Swells

Life is good aboard Oso Blanco on the morning of Day 3.   We are 260 nm out of PV and we all had a great night.   The seas are being good to us so far.    The winds are light at only 10 kts which makes for small surface waves.   Out here the primary waves are swells which come from conditions far from where we are.   These are the long slow rising and falling of the sea and are measured in height (size) and period (frequency).   Even relatively large swells do not affect us much if they are of a long period.    We currently have swells that are approximately 6' high, but they only arrive approx. every 15 seconds.    If you remember your physics class wave theory, these long swells are the smooth rounded waves that stretch out. The nasty waves are the sharp pointed zig-zag waves that are tall and close together.   In long swells like we have now, the boat gently rises up and down with the waves and we are hardly aware of them.