The Merchant Marine Express

This week started out very tumultuous.

A tropical storm which originated in the humid, calm, doldrums of the South Pacific, began to spin its way westward- towards us…yet, kept a fair distance from our location last weekend and did offer an example of its relentless strength before continuing onward.There was a strange premonition, just at the start of last weekend, as the predominant easterly winds had shifted to a more south-east then southerly gust. This was a sign that the weather would soon change as winds quickly gusted upwards of 55 mph over the three days and the darkened clouds crept like some battalion of Special Forces invading a coastline, and making the sun, a prisoner of war and not allowing it out for the public to witness.
For once, the local climate dipped below the usual 95 degree Fahrenheit temperature registering at three o’clock in the afternoon during these days of the seemingly continuous brewing caldron of thick clouds and driving rain.
Extra mooring lines, from our ship, were strung out onto the Bits on the dock, and precautions were taken, like securing outdoor equipment. Although the tropical storm passed at its closest, at four hundred miles to the south, it would eventually build, but not until after it gave us a run for its money. At this very moment, that same tropical storm has progressed to a Typhoon and with winds topping 140 miles-per-hour, is now named MAN-YI, causing destruction to parts of China, Okinawa and Japan I can only imagine what a storm four times greater than what we witnessed, could impose on sprawling communities elsewhere.
Onboard merchant ships, vessels have the capability to track storms well, in advance, of its intended track. And with Internet technology and other onboard electronics, this storm was detected days before it passed by.
And while underway, merchant ships have navigational text printing equipment, referred commonly to seafarers as NAVTEX, which, after tuning into a particular frequency the Watch Officer can receive and monitor any threatening weather or other meteorological events within a given proximity of its position. And only underway, is it the responsibility of a merchant ship to report the current weather at its position every six hours (three hours when within 300 miles from a Hurricane or Typhoon) at Greenwich Mean Time and have its data sent off to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA for analysis. This weather consisting of vital information such as barometric pressure and wind and wave speed and direction, is used to foretell the weather on land by meteorologists and predict the local weather that most people will receive, on a daily basis. This, of course, is combined with local satellite imagery for large scale predictions.
This, along with other means available, enables a ship to be self sufficient in any sort of weather condition so it could continue its voyage to ports near and far by early planning.
Have a great weekend!
-Nadir

Tags: S.S Petersburg, Voyages