Why are the waves so BIG?! | The Southern Ocean

The Southern Ocean is a place like no other: isolated, cold, wet, hostile and rough conditions. But there's a reason why the wind is so strong and especially why the waves get so big...
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[@paulskopic5844]

Keep in mind that over 100 years ago Ernest Shackleton and 2 crew members sailed over 900 miles of this ocean in Winter.............in a 20 ft. boat to seek rescue for his crew of the Endurance.

[@firehouse6226]

Yeah, those guys were super tough.

[@ElSantoLuchador]

Shackleton is the Chuck Norris of the Southern Oceans.

[@elisabethandersen1102]

That was my first thought. It's almost incomprehensible how they survived that.

[@SailingVesselCaprice]

And found an island that's just in the middle of nowhere. Unbelievable odds.

[@MilesBellas]

"Shackleton's way with dissenters was to first isolate them, then squash them. When McNish, the carpenter, tried to take a firm (and intelligently grounded) stand against Shackleton's decision to march across the pack ice, Sir Ernest threatened to shoot him for insubordination" "Ernest Shackleton was a deluded fortune hunter and nobody's idea of a leadership model"

[@ceej786]

I lived in Abu Dhabi when Azzam under Ian Walker took part in The Volvo Ocean Race 2014/15 and was sucked into following this race. For a non-sailor, watching the crew standing out in the open, clinging to anything whilst flying horizontally, getting lashed by the waves, was heart stoppingly exciting. It's safer now but that element of excitement is also slightly dampened. Still a huge fan of the race though.

[@tarquinbullocks1703]

Ken Read and crew on Puma's Mar Mostro in 2011-12 for me. Broken mast, Tristan de Cunha, tanker trip to South Africa. What a team! These boats will never create that excitement.

[@michaelharris6662]

As they circle at their particular latitude, there are no land masses slowing the wind down by friction. Therefore, the wind can create very large waves.

[@Sam-vn2id]

Jesus loves you

[@montieluckett7036]

"Oh Lord, Your Ocean is so big, and My Ship so small, ..."

[@68404]

Australia understands the Southern Ocean. We also know it kisses our southern coastline, instead of some arbitrary marking on a map.

[@katarinageller-herr575]

I pray for you for the next days around cape horn! The big waves give me the feeling that I want to pray for You!!! I love your braveness, and your team and your amazing beautiful sailing boat Malizia!! I wish you all the best for the next days untill you finally reach the city in Brazil, where you can rest for a while! I will always accompany you on the Internet and plan to get a Malizia tattoo if you really win this ocean race 2023 !

[@veronikajordan4918]

Bravo und weiter so! 👌🏻🙌🏼❤ Alles Gute für alle an diesem extremen Ort am anderen Ende der Welt....bleibt stark, passt auf eure Malizia auf und erfüllt euch euren Traum. ⛵🌊

[@bobsmoot8454]

Great explanation of the weather pattern

[@thomaspotschka5387]

It must be painfully for Guyot, not beeing part of this leg! Best wishes to you!

[@Abhishek100.]

🇮🇳In India, there is a brave naval officer named Abhilash Tomy who completed a solo race and won a silver medal. His story is truly inspiring. Similarly, there is an Australian movie titled ‘True Spirit’ about Jessica Watson, the youngest sailor to complete this race. During her journey, she shares her challenges and offers a glimpse into the ocean’s vastness.”

[@robingilmore1444]

Man if I was 30 years younger, I'd like to try that!

[@Roscoe.P.Coldchain]

I think you have to be very posh and born into it..Well that’s how it is in my country England..

[@MrSimonw58]

Sounds like you've come up against a lot of barriers in life

[@miketybring4700]

@@MrSimonw58 Most people do.

[@behrensf84]

No video or photo can show you just how big a 20 meter swell is. You have to experience it…

[@jimj2683]

VR would help

[@joeyjamison5772]

"We're gonna need a bigger boat!"

[@andreasfriedrich7802]

Insane waves

[@salvitoripopadillo4539]

When you get to a place of understanding the world has been misdescribed to us all, you'll get a clear understanding of why the southern oceans produce such huge waves! It's because they're much bigger than we... have been told!

[@dnarowdy]

1.52 I just realized that this wind pattern around Antarctica is the same as on the poles of Jupiter.

[@ElvisPresley4Hire]

The spin of the earth - mentioned as a cause for the high winds at the Antarctic- is actually much less than at the equator. At the South Pole there is just spin on a dime. At the equator the speed of travel of the spinning earth is 1023 mph. That is according to what we are taught at school. Funny because on a really nice day; with the earth spinning much faster in England than in Antarctica sometimes a feather dropped out of the window; will fall mostly straight down.

[@KenDavies-qv3fs]

Good fun !

[@herbi4538]

That's verry impression to watch.😮

[@tree4408]

Hang on, sailors...! God's Speed!

[@tomdarco2223]

Right On

[@someoneelse.2252]

Nothing and nobody can control Mother Nature.

[@tr7b410]

The song "Sail" on sailor by the Beach Boys comes to mind.

[@reverands571]

25 Knots?!?!?!? The initial rise of the water, to become a wave, is Bernoulli in action. After that initial rise, the wind can push directly on the water, piling up more and more water. Few, if any, realize that Bernoulli can be involved, between two fluids (water and air). Note the term "initial rise". Friction, to push on the water, is also involved. Complicated mess, mathematically, usually ignored (my uncle wrote the first basic text, for Weights & Measures, on the transition from laminar to turbulent flow---and the experimental data was collected in a wind tunnel---on a flat surface. Nobody noticed, but me.)

[@nobodycares79]

The westerlies of Southern Ocean are the combined results of a strong zonal thermal gradient and conservation of planetary vorticity. The classical convective theory (Hadley cells, Ferrel cells, polar cells) is not the best way to explain the circumpolar westerly winds.

