Ocean Interactions
Ocean and Atmosphere connecting Scientists, Teachers & Students

January 23, 2005 (Sunday)

Daily Journal Entries : Judy | Paquita

Time for a Break
My sleep patterns have evened out a little, or at least I can get to sleep at 2:30 a.m.! I worked when I first woke up around 9:00 and there were only a few people around. The radar people are usually already hard at work inside their trailers. I had some breakfast and checked my e-mail and didn't have any messages. I took more cloud photographs and recorded the times. I finally ran into Paquita and found out that the flights were cancelled for the day. This meant that the workload would be a little lighter for us on the ship.

Around 2:00pm I wandered up to the bridge of the Seward Johnson and found Cracker on duty. Cracker (Stewart) is a young man who has worked on ships for about four years now. He's worked his way up from deck hand to second mate and is now learning to pilot the ship. It's a privilege to be let onto the bridge so I'm careful not to get in anyone's way! Suddenly the bridge was the place to be! We came into view of the island of Barbuda.

Mt. Kit was behind us off the port bow. As the island grew closer a lot of different people came onto the bridge to use the binoculars and to check our navigation radar and maps. The sun was shining and the water temperature was 27 degrees Celsius. Sara (lidar specialist) popped her head in the door and told Cracker that we didn't need to travel the line (back and forth for the mission) and we could drop anchor. By this time we were pretty close to the island. Paquita, our chief scientist, came on the bridge and confirmed that we could drop anchor. In an instant this crazy idea came to me. I off-handedly said to Cracker, "It's such a beautiful day, we should go swimming!" Paquita got this mischievous look in her eyes and said, "Now THAT would be fun!"

Now try to imagine, we are on this big ship on an even bigger ocean. How would we manage it? Dropping off the side sounded fun, but the talk did turn to sharks. A crew member pointed out that we had been fishing with troll lines for hours and caught nothing. Cracker added that in four years he'd seen only two sharks. Then we had to consider the Captain's wishes and by the time everything was considered we were getting serious about swimming.

Then it got even better! We were so close to the island-- Thymious suggested we launch the small motorboat off the ship and go to the beach! That sand looked so beautiful, and the clouds that I had been studying so hard suddenly looked friendly again. So we did it! The small boat was launched and Paquita, Bruce, Janet and I were the first to go. We came within a few yards from shore. We had to jump in and swim to the beach! I swam in the warm salty ocean for the first time in my life.

Incredible! I have to say that I'm a little spoiled swimming in the fresh water Great Lakes all my life because that salt can be nasty in your mouth! Mind you, I'm not complaining because I've never been in open water that was so warm! It was so amazing to get caught up in a giant wave and be tossed around on its swell! Once when I was coming on shore I didn't look behind me as a wave was coming up. It suddenly crashed down on me sending me to the bottom. I wasn't hurt, only surprised as I came up sputtering and laughing! There is a lot of power in an ocean wave... even a small one!

Several other people joined us on the beach and it was a much-needed break for us. The sun began to get low in the sky and it was time to get back to the ship. I took a last look around the beach and at the beautiful setting sun...the sand on the shore was turning pink. Today was the best day of the trip so far!

  - Judy