Square Waves

I can count on one hand the number of days I've been out sailing on the ocean. My biggest adventure was years ago helping a buddy move his sailboat from Baltimore to the Connecticut River. We spent a few days off the New Jersey coast, mostly motoring. So yesterday, when I left the Hilton Head area and headed out into the ocean, I was very excited. Especially since I still haven't fixed my rudders, and had the boatcam going.

To be honest, my first day on the ocean wasn't much fun. The swells were quite large and reminded me of the day I broke the rudder on the Chesapeake. At times, I felt I had as much control over the boat as someone watching at home. As the boat and I surfed the waves at speeds up to 7 mph, the boat just did what it wanted, which was usually to turn into the wave. During the short period before the next wave picked us up, I was able to steer the boat back. But it was at times a white knuckle experience.

Today was a whole other experience. The wind was gentle and seas placid as we sailed out of the sound at about 2 mph. I put both sails up and turned off the engine. (Yesterday I had only the jib up and the motor running at all times.) We had southwestern headwinds and tacked out to the sea buoy three miles out, and then back in to the next sound.

It was a blast.

There were some swells on the way out, but once we got out to the sea buoy and depths dropped from the teens to the 20s and 30s, the swells dissipated. I'm thinking that the waves I've experienced on the Chesapeake and in shallow coastal areas are what people refer to as square waves. As in, "Beware of the Square Waves". I had no idea what they were referring to. I suppose that's because they are the only waves I've ever experienced in the shallow waters of the Chesapeake.

Maybe I'll do a whole treatise on the physics of waves after I have more experience with coastal cruising and the difference in wave action in deep and shallow water. Right now I'm just a neophyte, not so much the Old Salty Dawg.

Pic above is a dolphin this morning. They were everywhere as I left the sound. I took it as a good omen. Shadowy figure in the pic below is another dolphin, F-ing with my remaining rudder, or maybe just giving me a push. They were all very curious about the boat.