Jeff Callaghan

The large wave conditions reached Queensland waters over the weekend. A
ship 300km ENE of Fraser Island reported a 7 m SSW swell Saturday while
Hsig reached 4.7m and Hmax reached over 8 metres on the Brisbane wave rider
buoy yesterday. The Brisbane waverider buoy is located in a region where
the depth is  60 metres and was reporting the southerly swell as a
southeasterly swell. Obviously the swell began refracting near the 200m
contour.The period of the swell was over 15 secs so that the wavelength
would be 400m or more and would feel the bottom when the depth was around
200m. The renowned Kirra was pumping with overhead sets even though it
faces North and normally misses out on southerly swells.

A yacht was dismasted 300km east of Brisbane early Sunday morning and the
three people on board were rescued by a fishing vessel.

Conditions must have been much worse further south and out to sea but I
have'nt yet heard of any incidents however Hsig reached 6m on the NSW buoys
with Hmax reaching 12m
Jeff
 

John James

The Newcastle Herald this morning had a front page article on the yacht
Bedouin. The family of three (a couple with a baby) from Belmont (just S of
Newcastle) were "300km east of Mooloolaba when disaster struck and were
forced to wait for 12 hours after a huge wave over-turned their yacht".
"sailed from Manly Harbour, in Brisbane, last Wednesday, heading for Noumea
when they were hit by wind gusting to 60 knots and waves up to eight metres
high on Saturday night."
"it was quite windy when we left but it was okay, but it just got worse and
the patterns changed, Ms Reed said" "The wind was so bad and then we got
swamped by a big wave, which turned the boat over 360 degrees."
The couple had almost 30 years experience between them and had sailed across
the Caribbean and the Atlantic and "have never seen conditions quite as bad
as this".

John James
Williamtown Met Office