Image is from a computer generated model of the Sea bed around the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic. It has been generated using special Geo-Physical techniques using Swath bathemetry survey instruments onboard the ship that I am traveling home on. Part of our journey home has been involved a few days mapping these areas for the first time and this information will be added to the navigation charts at some later date once accepted by the Science/ Naval communities. Anyhow after 10 days of being at sea today we should be arriving at Montevideo and I will be taking my first steps on land for over 100 days. The Noon readings for yesterday where as follows:
Latitude: 38 08.0 S Longitude: 52 17.3 W Bearing: 135 °T, 272 Nm from Montevideo Course Made Good 320 °T (1) Destination 1: Montevideo (1) ETA at 11.04 knots is 13:00 on 13 March 2010 (2) Destination 2: NONE (2) ETA at knots is 00:00 on 01 January 1998 Distance Travelled: 294 Total Distance Travelled: 2827 Steam Time: 24 Total Steam Time: 241..4 Average Speed: 11.33 Total Average Speed: 11.71 Wind: Direction SSW, Force 4 Sea State: Moderate Air Temp: 18.4 °C Sea Temp: 22.8 °C Pressure: 1007 Tendency: Rising 1012 - End of Swath bathemetry survey.
Montevideo on DST; GMT-2 until 0200LT on 14th then GMT-3 Some gossip, last night some of the guys on the ship were convinced they had seen a UFO. Whilst they were out stargazing they saw a bright green ball fly across the sky. At first they thought it was a flare but when they went on the bridge to check the Radar had no sign of any other objects in the Area. Me being me I joked that with the power of social search I would be able to find the answer and after a few a few Tweets and Facebook updates I was given the answer by @hellasound ; Its call BALL LIGHTNING and the following is some info I quickly managed to dig up. BALL LIGHTNING does not look like "lightning." Instead, it usually appears as a mysterious glowing sphere which drifts horizontally through the air. A typical ball is 4½ to 9 inches in diameter (with a maximum range between about half an inch and three feet) and glows most commonly red, green or yellow in color, though occasionally blue or white, with about the brightness of a domestic electric light. It may have a halo around it, emit sparks or rays, and survive for anything up to several minutes before disappearing, either suddenly in an explosion or by gradually fading away. Odors resembling ozone, burning sulfur, or nitrogen oxide are sometimes referred to, occasionally with the presence of a faint mist or residue. Rarely do the objects cause significant damage. One exception was in 1936 when, according to a correspondent to a British newspaper, during a thunderstorm, he saw a large "red-hot" ball, the size of an orange, come down from the sky, strike a house, cut a telephone wire, burn a window frame and then submerge itself in a four-gallon tub of water which subsequently boiled for several minutes. This dramatic finale allowed a back-of-envelope estimate to be made of the object's energy density. It turned out to be about half that of an equivalent volume of molten iron. The movement of the balls is one of their most interesting and puzzling features. Typically, it's horizontal with a speed that seems completely independent of local air currents. Many balls are described as spinning. A curious ability to navigate around obstacles is another characteristic, although some balls show an affinity for metal objects and may move along conductors such as wires or metal fences as if they were rails. Others appear to be able to pass, ghost-like, through closed doors and windows with ease. Among their favorite reported haunts are chimneys, fireplaces, and stoves. Most sightings are made during thundery weather and are usually associated with lightning. Sometimes, the link is compelling, as in this account by a Dr. E. M Galton: A few years ago, sitting at noon in our window in Glion over Lake Geneva, my wife and I watched a heavy thunderstorm slowly crossing the lake. When it reached the north shore, an intense flash of forked lightning was followed by the appearance, apparently a few hundred feet above the ground, of a ball the color an size of the sun at noon. The edges were slightly fuzzy, It was about three miles away and drifted with a smooth, non-rotating motion like a balloon for about a half-mile possibly at right-angles to the wind direction, until it settled on the top of either a telegraph pole or a gantry connected with the railway, and vanished. We both saw the ball and are certain that it was not an after-image caused by the lightning-strike. The appearance of ball lightning, however, is by no means always associated with lightning strikes, and fair-weather balls are not unknown. This prompts the question of whether the balls are indeed some kind of by-product of electrical activity in the atmosphere or have a more exotic origin.
Anyhow I best go, got a long day ahead of me today! Take Care
Phil
