Jake,

We had 15' seas (single spreader height) in the stream on the way to Bermuda. We had expert weather routing, a pro navigator (former Team Adventure navigator), and hit an eddy perfectly such that the current and wind direction aligned to keep our sea state low. 10 miles away laterally some friends on a R/P 65 hit a freak thunder cell with 50+ kt winds against a several knot current running opposite the wind. They saw double and triple spreader waves. They sent 7 guys forward and couldn't get their #3 down. Helmsman could only drive for 10 minutes at a time before shear exhaustion set in.

Playing that far offshore without an EPIRB is extremely risky, mine was strapped to my lifejacket in a 39' brick **** house the whole time we were offshore. Most of you are better big-ocean catamaran sailors than me and I'd be glad to team up to make such a run but I'd want 3 or 4 boats total and possible a high speed chase boat.