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I have captured for La Vanguardia Readers’ Photos these snapshots captured by the raging sea in Vilanova i la Geltrú, in Garraf, at the moment when a person observes the waves with a merchant ship sailing in front of them.
There are several elements that stand out from this image. On the one hand, the waves breaking over the rocks on the coast. On the other hand, the person who has come close to contemplate the waves that, however, does not reach them.
And finally, the obvious difference in size between the ship and the person, despite the fact that the ship is in a more distant plane, taking up a good part of the photograph.
It is considered that we can speak of rough seas when the waves range between 4 and 6 meters, corresponding to grade 6 on the Douglas Scale.
The Douglas Scale classifies the state of the sea into 10 categories or degrees taking the size of the waves as a reference. It was created by English Vice Admiral Henry Percy Douglas in 1917, when he headed the Meteorological Service of the British Navy. The scale has two codes, one to assess the state of the sea and another to describe the height of the waves. This scale was adopted internationally.
