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So for any of you who don't know I work on a Liquid Natural Gas Tanker. This is the final leg of my trip before I go home. We're heading inside the Arctic Circle to Hammerfest, Norway. Our route is taking us from the Mediterranean Sea up through the North Atlantic.
The North Atlantic is known for bad storms this time of year and we knew we were going to get tossed around pretty good. Two days ago we sailed into a Force 8 (Beufort Scale for those who know anything about weather) storm. Yesterday it increased to Force 10 and now we're sitting in a Force 11. The scale only goes up to Force 12 which is hurricane conditions.
A force 11 storm consists of:
- Sea heights of 37 - 52 foot waves
- Wind Speed up to 63knots
According to the scale, "Exceptionally high waves, small and medium sized ships could be lost due to view behind waves. Sea completely covered with foam...
I managed to get on deck this morning and take some pictures. Cell phone pics don't do this much justice. I'll try to get some more but these are the best I can do on my lunch break.
Its essentially impossible to sleep, eating is rather difficult, and working in this presents some uncomfortable situations. Even sitting you have to hold onto something or you slide across the control room.
Things are flying around my room and even though I moved everything onto the floor, now everything one the floor is sliding around. That should give you a good idea of the degree that we're rolling. My best guess is 30 - 35 degrees. I don't think its more then 40.
This is the lowest part of the ship. I'm about 60 feet up. Right now this wave is about level with me, we were halfway down one wave. My best guess puts this over 40 feet
Up one side of a wave...
Down the other side of it.
From the bridge, rolling over one side
And down the other. I might try to snag a few more before the sun goes down.
The North Atlantic is known for bad storms this time of year and we knew we were going to get tossed around pretty good. Two days ago we sailed into a Force 8 (Beufort Scale for those who know anything about weather) storm. Yesterday it increased to Force 10 and now we're sitting in a Force 11. The scale only goes up to Force 12 which is hurricane conditions.
A force 11 storm consists of:
- Sea heights of 37 - 52 foot waves
- Wind Speed up to 63knots
According to the scale, "Exceptionally high waves, small and medium sized ships could be lost due to view behind waves. Sea completely covered with foam...
I managed to get on deck this morning and take some pictures. Cell phone pics don't do this much justice. I'll try to get some more but these are the best I can do on my lunch break.
Its essentially impossible to sleep, eating is rather difficult, and working in this presents some uncomfortable situations. Even sitting you have to hold onto something or you slide across the control room.
Things are flying around my room and even though I moved everything onto the floor, now everything one the floor is sliding around. That should give you a good idea of the degree that we're rolling. My best guess is 30 - 35 degrees. I don't think its more then 40.
This is the lowest part of the ship. I'm about 60 feet up. Right now this wave is about level with me, we were halfway down one wave. My best guess puts this over 40 feet
Up one side of a wave...
Down the other side of it.
From the bridge, rolling over one side
And down the other. I might try to snag a few more before the sun goes down.
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