I think my biggest hang up is I haven’t really been able to rationalize the difference between what a wave is versus a swell.
In: Other
Swell and waves are two different things as you mentioned. The height of the seas is the swells+the waves.
Swell is like the hills, its the main topography of the ocean surface caused by longer term winds over a very large distance. Waves are caused by local winds and ride ontop of the swell like grass on a hill.
So a 30ft sea can actually mean a couple different things (usually it’s reported alongside a wave period) it can mean a hurricane passed 100nm south of you and so there 30ft swell but local conditions created little to no waves. That’s actually a relatively gentle ride with swells often being 50′-100′ wide
Or
A hurricane is chilling in the mouth of the harbor and your heading into it. Now your looking at 30ft waves that are 10-15′ wide making for a very very rough ride
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