With a Gale Warning in effect in Admiralty Inlet, Bravo Team stayed ashore today. We learned more about the Certificate of Inspection that we are bound to follow. 4 parameters of conditions will keep us ashore – If any of these conditions are in place, we are not allowed to go out.
- Less than 2 miles visibility
- Wind waves of more than 2 feet
- A Small Craft Advisory
- Wind speeds exceeding 18 knots
We learned about the Beaufort Wind Scale and how our eyes can be our best tools to collect information about visible signs of wind (ie a swaying tree, a flag extended, ripples on the water, spray on crests of waves).
Other activities on this foul weather day were to finish up our Ship’s Article on a piece of sailcloth and also learn about how to check weather. Some great resources we use in the programs office are linked here:
- Windy: Windy Website
- NOAA Admiralty Inlet: Admiralty Inlet Forecast
- NOAA Eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca: E. Strait of Juan de Fuca Forecast
We definitely knew we were staying shoreside today so we took a walk and checked on docklines. During our moment of silence out on Point Hudson, huddling together like penguins helped us stay warm.
Finishing up our time together in the classroom, we worked on our environmental project by brainstorming Salish Sea issues that we are aware of. Some of the issues that we focused on are threatened Orca populations, ocean acidification, and plastics in the environment. Having just begun the research, more questions will be asked and answered as we focus in on the project we hope to do in Spring 2019.
One of our students had a birthday yesterday so we sang “Happy Birthday” and had our closing reflection around things we appreciate about him. Even a birthday candle was blown out and a sense of warmth from the earlier group huddle was still present.
Next week we’ll have a Holiday Party and close up the year with some games and feasting. Thanks for following along and we’ll be sure to keep the blog going the second week of January as we reconvene for Townshend’s haulout and annual maintenance.