Video: Drillship "West Navigator" meets 30 meter wave in hurricane Berit

[Mats]

"West Navigator" meeting wave measured at 30 meters during hurricane "Berit" off Norway 25 November 2011.

The big wave hits just after 3:20 in the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfNhHQDMCXI  

The video was shot from the fully enclosed bridgewing, port side. The woman at the end says "Wow, that gave me the chills".

[Bart Hakze]

Now, that's bad weather!

It's impressive how the vesel stays relatively calm in these weather conditions, she is obviously On DP and the DP-syste is not liking it. The beeping you hear in the background is the alarm signal of the DP-system, probably giving alarm on deviation from position setpoint, deviation from heading and possibly alarm on power use.

The shaking-noise you hear after the biggest wave hit is probably the thrusters giving it full whack to return to position or heading.

Would love to see a graph of the windspeeds, the sea conditons, the power used and the deviation from the setpoint.

oh, btw: there is no such thing as hurricanes on the North Sea, you can have hurricane-force winds though but actual hurricanes (cyclones or typhoons) are not possbile on these high lattitudes.

[Fred Vloo]

Hi Bart,

The sound you hear, I think, is what we call in Dutch paaltjes pikken in English it is called slamming: In severe pitching,the bow of the ship may leave the water and when it plunges back again 'slamming' occurs.A large instantaneous force is generated near the bow which can damage the hull unless ship's speed is quickly reduced.

Cheers Fred

[Bart Hakze]

Hi Bart,

The sound you hear, I think, is what we call in Dutch paaltjes pikken in English it is called slamming: In severe pitching,the bow of the ship may leave the water and when it plunges back again 'slamming' occurs.A large instantaneous force is generated near the bow which can damage the hull unless ship's speed is quickly reduced.

Cheers Fred

Hello Fred,

it might be but slamming usually happens when the ship is making speed through the water and creates a lot of spray. As this vessel is on DP she is not making (much) speed through the water. I don't see much spray and, more tellingly: she is also shaking while going up on the waves. Therefore (and in combination with the constant DP-alarms coming in) I concluded it must be the thrusters going at a good speed to keep the vesel in position.

Grtz
Bart

[Fred Vloo]

Hi Bart,

I really doubt if there are many ships that can make considerable speed in weather like this and second do thrusters cause this kind of vibrations? You could be right do, its more than 30 year ago I was out at sea in bad weather like this.

Chers Fred

[Mats]

Now, that's bad weather!

(...)

oh, btw: there is no such thing as hurricanes on the North Sea, you can have hurricane-force winds though but actual hurricanes (cyclones or typhoons) are not possbile on these high lattitudes.

It's not in the North Sea but in the Norwegian Sea, off Kristiansund. You may be right there are no hurricanes though, but after 12 months at sea in that area I can confirm we have hurricane force winds up there.

Here's another video of the same wave: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOYF4W6yRKg&feature=related