Ocean Interactions
Ocean and Atmosphere connecting Scientists, Teachers & Students

January 25, 2005 (Tuesday)

Daily Journal Entry: Judy

Coming Ashore

The Seward Johnson pulled into Harbor at around 8 a.m. and there was a lot of excitement on the ship. We cleared customs and a group of us walked up the gangplank and out into the streets of Antigua. There were many little outdoor shops with as many Antiguans hoping you would buy something from them. It was a bit overwhelming at first, but with a polite “No thank you” the peddlers would leave you alone. Our group decided to explore the shoreline so we arranged a taxi to take us to the Northwest side of the island. We walked along the beach all morning and made our way around a lagoon. We passed by a tall stone, cone-like structure and found out that it was the remains of a sugar mill. Sugar cane production used to do dominate the economics of Antigua in years past, but you can still find people selling bags of sugar cane on the beach. We decided to get some lunch, and after this Janet and Paquita needed to catch their flights so we said our goodbyes. It felt really great to be off the ship on a long walk, so we continued to explore the beach. All beachfronts in Antigua are considered public property so it was easy to continue walking. We had started walking in humble surroundings along the shoreline, but ended up in front of the big Sandals resort. Just as we were passing in front of it, Sergio pointed and said, “Look!” As we did, we saw a couple standing beneath a white gazebo and we heard someone say “You may kiss the bride!” and we all broke into spontaneous applause. After this we literally ran out of beach to walk on. We came to the end of the resort and were met by a sheer rock cliff that jutted out into the ocean, making it impossible to go any further. We turned around and it was time to get back to the ship. Two gentlemen helped me get a taxi and my overstuffed luggage to the hotel. Thanks Guys!

A Lucky Break

Later that evening I was trying to get some writing done, but I was feeling a little lonely and I needed to get out of my room. Most of the scientists came to the island early in November, and everyone was packing up and getting ready to go home. They were anxious for the mission to end, but I felt as though it was just beginning! I had been thrown into the mix with these incredibly fun-loving and intelligent people and had made many friends. Now it was hard to say goodbye. I went downstairs to buy bottled water and into the lobby walked a group of people I recognized from my first day at land operations! Dave Rogers and Jorgen Jensen from NCAR invited me to join them as they were going to Jolly Harbor to pick up a graduate student named Justin Peter. We went to get dinner at a place called Hemingways, and it was a wonderful opportunity to hear what these scientists were thinking. Jorgen had planned on having a working dinner, so I got to witness one small debriefing of the mission. Dave was an excellent teacher and he helped me greatly in understanding some of the large-scale weather phenomena they were discussing. However, I will not pretend that I was able to climb to their intellectual level of understanding! Here are a few of the questions they discussed that evening: How would they measure fractional white caps—the breaking, frothy water of the surface? How does the structure of the air flow and wind shear affect cloud structure, including: updraft, downdraft, and entrainment? How does warm rain formation happen so quickly? How do we know what the real D.M.S. process is, and can we measure sub clouds and oxidation? I hope these samplings of questions give you an idea of what it was like to be with this group of scientists that evening. It was a rare privilege, and I enjoyed every moment with them! If you have further questions from this excerpt, Dave told me that NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) has a web site called UCAR (The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) with a lot of educational materials available both for students and teachers.

  - Judy