Of Planes, Waves and Whales – Reminders of our Limitations

June 5, 2009 · Filed Under Current, Lore of the Sea 

Pat of the Desert Sea blog made a comment about Sir Francis Chichester stating in part “too easily in today’s digitally compressed world, we forget how isolated a solo sailor could be.” I completely agree. Events of the past few days also remind me that this is not limited to solo sailors. It is so easy to make assumptions about our mastery of the natural world until the sea and the sky remind us of our very real limitations.

The tragic loss of Air France Flight 447 is but one reminder. The plane flew over open ocean, beyond the radar based in South America and not yet in the range of radar from Africa. The plane flew into the  Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, where the trade winds between the Northern and Southern hemisphere meet and is know for lightning and severe thunderstorms. Severe weather may have brought the plane down or may have had nothing to do with the crash. We just don’t know. The wreckage is believed to be in water 2,000 to 3,000 meters deep and the flight recorders may never be found. We may never know what brought down a modern plane with a highly experienced crew.

Back at sea level , we have only recently begun to understand the nature of ‘rogue waves’ – waves that seem to appear from nowhere, towering upwards of eighty to one hundred feet high, that can inflict severe damage or even sink ships. These monster waves had long been dismissed as myths or sea stories.  Observations and mathematical modeling are beginning to give us some insight into this dangerous phenomenon.  Another reminder of how little we understand and how fragile even the mightiest ships are compared to the power of the ocean.

Not all reminders of our ignorance as so unpleasant. The recent audio discovery of a male blue whale cruising off the coast of New York, singing his mating song, suggest both how little we know and the wonders yet to be discovered. Have the blue whales returned after being hunted to near extinction or have they always been there, cruising off our coasts? We don’t know.

Even in our digital world where distances are spanned at the speed of fiber-optic packet streams, a touch of humility is not a bad thing, especially as we set across the oceans.  A bit of awe and respect are still virtues for a seafarer.

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