"Cloudy, hazy, occasional drizzle. We haven't seen more than a few snippets of sun since leaving Valparaiso nearly a week ago. We're chugging along toward the equator (should cross late Wednesday), it's getting warmer, but the steady overcast is getting on everyone's nerves.
"But it could be out of the frying pan and into the fire. The intertropical convergence zone - a band of heavy rain and hunderstorms that circles the earth near the equator - is usually parked over Costa Rica this time of year. So we'll probably go from cool and gloomy to hot, steaming rain. At least the giant swells of a few days ago have passed and the ship is now riding much more steadily.
"We did encounter some fairly amazing flying fish today. The bow wave of the ship surprises them, and they come leaping and flying out of the waves right alongside the ship. These were small fish, looked to be no more than 4 or 5 inches long, but each "burst" produced 100 or more. Maybe 200, it was impossible to tell. All of a sudden you'd see countless little silvery things skimming over the water for 10 or 20 yards, then they'd disappear. This happened every couple of minutes for a half hour or more.
"The ship's navigation officer - a woman - is going to give a two-hour 'navigation for dummies' class tonight. That's not the official title, but I think it's probably a reasonable description. The upper-class cadets have to take some heavy-duty navigation classes, so this is an intro for CMA first-year cadets and any others, such as Cal Poly students, interested in attending. It's right after my astronomy class, so I think I'll attend and see if I can pick up a few pointers. Who knows, it might help me get the kayak home some day.
"I think that's about it from truly out here in the middle of nowhere."
No comments:
Post a Comment