[@boathemian7694]

My wife circumnavigated down there on a 39’ boat… She says nothing when buoy racers talk shit in the pubs…

[@boathemian7694]

@@SailorGerry you’re a sailor and don’t know what a buoy is? Where you from bro?

[@hosoiarchives4858]

How do you get into this?

[@nightnursetaiaotoi]

Imagine how our wakas navigated these seas, and they repeated thier journeys 💯

[@fredrichenning1367]

Bah! Those aren't BIG waves. You should try to ride out a typhoon aboard a destroyer like I had to do back NW of the Philippines in 1957, Typhoon Rose. Those waves tossed us around like corks. I saw one of our sister ships on top of a wave that must have been 90 feet tall. It's bow was out back to the sonar dome, and the propellers were out, too. Then it disappeared THROUGH the next wave. This kept up for three days... THOSE were waves!

[@MrSimonw58]

Ai captain

[@wilowest3509]

I know exactly what your talking about l seen waves that were the height and as steep as some islands and it looked more like 200 feet lol scared the shite out of me on a cruise ship never mind a sailing boat . Ps nearly got spat out the back on the second night of this storm but the back rail saved me going overboard lol .

[@fredrichenning1367]

@@wilowest3509 - I nearly got "tossed" overboard twice by so-called freak waves. One during a storm in the middle of the night. As a radioman, I had to deliver/take messages, like, to the boiler room, which was aft. No way to get there but on deck. Coming back, I heard the tell-tale sounds of a wave smacking the stanchions coming at me. Nowhere to go except there was a dummy torpedo head lashed to the bulkhead. It had a big ring in its nose. I leapt like hell and grabbed that ring. Here to tell the story.

[@Dingo4440]

Well, that was in a Hurricane, the waves down there are monsters on a weekly and daily basis more often than not.... And they come with NO way to forecast them unlike a hurricane. They're 'normal'. Not for a day or two IF your unlucky enough to be out in a Cyclone once. In a destroyer is one thing, in a 40 foot yacht, that's something else.

[@stephenolson532]

Its because water runs down hill right?

[@wilowest3509]

Be careful crossing from Australia to the Fijian islands around March went on a cruise must have gone through a cyclone , back in the 80's and the waves looked as steep and as big as some of those islands that were much higher than only 100 feet more like at least 200 feet of sheer omg terror . On the second night was out the back watching in amazement how big these waves were thinking how would a sail boat cope here then the ship tilted up all of a sudden and was on my ass sliding at speed towards the back of the boat in pitch black about a good 80 feet away and l immediately looked for the back rail to stop me getting spat out , hit the rail with force then rolled over onto my knees climbing back up towards the spa pool area looking for something to grab on to while the ship was on a steep upward angle. Managed to get back under the roofed area pants all muddy and wet on the back.Went to my room and said nothing to no one but the two girls out the back area watching seemed to have a good laugh lol .

[@LFX27]

If I ever go from aus to fiji in my life I will bear this comment in mind, thanks 😆

[@alangrant5684]

I know people love sailing but I just don't get it. Seeing nothing but wall to wall water might be cool at first but I think it would be so boring after that.

[@j.a.4592]

Racing in this circumstances is cracy. Safty sailing ist enought risky

[@bradwoods7321]

Can think of a few trawlers that got all the windows punched put down there.

[@FlatlandMando]

I don't think these modern, fast, " tech boats" are the ones to go down there & take a beating.

[@chadrew6]

Umm, hard to believe you don't know this? The southern ocean is the only ocean unbroken by a land mass for the entire circumference of the earth, hence the waves can build up unhindered as they circle the globe. Maybe next time, try a headline that doesn't contain a stupid question!

[@TheOceanRace]

Not everyone knows this which is why we explain it in the first minute of the video.

[@DavidOfWhitehills]

Umm, hard to believe you were not viscerally affected by the video. Try a bigger screen.

[@williambyast7791]

Think outside the Box!

[@MrSimonw58]

Cruise ship 🚢

[@av94_officiel]

I passed through North Sea in peak season.👀

[@clivedytor2069]

These guys have b….of steel!

[@buddymac3993]

Room to run like releasing the big dog to hunt!!!🇨🇦😄

[@jemainejohnigan1033]

Sea monsters underneath

[@MrSimonw58]

Aargh captain

[@BaNaNa-su1rf]

It is so weird that waves have to be so dab😢😢

[@foresegiulianocarmine2534]

In certi momenti sembrano sommergibili a vela.

[@clairerichter2863]

Southern ocean episode and footage of Guyot, nowhere near the southern ocean 40's, more like 20's 🤣🤔

[@erchiqui803]

⛵️😍😍😍😍😍

[@Trevor7727]

balls of steel……

[@ИгорьЗеленов-г1т]

Ужасно красиво!!!

[@davevandervelde4799]

All by Gods design.

[@robertcaldwell7571]

Why are waves so big? Because the ocean is big. I didn't even watch the video.

[@JimwombatLand]

The Southern Ocean is not a Nice place to play

[@bradsillasen1972]

Annoying ADD edit.

[@moose6144]

You’re absolutely wrong. The reason why the waves are bigger in the south is because gravity cannot hold the water molecules as closely as they do in the northern hemisphere because of the overwhelming weight of the water, trying to pull itself away from the Earth because it’s upside down

[@FlatlandMando]

@@moose6144 Yah!

[@nickmail7604]

And idiots that sail in these conditions for pleasure get what they deserve.

[@MrSimonw58]

You overhead in a helicopter with a loud speaker

[@harikuz]

❤💝💖💗💚💛💕💞💟❣💔