Where in the world?

16 Jan 2014

The following blog entry was written by Lt. Jim Rosenberg, and really helps put it in perspective just where we are. Jim originally posted this on his Facebook page, and as it is so eloquently written, I asked his permission to repost it in this blog - he kindly said, "Yes."

At the abandon ship drill Monday, I copied down the closest point of land as I always do. Tristan da Cunha islands bore 115^o Magnetic, at a range of 630 nautical miles.I recognized the name of the islands from my reading of Simon Winchester's Atlantic (great book ... thanks Dad), as the most remote inhabited place on earth. So that pretty much put things in perspective... if our ship went at top speed for just over two full days (weather permitting) we could get to the most remote place on the planet (not likely that the medical care that they have on the island is more advanced than what we have on the ship though)... I, for one, will be sure to be using the handrails as I move about.

Our nearest port of call - Tristan da Cunha,
the most remote permanently inhabited place on Earth!

I guess I'll put that in the category of things that are cool to consider, but better not to dwell on... Like that there are 2.7 miles between the surface and the bottom of the ocean where we are right now, and that is over 14,000 feet. Which is something to ponder, in that the deepest I ever dove (other than in a hyperbaric chamber), was about 115 feet... and that was as far as I really cared to be away from a breathable atmosphere, thank you very much.

In this trackless expanse of the South Atlantic, it is difficult to get a sense of perspective on where we are... the whole of Africa is to the North of us now, and landmarks on the coast of Uruguay and Argentina are so unfamiliar. When we started our sampling it helped to note what the corresponding latitude in the Northern Hemisphere was... Barbados one watch, Cuba a few days later, then Miami, and then Savannah last week. Monday night we were at 37^o South, and the corresponding latitude in the Northern Hemisphere is where the entrance to Chesapeake Bay lies... about 4 miles north of Cape Henry. I found this comforting, as it is a familiar waterway that is close to family. Then I thought about how far that is from the equator, and then the fact that we are twice that far away... and then I did not feel that close to family anymore.

Tonight we are at a latitude that corresponds to Barnegat Light, NJ, which is very close to where the southern approaches to New York Harbor begin. Even though it is supposed to e in the middle of summer down here, Jersey shore it is not. The dropping temperature has everyone looking stylish in hooded sweatshirts and knit hats. Tonight on watch we crossed 40^o South, and even though we rocked gently in light winds under a full moon while on our sampling station, we are now officially in the roaring forties... 1,200 miles further to the South to go on our sampling transect with the barometer falling. In some ways our trip is just beginning.

1/17/14 4:00 pm Update

Being in the roaring forties is not for the faint-hearted - the ship is in a bit of a storm right now.