Assalamoalaikum, and welcome back to Orange Shots.
Ships sail on seas.
But not all seas are the same.
In fact, some seas are considered dangerous.
Because of the weather and other conditions in these areas,
you have to be very careful.
And when I say conditions, I'm referring to 3-4 things.
No. 1: These areas can be very stormy.
No. 2: The wave and swell height can get dangerously high.
The swell height is not directly related to the storms occurring in an area.
Even a storm in a far-off place
can cause waves that travel far enough to destroy ships.
So, there doesn't have to be a storm to cause this much damage.
This is why it's important for us to know.
And of course, the third-most important thing:
sometimes two types of weather conditions combine.
but they are complete opposites.
One brings with it waves and swells,
the other is also equally extreme,
and when both collide,
they give rise to conditions where
you can't tell which direction the waves or swells are coming from.
It is a kind of confusing situation
and dangerous for ships to be around.
In the olden days when ships were smaller,
such areas were especially dangerous.
The areas I'm going to talk about today
are the ones that have wrecked many ships and taken many lives.
There have been a lot of losses in these areas.
As I said, ships sail on the seas, and more than 70% of the earth is water.
And all the earth's oceans are interconnected,
connecting to make up one body of water.
Then you have land that comprises huge continents,
and ships have to find paths through these continents to travel.
All these oceans are joined, but there's no real boundary separating them.
You can't determine where you are,
except for when you pass through an area
where different weather conditions collide,
you're going to have a problem.
Based on this,
at least four locations in particular are considered especially dangerous
for ships to navigate through.
But I believe there should be one addition to these.
I'll tell you about the fifth one, too.
Out of the most dangerous seas worldwide,
the fourth place should be given to the Bay of Biscay.
Why is the Bay of Biscay dangerous?
The Bay of Biscay is an area between the coast of Spain and France.
The Bay of Biscay faces the Northern Atlantic Ocean.
Strong winds the Gulf Stream carry over from the Northern Atlantic Ocean.
On one side you get the Gulf Stream, developing depressions on the other.
The English channel that runs between the UK and France coast.
is home to generating currents.
When all these conditions travel South, the
Gulf Stream coming in from the Atlantic Ocean that faces the Bay of Biscay
carries over to it powerful winds, swells, and waves.
And when such a combination causes winds to blow onshore,
i.e., when it jets into the Bay of Biscay.
The powerful Atlantic Ocean waves
crash onto the Bay of Biscay, they encounter resistance
due to the lack of depth.
Their amplitude grows, and when they cash against ships, the ships are done for.
The Bay of Biscay is the type of place
where force 8 and force 9 storms also form.
We avoid areas with such types of storms.
So when 3-4 meteorological conditions meet at the Bay of Biscay,
they create havoc
which is why that area is extremely dangerous.
In second place comes Cook Strait.
Cook Strait runs between the north and south islands of New Zealand.
As you know, New Zealand is an island nation.
Its north and south islands are the most prominent.
Cook Strait runs between those two islands.
Cook Strait is dangerous because the earth is round,
and consists of 2-3 areas or latitudes rather,
where the weather is predictable.
First, you have the equatorial region (with ITCZ),
I've talked about it before in my storm-related videos.
Then come the "roaring forties",
the latitudes 40 degrees north and 40 degrees south.
The earth's rotation its axial tilt combined with open seas,
are why storms build up.
You have one island on one side, and then the other opposite to it.
The wind forming there and traveling across the roaring forties
only gets a small passage to pass through.
The wind flow faces resistance, restriction,
because of the two islands. Very little room to pass through.
Once they do try to pass through,
they create waves and tides big enough to
destroy the largest of ships as if they're weightless.
Many ships and precious lives have met their doom in this region.
Now, at number three, we have the Irminger Sea.
Where is the Irminger Sea? It's south of the Denmark Strait.
North of the UK.
This area isn't as small as the Cook Strait,
however, a special phenomenon tends to occur here.
In the Bay of Biscay part, I talked about the low depressions in the north,
this is slightly above that same area.
The second phenomenon is icebergs (partly).
While the region near Canada has more of these,
you still see ice flow here.
Small pieces of ice, but icebergs can also be found.
The third phenomenon: you have the Atlantic Ocean in the South,
then you have the North Sea aka the Arctic Sea.
The currents flowing in the Arctic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean
flow in this area.
The currents cause the ice flows to float in circles.
If you take a picture from space, you'll be able to see it.
Now combining these phenomena,
the downflow from the arctic causes cold currents to form
and warm currents travel upwards.
On one side, you have icebergs.
Mix these all up, and you have one heck of a storm.
That all happens here.
This has not only caused a lot of confusion, it has taken a lot of lives.
Now, what I'm about to tell you next
is a place all seamen agree on to be the most dangerous in the world.
The Drake Passage.
If you look at the earth and its continents,
which one is located in the far south?
It's the continent of South America.
Right below the South American continent
is the Antarctic.
The south-most tip
is called the Cape Horn.
if you are rounding the South American continent, across Chile,
this is the path you take if you don't take the Panama route.
The is also where the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean meet.
This area is also far south of the roaring forties.
Because of the ice and the cold,
depressions here are frequent.
You also have cold fronts here, and when they collide with warm fronts,
imagine the chaos.
The Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean collide,
currents generate,
the area below the roaring forties
sees depressions forming.
Then there's Antarctica with its icebergs.
What kind of concoction do you get?
You get the most confused sea omelet
that is just as destructive.
On smaller ships, people lose their lives,
and many have lost their lives here.
If I told you that the Drake Passage is the most dangerous region for ships
and sea travel, that would be 100% true.
Now, for the honorable mention: The bonus area I want to discuss.
I have a special video about freak waves and I'll link it here.
Do watch it as I won't into full detail about them here.
Freak waves are heavily associated with this area.
This area is located south of Cape Town, called the Cape of Good Hope.
This region has waves and tides, too,
but it has one more thing; freak waves.
The depressions near Antarctica
generate swells that travel all the way here too.
And whenever ships pass through here, they have no other choice,
since there's no way to go by land,
they have to remain alert because of the freak waves.
It comes when you least expect it to,
since its appearance has nothing to the with the weather conditions there.
It looks like a mountain of water approaching you
and then it hits your ship.
There have been incidents where large ships were split into two.
Freak waves are a force
that hits ships like a giant hammer.
Many ships have been wrecked, and many lives have been lost.
If you would like to see my video about freak waves, check it out here.
If you want to know how we tackle storms,
you'll find that video here.
Until my next video, take good care of yourselves,
always remember me in your prayers.
With tons of love to my Orange Shots family,
and to-be Orange Shots family.
This is me Zahid Nisar.
You're watching Orange Shots.
And until my next video,
ALLAH Hafiz.