Phosphorescent Pacific
gale-at-sea
Humphrey Gale
Fri 8 Mar 2013 07:12
The sea at 8.00 pm this evening was awash with phosphoresence, every small wave as it broke on itself, all the way to the horizon, for 360 degrees was alight - caused by the plankton being churned up. The sea was lit up as if there was bright full moon, the horizon was very distinct, but there was no moon and few stars. The wake from the back of the boat stretched back about 30 yards and it looked as if there was an underwater light on the hull of the boat pointing backwards....the whole experince was a truly amazing sight
We are in the eastern end of the Pacific doldrums. this is a strip of ocean where the trade winds from the northern hemishere and the southern hemisphere meet ( you will notice ofcourse from the Latitude position, we are egtting very close to crossing the equator - probably in the next 3/4 days) and effectively cancel each other out, so there is no wind ( technically known as the intercontinental convergence zone (ITCZ)). In the Pacific at this time of year it gets 'fatter' at the eastern end and covers the whole way from Panama to the Galapagos. So there is a lot of motoring for the 820 miles, or so, of this passage, and the sailing is intermittent and frustrating because of the light and variable winds.... Hey Ho....