Oil slick in a storm to calm swell

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by peter loveridge

In april 1971 I was taking my 24foot sailboat from Burnham on Crouch to Southampton. Weather forecasting wasn't overly good in those days and VHF for small boats hadn't been invented.

Granted, they weren't in wide-spread, non-commercial use, but Marine VHF Radios had been invented, much earlier.
FWIW:
After World War One, the development of vacuum-tube transmitters made radio telephones practical, and an advertisement in the December, 1920 issue of Motor Boating, promoted the De Forest OT-10 transmitter, for use by "yachts and motor boats", while the April, 1922 issue of AT&T's Long Lines magazine, reviewed, in Telephoning to Sea, an early experiment by AT&T, communicating between a land station located at Deal Beach, New Jersey and the S. S. America.


“VHF Marine Radio” ~ Electronic Technician, March 1966
Page 41 ➥ https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Ar...an-1966-03.pdf

“The Coast Guard, the FCC and the Radio Technical Commission for Marine Services are urging small boat owners to use VHF marine radiotelephones so the congestion on 2182kHz can be alleviated.
In many respects, the 18-channel VHF/FM marine band-available to both pleasure craft and commercial vessels-is far better for many communications purposes than the 2-3MHz marine band...”

[Bowdrie]

Yep, I'll tell you Gord, it sure was a good day when I got a VHF.
I could finally retire the old Marconi rotary spark-gap unit and the "navy key".

[S/V Illusion]

Old myths die hard:
Oil generally lessens surface tension. The result being more spray and wave interaction. Heavy “bunker” oil might work but sailboats don’t have it and if anyone did, it would need to be spread in large quantity ahead of the vessel, a practical impossibility. And being lighter than water, you end up with an oil sprayed boat.

[donradcliffe]

Originally Posted by SeanPatrick

You can put a glass 'tent' over a tray of water to keep the wind from disturbing it. But then, the water evaporates and fogs up the glass. More viscous liquids are better at preventing surface defects due to wind, but they are a pain to use and clean up.

My artificial horizon on land is a pan of used motor oil, the dirtier the better.

As far as the effectiveness of an oil slick to calm oceans, ask anyone who has sailed through a slick left by an oil spill.

[Bowdrie]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

As far as the effectiveness of an oil slick to calm oceans, ask anyone who has sailed through a slick left by an oil spill.

I can attest to that, but the oil was not from a "spill".
The sea state of the trips between Santa Barbara and Coho anchorage, not far from shore, have been among the calmest I've ever experienced, with a gently undulating surface.
The oil is everywhere, (including the beaches and your waterline).
I figure it's because of all the oil in that area that has been seeping to the surface for probably centuries.
Native Americans were collecting "tar balls" along that stretch to pitch/caulk their boats long before Father Serra came on the scene.

[GordMay]

Perhaps, the anecdotal evidence is, sometimes, misinterpreted, conflating cause. with effect.
Rather than oils calming the seas, it may be that, we only see the oil [slick] on [already] calm seas.

Oil spills, in the open ocean, are subjected to natural dispersion processes, where wave action results in the formation of oil-in-water emulsions, of small oil droplets, ranging from submicron, to several millimeters, rendering them less detectable/visible, to our observation.

[rognvald]

God, if you're sailing in those conditions and relying on vegetable oil . . . well, you know the rest!
Rognvald

[massnspace]

Yeah just carry huge drums of oil on board and dump them in the ocean when it gets wavy.

Sounds like a great strategy….

[rognvald]

Originally Posted by massnspace

Yeah just carry huge drums of oil on board and dump them in the ocean when it gets wavy.

Sounds like a great strategy….

Classic! 10 stars!
Rognvald