Later in the day I got the chance to listen to some news myself (just after hearing the FA cup semi final draw, I mean come on priorities), and it got me to thinking, in the UK we are fairly lucky with our climate and so we often become complacent but working at sea and having ridden out the odd storm myself as well as hearing the bar room tales of the older and bolder sailors around tends to make you realise just what a wild animal the weather can be.
Big Waves... Nice!
So just how big can these waves get? Well working on a research ship leaves us well placed to answer that question as we have a radar on board which is capable of measuring and recording peak wave height, significant wave height, peak wave length (how long is the swell) and direction of swell. This clever bit of kit imaginatively named "the wave radar" when fitted to our other ship RRS Discovery was able to turn current thinking on its head as the ship was battered by waves in excess of 95ft, the largest scientifically recorded.
RRS discovery
follow this link to an explanation of the Beaufort wind scale and some pretty pictures of the effect of those winds on the sea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_scale
Anyway, that was enough thinking for one day so we got back to the job in hand which was the recovery of the Ocean Bottom Seismometers that we had previously deployed... but more about that later as I'm off to take some photos!
Mick
3 comments:
After looking at those pictures I think I want to go home...
Imagine standing out on deck drinking tea on that tanker - it would taste awful and be full of salt water!
Yep and it would make a right mess of your shipping magazines... laminating isn't gonna help there! I reckon the bridge officer on the liner probably spilt his down his shirt though ;-)
Okay in all seriousness, how can those waves go over that ship like that but the ship doesnt sink? I looks like it is almost completely under water
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