The wave height depends on how much wind there is, and for how long it has been blowing, and the depth of the water. In several of the depressions that we have had, we’ve had wave height up to 15-18 feet high, maybe 20 feet for the biggest.
Sometimes, if the wind has been blowing for a long time, the waves seem to lengthen out, so that there is further between waves,and therefor, there is a different angle to the waves, they are not so steep as one can get if a storm comes up very quickly.
One has to be careful about wave height stories, as they are like fish stories, every time it’s told, the fish, or the wave, gets bigger! That’s why, for the terrible storm that capsized us off Cape Horn in 1990, we are lucky to have the entry in the logbook of New Zealand Pacific by Capt. David Watt, of 15 meter swells with another cresting wave train of 5 meters on top. So that, since these are two distinct wave trains, they will add or subtract, so we could have total of 10 meters, or total of 20 meters (65 feet). I never, never, want to see waves like those again.
Question submitted by David, FasTracKids Galati