In David Lewis' book, "Ice Bird", he tells of his early research into sailing the southern ocean:

"Poring over the Soviet Atlas of Antarctica in the Melbourne office, I had noticed that waves over 35 feet high were occasionally encountered in this area. Big waves, I thought. But how odd that Russians measured in feet. I looked closer. The wave heights were not in feet at all, they were in metres. Waves over 105 feet high. These were monstrous, unthinkable. Small comfort that they were only rarely encountered. For the next two nights I hardly slept, so vivid and horrifying were the pictures that persistently haunted my mind."

It was quite a while before he realized Russia is on the metric system, they were talking about waves 35 meters high...

>The waves get a lot bigger than 25ft, 70 to 80 are common this time of year.
>
>>Her boat is only 40 foot - and she had been dealing with winds of up to 60 knots and seas of up to 25 foot.
>>
>>40foot boat + 60 knot wind + 25 foot waves + 2 dumb (or at least irresponsible) parents = 1 dead 16 year old girl.
>>
>>>The southern ocean is the last place I'd want to be in a small boat this time of year, it was bad enough in a 130,000 tonner. They didn't plan the trip well, 130ft seas aren't fun.
>>>
>>>
>>>>http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/10/teen-sailor-missing-at-sea/?hpt=T2
>>>>
>>>>This is no surprise to me at all - I sort of figured this was going to happen to her. Not sure how I feel about the parents letting her do it either.