2013-12-26

Stormriders

Pos: 51°59.041 S, 176°33.404 W
Sea: 1 m
Wind: S 6 m/s
Weather: Sunny

On the afternoon of Dec 24th we hit some quite heavy weather, an easterly wind with gusts over 30 m/s giving swell of about 6 m.




Max wind 27.6 m/s


It´s hard to explain what this feels like. But try to imagine some kind of slow rollercoaster, which moves randomly in all directions. And this ride can of course last several days.



Safe inside


A boat subject to ocean waves will move in response to the waves in six degrees of freedom, defined as surge, sway, heave, roll, pitch and yaw.


Six degrees of freedom



All these movements happen more or less simultaneously. The heaving motion, which happens as the ship is lifted over the top of the wave or carried down into the trough, has the biggest amplitude. Luckily for us the Araon is very stable and the storm didn´t last too long. That night I don´t think anyone slept very good, but on the next day the sea was already beginning to calm down. Now conditions are really pleasant with light winds and sunny weather.



Another albatross


I have learned that telling the different kinds of Albatross apart is really tricky, even for experienced ornithologists. I will thus keep naming all kinds of albatross as just albatross. If you would like to see a map of our route, check out this page by the Swedish Polar Research Sectretariat.

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