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September 15th, 2009 – At Sea, 46 50N, 052 45W
by Herb McCormick
(Sept. 15): The weather came on quickly. One moment, we were motoring through the cut of an idyllic harbor in Newfoundland, and the very next, we were in storm-tossed seas off the coast of Greenland. A hazy sun was soon obscured by fog and then snow, and for the crew of Ocean Watch, that wasn’t the only strange thing going on. No, we were no longer on our 64-foot steel sailboat; instead, we were on the rocking bridge of a replica of the Roosevelt, a 181-foot steam-sailer originally skippered by the legendary Canadian mariner, Capt. Bob Bartlett. Now the seas were really building, the motion was wicked and we were all holding on for dear lives.
Then, remarkably, someone hit a switch and it was over. The bridge stopped bucking and the lights came up. We stood looking at each other, grinning from ear to ear. Our ride on the shipboard simulator at the remarkable facilities on the campus of the Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University had come to an end.
That was yesterday. Today, Ocean Watch is once again underway, bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, just a tad over 500-nautical miles away. Our visit to the Marine Institute wasn’t the only interesting thing that happened in the welcome port of St. John’s, Newfoundland on Monday. In addition, the city was raked with a southerly gale packing wind gusts well in excess of 50-knots, accompanied by torrential, sideways rain.
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| After departing St. John’s, Ocean Watch motored through the appropriately named ”Narrows” cut at the harbor entrance. |
After departing St. John’s today at 9 a.m. local time, Ocean Watch motored through the appropriately named “Narrows” cut at the harbor entrance and directly into a brisk southwesterly breeze accompanied by rather mountainous leftover seas from yesterday’s storm. It was almost like a simulation of the simulator: calm one second, wild the next.
For this leg of our journey, scientist Harry Stern has left the boat to return to Seattle and has been replaced by another stern fellow, Ed Stern (no relation), a fisheries expert from the Marine Institute.
Our visit to St. John’s was hosted by Glenn Blackwood, the executive director of the Fisheries and Marine Institute, and his supremely capable and helpful faculty and staff. Truly, our reception in St. John’s could not have been more hospitable or humbling; it was an honor to meet such a dedicated and talented group of scientists and mariners, and there’s no possible way they could’ve made us feel any more at home. St. John’s and the Marine Institute have been a highlight of our travels so far.
We’d hoped today to file a full report of yesterday’s full day of tours at the Institute, as well as highlights from the rest of our interesting stay, but at the moment, Ocean Watch is being tossed about in as miserable a seaway as we’ve experienced since leaving Seattle. Your typist is just sentences away from bolting topsides for huge gulps of fresh air. Not that this hasn’t been a million laughs and all, but…
“Welcome to our little shop of horrors,” Captain Christopher Hearn of the Marine Institute said yesterday as we
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| The waves and seas from the Ocean Watch bridge looked remarkably similar to the simulator. |
stepped onto the bridge of the school’s amazing simulator. And then the fun began. The ironic thing is, just 24 hours later, the waves and seas outside our own little “bridge” look remarkably similar.
Now what the heck did Capt. Hearn do with that off switch?
- Herb McCormick with photographs by David Thoreson
This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos
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