Rogue Wave

I had a bunch of ideas to blog about this week, but I kept getting distracted by the next idea. In fact tonight I was going to make a comment about peoples dependancy on a certain social site that was currently off line. Almost completely off. My first thought was lulzsec or anonymous took it down. More than likely it was routine service exacerbated by the time change. Then I was hit by a rogue wave.

In January 1978 a large wave almost capsized George C. Scott's boat, The Mojo, as it was exiting Morro Bay. There was a picture of it in most seafood restaurants for years. I've heard it called a rogue wave but anyone who lives around this area can tell you, that was just a large set wave from a winter storm. If the Mojo had waited a short while or not gone at all, everything would have been fine.

A true rogue wave is less predictable, it sweeps into the harbor without much warning and it capsizes many boats. It makes you wonder, could it have been avoided? The wave is just doing what waves do. Moving through the ocean gathering more energy until it final collides with the shallow shore, where that energy forces it to rise up and topple expending itself in a brief instance and often doing damage. What's important to understand is what created the wave in the first place. Winter storm? Tsunami? Just a freak juxtaposition of multiple waves colliding together to form one super wave? Can we as a society learn to recognize those signs before the backwash forms other more deadly waves? Why do "our" oceans create waves in the first place? Why didn't the breakwaters and jetties work to capture that energy before it could escape to safe harbors?  A rogue wave is a terrible thing and needs to  be dealt with. But more importantly the higher ups who are suppose to design the safeguards such as seawalls should be held accountable for their failures as well. While we may not see one individual rogue wave, we know the ocean is full of waves and another could occur at anytime.