Crossing the Pacific. How rough?

[Dorothy]

I have a friend who is a seasoned cruiser, however, she has a cruise planned from California to Hawaii and is getting nervous about the crossing. How rough will the seas be?

[mikeythemars]

I have a friend who is a seasoned cruiser, however, she has a cruise planned from California to Hawaii and is getting nervous about the crossing. How rough will the seas be?

 

Well, let's just say you don't want to know where this shot was taken:

 

[lilbit]

We did the opposite way around cruise a couple of years ago in November (Hawaii to Ensenada). Don't know if its true but the TA at the time said the seas would be calmer from that direction rather than CA to Hawaii. We had some rough seas the last 2 days coming back to CA and the weather was too cool to stay out by the pool. But it was still a great cruise.

[GoHuskies!]

I've never been sure that picture wasn't faked. The ship looks pretty level in the water, and I would expect a bit more pitching visible in order to take that green water over the bow. Not that it isn't possible--on my USS Pocono, a 550-foot Navy ship with high freeboard, green seas took our 5-inch gun emplacement completely off the ship. But then the Navy didn't care much about the comfort of its "passengers". Here's a pic of the ship, with its gun emplacement that was replaced:

 

Well, regardless of the picture's integrity, it is still true that unless there is a huge storm at the time of year that your friend expects to sail, the sea should be very pleasant. Most of the year there are northeast trades that the ship will be following; that is, a stern-on breeze of some 15 to 20 knots and small seas. Most of the time you will feel very little motion on these cruise ships.