruise in the 3-4 footers that day) and at that time the only thoughts going through my mind were "WTF is this; WTF am I supposed to do" as I saw this wall of water coming at the boat.

For reference, we had been in 6ft seas (randgomn 8 to 10 mixed in) at 2 to 4 sec intervals (constant 20 knot with gusts to 40) the entire trip North the week before (absolutely miserable from Atlantic City to Fire Island) and the waves from the ocean liner made those from the week prior look easy going.

As most of my boating is done on the bay I got into the method of never bothering to check the water; whatever musters up in the bay is navagatable. I guess the good thing with all of this is that I have a new found respect for the weather and I am going to start listening to and heeding the weather report when I venture out into the ocean.
 
hack4alivin said:
Hello Mike,

While in Cape May a couple we met told us to watch out for 12 to 14 foot waves in the Hudson…. I wondered what could possibly make a wave like that. I am sure glad we did not run into anything like that.
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I was thinking the same thing....:huh:
 
hack4alivin said:
That was what I was told, having not been there I did not know any different. I must admit it did get my attention and kept me on my toes going in. We had a smooth ride, except one of our crew hit a log head on... no damage though.
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Bill, I'm sure you're not making up the story, but the people that told you did. I would think that if any vessel goes in the Hudson (especially around the city and the famouse islands area) and throws a 15' wake they'll have to do some explaining to the CG and it might even make the news.:huh: The point is that 15' is a huge wake that would do a lot of damage to any smaller vessel near by and possibly to some objects on the shoreline.
 
Manhattan isn't even 15' above the waterline.
 
"The boat that sank manhattan" that would be a cool movie. Kind of like "Snakes on a Plane".
 
It seems to me there is an exaggeration of the size of waves on a lot of threads. Maybe the right word is something else....misunderstanding, lack of experience, etc.
 
katricol said:
It seems to me there is an exaggeration of the size of waves on a lot of threads. Maybe the right word is something else....misunderstanding, lack of experience, etc.
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...Or it's just a lot of BOOZE talking :lol:. Hey Bill, was the guy who told you the story sober? :grin:

I think at this point we got way too far off the topic......
 
katricol said:
It seems to me there is an exaggeration of the size of waves on a lot of threads. Maybe the right word is something else....misunderstanding, lack of experience, etc.
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There is a lot of “exaggeration” about a lot of things, especially when it comes to size and/or duration! To keep this a clean family site I am talking about waves here.
 
katricol said:
It seems to me there is an exaggeration of the size of waves on a lot of threads. Maybe the right word is something else....misunderstanding, lack of experience, etc.
Click to expand...

I have a hard time beleiveing 12-14 ft waves in the Hudson as well. Maybe 3 to 5 from larger traffic.

In my particular situation (just outside the Hudson in the Ocean), the definite is that the two freak waves from the Tanker were large enough to flex a 560 Sea Ray to the point where it pulled the shaft seal (among other minor nuisances); and large enough to do $5k damage to the Crusiers...
 
I am betting that is what the couple I met in Cape May was talking about. Either way they warned me about such things. Guess no one believes us Mike. I know I took the warning as what is was.... something to look out for.
 
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