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Life Guards, Hypothermia. Personal Flotation Devices
Seas and Swells, Wave Size, Anecdotes, Tide Pools, Playing in the Spray, Russian Roulette - Morro Bay Style
BOATING
Boating in the Bay
Boating in the Ocean
Morro Bay’s Rough Bar
Fog
Suction
Falls, Falling Objects, Stinging Nettle, Poison-Oak, Mountain Lions, Ticks, Rattlesnakes, Poison-Hemlock
How Far Can Waves Reach, Mortality Statistics, Off The Road Vehicles, Mountain Biking, Miscellany
Boating, Page 2
Morro Bay’s ROUGH BAR
The Coast Guard, 772-2167, handles emergencies beyond Buoy #8. In this drill a 47 foot Coast Guard Motor Life Boat waits the arrival of a 22 to 25 foot breaker in the entrance to the harbor. Photographed by Gary Robertshaw; see his web site for other pictures in this series.
Since Morro Bay is on an exposed piece of shore, we get swells from New Zealand to Oregon. That big wave pictured above originated in a hurricane on the coast of Oregon, the Storm of December 1 – 3, 2007. The swell crested and broke at Morro Bay’s harbor mouth on December 4.
To cite another example, four years ago there was a hurricane in New Zealand with sustained winds of 126 mph. A week later the harbor mouth at Morro Bay was closed because of a series of swells breaking for 900 feet inside the harbor mouth, which faces southwest.
Fog
Some days a sailor can’t see beyond his hand around here. That’s when a GPS is wonderful to have, especially coming in from the ocean. It also helps to have an air horn, charts (nautical maps), sounds (for measuring depth), marine radio, and a radar reflector.
Suction
Just to tuck away under miscellany, three children hid from the waves underneath their overturned boat. They drifted in to the beach. Then, much to the horror of the adults present, suction prevented them from turning the boat over. A fire axe was finally brought to the scene; a hole was made in the hull, breaking the suction. It was too late for the children, who all had suffocated.
