MidLink Readers
Rebecca Groves from Ligon Middle School sent me the following message on 4 March 1996, just after the MALCOLM BALDRIGE left Charleston, South Carolina to begin our scientific cruise in the Windward Islands/Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean:
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Dear Captain Nelson,
Have you ever been in a hurricane? If so, how's it like? What are you researching now? Do you get vacations? Have you made a new research lately?
Thanks!
Rebecca Groves
Ligon Middle School
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Dear Rebecca,
Thanks for sending me the e-mail message that you wrote on March 4th. I
really enjoy getting questions and messages from the students at ligon.
Your message arrived Monday afternoon, 4 March, when I logged into my e-mail
server/computer and after the MALCOLM BALDRIGE had departed Charleston, South
Carolina and started s southward transit along the coast of South Carolina to
Florida to begin our scientific work. I thought that I would be able to send
you a reply very quickly, but we have been very busy during the past week and
a half, and we've experienced some unusual situations that we didn't even
encounter during the entire year that we were sailing around the world. For
example, two days ago, we assited the U.S. Coast Guard in rescuing 68
refugees from the Dominican Republic whom we found in a 35' boat, drifting
off the northern coast of the Dominican Republic. Sometimes it's these
unexpected events that keep life interesting at sea.
During the 20-day cruise that we are conducting now, we are studying the
physical properties of the water and currents that flow between the Caribbean
Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean through the passages that lie between the
islands in the West Indies. We started our work just off the coast of
Florida last week, took samples of the temperature, salinity, and oxygen in
the water column from the surface to the bottom (over 5000 meters) at a
number of stations east of the Bahamas, measured currents in the passages
between the islands, and now we are working off the island of Virgin Gorda,
which lies just about 40 n.mi. east of the island of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin
Islands. We will be here for about two days, transiting back and forth
across the passage and making measurments of the tidal currents through the
passage. After we complete our work here (on Saturday) we will spend the
next four days working our way south from Antigua to Grenada near the coast
of Venezula. We will complete our work in the Caribbean at the island of St.
Lucia on the 20th, and then we will begin our transit home via Old Bahama
Channel, near Cuba, arriving back in Miami, Florida on March 25th.
During the summer, the Caribbean is not always a good place to be on a ship,
because many hurricanes pass through thie area. Last year several of the
islands in the Caribbean were hit by strong hurricanes. Fortunately for me,
I have never been in a hurricane, on land, at sea, or in the air. During the
9 years that I have sailed on NOAA ships, I have managed to steer clear of
hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones. But I have had to sail through tropical
depressions and developing tropical storms, and several strong winter gales
and storms that certainly kicked up seas and winds that seemed every bit as
rough as those generated by a weak hurricane. Last year when the ship was in
the Indian Ocean, we were carefully watching one well developed cyclone
(hurricane) that started tracking directly at us. Fortunately, the storm
stalled and then moved off in a different direction about 500-700 miles away
from us, so we didn't feel any of the effects of the storm.
Just a few days ago, we passed through the southern edge of the gale that
developed over the Bahamas, moved up the east coast of the U.S., and headed
out to sea. We encountered winds of 35-40 knots and seas that were 15-18
feet high where the ship was working. These were marginal conditions for us,
so all scientific work stopped, and we headed south to our next stations off
the Dominican Republic, where the winds and seas were not as strong, and
where we could resume our oceanographic work. But up north, the winds and
seas were much worse. I got a message from one of my sister NOAA ships that
was working off the coast of Virginia, and the winds and seas there were
forecast to build to 55 knots and 25 feet. That ship also stopped work and
headed into port until the storm blew out to sea.
During these strong storms, especially when the seas build to greater than 20
feet, we usually have to stop all work and steam slowly with the ship's bow
headed into the winds and seas. We try to keep the ship moving ahead,
without having the bow come out of the water and slamming down hard, because
when it does that, the whole ship shudders, and everyone can feel it from the
bow to the stern and from the top to the bottom. We also try to keep the
ship pointed into the seas to prevent it from rolling too much. It is pretty
difficult trying to maintain your balance on a rolling ship, or even sleep,
when the ship rolls 30-degrees to port or to starboard, and you either get
thrown out of the bunk, or loose things in your cabin come flying at you in
the middle of the night. As you might expect, it can get pretty exciting and
interesting, and frankly sometimes frightening on a ship at sea in a violent
storm.
I know that most everyone knows the type of damage that a hurricane can do to
buildings and other property on land, or to ships and boats that are anchored
or moored near the coast. But storms at sea, even those storms that aren't
classifed as hurricanes, can do a lot of damage to ships at sea. There is
one classic storm in the Atlantic that many meteorologists and oceanographers
talk about. It is referred to as the QEII (QUEEN ELIZABETH II) Storm, that I
believe occurred in the 1980's. The QEII is a very large passenger liner
operated by the Cunard Lines in England. The seas generated by this storm
were so large and violent that they broke over the bow of the QEII and
smashed into and broke the passenger cabin windows near the bow of the ship,
over 50-75 feet above the waterline. So these were indeed very large waves.
Now I did say that I haven't been in a hurricane in the air either. But
curiously enough, that's about the only way that I might really want to
encounter a hurricane. Someday, I would like to fly as an observer in one of
NOAA's hurricane hunter airplanes, that are equipped to fly into hurricanes
and are instrumented to make the observations of wind and pressure critical
for accurate forecasts of hurricane development and movement. And if you are
in an airplane flying through the eye of a hurricane, you only experience the
violence of the storm for a short while. If you are on a ship at sea and you
are caught in a hurricane, the violent and dangerous conditions can last for
several days. There is no safe haven from a hurricane at sea, so the prudent
mariner watches the weather and takes action early to stay clear of the path
of a hurricane.
I did get to take my vacation in February, after the MALCOLM BALDRIGE
completed the round-the-world cruise. I went home to Rockville, Maryland to
spend three weeks with my family. Now that I'm back at sea, I probably won't
get to take too much leave until after we finish all of our work in August.
It would sometimes be nice to have the whole summer off on vacation, like you
will have when school lets out in June. However, my job doesn't allow that
type of work schedule, so the crew and I and our families must adapt to a
different kind of life style that most people aren't familiar with.
Well, my bell just rang also, and it's time for me to send this message off
to you via satellite, before it gets too long. Keep your goals in sight - if
you plan to follow a career that allows you to help animals or humans you
won't go wrong.
Your Friend and Shipmate,
Captain Craig S. Nelson, NOAA
Commanding Officer
NOAA Ship MALCOLM BALDRIGE
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Matt Vepraskas and Mac Young
Ligon GT Magnet Middle School, 706 East Lenoir St.
Raleigh, North Carolina 27615