White Horses (26.42, 174.12)

This morning was the complete opposite of yesterday morning. The wind picked up and the waves were crashing. One bad thing about having a double hull boat, is that the flat surface between the two hulls acts like a crashing symobol when the waves are at just the right distance to come up between the hulls. It sounds like a cannon went off and the entire ship shakes. I am told the sounds today are minor compared to what it can do in really bad weather. I don't really want to find out. It was hard enough to sleep last night the way it was. Anyways, the crashing waves and blowing sea spray also made for a nice sunrise this morning.

I was educating myself about "gale force winds" today (as that word has been thrown around recently to describe possible upcoming weather) and I came across the Beaufort Scale. This scale was introduced as a way to standardize weather observations and water conditons in ship logs. The original scale was not quantified by numerical wind speeds, but rather by a ship's sails, ranging from "just sufficient to give steerage" to "that which no canvas sails could withstand." At zero, all a ship's sails would be up; at six, half of the sails would have been taken down; and at twelve, all sails would be stowed away. I thought that was a really interesting way to standardize weather descriptions. Anyways, gale force winds are an 8.

This scale has long since been updated to reference measured values of wind speed and wave characteristics. I was reading though some of the wave descriptions and one is "Many white horses." I was not able to find an elaborated definition on the term, but my imagination leads me to believe it is when a wave folds over on itself and sends a white avalanche of foam down the backside of the wave peak, simulating a stampede of white horses running down a mountain. If that is not correct, I am redefining the term right now.

Today began the ship wide quoits tournament. For those of you not in the know, quoits is like the ship version of horseshoes (What is it about isolation that makes you want to throw stuff at a stick?). Anyways, Tina and I are on a team, The Salty Stichers, and we had our fist match today. We played Don (Tina's adviser) and the other lead scientist on the mission (she hails from CA). Needless to say, Tina and I were not able to back up all of our (my) trash talking. We lost. Tina definitely carried the team though, scoring a momentum changing ringer in the final hours. It was just too little too late. Our next match it tomorrow morning at 10:30 am (p.s. Tina if you read this before I see you tomorrow, we have a match at 10:30 am against Frank and Chris). The rough seas also add an extra challenge, especially when the spike you are aiming for moves in between the time of your release and the time the ring hits the ground. I am also pretty sure OSHA would not approve standing over spikes screwed into the ground while the waves are making you wobble back and forth.

We are also in the process of filming a music video (I'm on a boat) and the crew are being awesome sports about it. I always said there was a little bit of gangster in everyone. Anyways, with 9 days of transit before we can start to collect the instruments, we have had to get creative. I think today we passed the half way point.