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.
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When you are in the ocean, 30′ seas indicates huge waves. Think of an average car is a little under 20 feet. Imagine a boat twice that long on the sea. The height of this 40′ boat’s sides from the water line up to the deck is about 4 to 8 feet. If the 30′ sea has these waves close together they would be crashing over this 40′ boat. Now let’s increase this boat to a large ship, say 120′, like a supply boat to offshore oil wells. The Bow (front) of this ship is probably 20′ tall, and if these 30′ seas / waves are spaced out, this larger ship could manage. One scenerio where it gets risky is when either the depth gets shallow, or a sudden increase in wind speed, like over shoals or in straights, or around storms, because that changes spread out 30′ spread out swells to get really close and steep. I personally would not want to be in 30′ seas in anything smaller than 500′ like my Navy ship. And even then, would want to be heading directly into or away from the waves. Traveling in a direction where the hit directly on you side causes significant sideways rocking. Had hurricane storms break welded equipment when our ships rolled hard. In a giant room aboard a ship, having a 300lb motor sliding into everything inside a compartment over and over is terrible dangerous.
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