HI Superferry: Surf's Up, Dude!

First, I'll take a few quotes from the Army Corp. of Engineers Kahului Harbor study to develop the setting:

"Kahului Harbor is exposed to wind and waves from the north and northeast. The northwest end of Maui shelters the harbor from waves arriving from the northwest. The harbor is protected by two large breakwaters. High energy waves generated by intense winter storms in the north Pacific Ocean routinely attack the breakwaters...The harbor entrance is a 660-ft opening between the breakwaters."

"The Island of Maui helps to block wave energy from both the northwest and east."

"Virtually the entire wave climate (at the harbor) is confined to a narrow band of directions between north and northeast. Dominant wave directions in the offshore climate (northwest and east) are no longer a presence near the harbor entrance."

"Significant wave height statistics for the Kahului (harbor) array show a mean annual Hs of nearly 3 ft and maximum of over 8 ft for the year..."

The study measures that the wave peaks having the most effect in the harbor come from the direction of 0 N to 30 NE degrees azimuth. So swells have an effect in the harbor mostly from the North and not the Northwest. This can be used when checking the sites below.

Now for the surf forecasting sites, Glenn James of Maui Weather Today links to most of the useful ones below. NOAA's link for Buoy 1 and all of the animated models below are worth checking.

"I want to thank all of the Hawaii Weather Today surf reporting team: Ole Olson on Kauai; Kaleo Ohina, Ian Masterson and Kyle Stanford on Oahu; Steven Mark, Mike Napier, Ken Potts and Ron Busby on Maui…and finally David Hume and Tait Rusnak on the Big Island. Thanks to Mr. Pat Caldwell on Oahu for his forecast skills."
Buoy 1
Buoy 2
Buoy 3
Buoy 4
Equatorial buoy
Waimea Buoy
Mokapu buoy
Lanai buoy
Pat Caldwell - NWS
Island swell shadow lines for Kauai
Island swell shadow lines for Oahu
Island swell shadow lines for Maui
Island swell shadow lines for Big Island
NCEP Wave Model - animated
Global WW3 wave model - animated
Oceanweather wave model
Close up swell activity for the islands
Lajolla Swell Model - animated
Stormsurf wave Model - animated

And a little bit of humor below:

From: Scott
To: Brad ; Jonathan
Subject: RE: HI Superferry: Studies of Waves in Kahului Harbor
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:31:44 -1000

Has anyone seen the study on Nawiliwili wave action? Word has it that the waves caused by Kauai citizens will exceed 3 ft 100% of the time when the Superferry comes into port.

-----Original Message-----
From: Brad
Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2007 1:04 PM
To: Jonathan
Subject: RE: HI Superferry: Studies of Waves in Kahului Harbor

Oh, my point is from the study it is more like 10% not 1% of the time that wave action on Pier 2(C) will be a problem. That is more like 37 days out of the year. For how tight this thing is on profit, that is a big problem. Plus, as you say what about the time or two where they forecast it wrong and are there at the pier and the vessel gets damanged by wave action. If I was the bondholder on this, I would want to understand and know about this.

Aloha, Brad