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Ghosts of the sea
Whilst at sea from Padstow to Milsford Haven I encountered something I haven’t seen before… a large ground swell.
It was quite wierd… the sea was not at all big. It was choppy and difficult to plane but the waves were no more than 0.5m and not a problem at all. However, there was a swell comprising of very long interval waves with very shallow sides, that rolled in from the west to east, like ghosts.. They were so long interval that if I didn’t actually look left or right I would not have noticed them at all as the boat just raised up and down over them without any noticable movement at all. It was clear that these were ground swell waves that were coming in off the Atlantic, possibly all the way from America. They didn’t affect me but I could imaging them creating quite a big wave when hitting the North Cornwall coast… no wonder that North Cornwall is famous for its surfing. I would imagine that they could turn very nasty though in any wind especially wind against or if entering a harbour.
Apparently, this swell is normally present in the Bristol channel and West Cornwall and is often there even on calm, smooth days.
