The Weather
This picture was taken from the bridge of CSS Baffin during one of the storms described below, and was typical of day to day weather during the entire cruise.
This is one of the Weather Reports received in early February, 1989:
This transmission was copied by the ship's Radio Officer, Martin Smith, on morning of 9 February 1989 using a frequency of 8545.9 KHz from the Maritime Radio Station GKA in Portishead, England.
The actual text of the broadcast from GKA was sent 'as received' from the UK Weather Centre at Bracknell - they sent it to GKA personnel by Telex, which was then converted into 5-unit tape and fed through a reader/Morse code converter for the CW transmission. The usual speed was 20 WPM, although this was occasionally reduced during adverse conditions. (Many thanks to Larry Bennett, G4HLN, for this technical information. Larry worked at GKA from 1980-1995.) He also maintains a web site that describes the history and operations at GKA Portishead.
The CW version of the text that you hear in the background is as it would have sounded onboard the ship, with static and fading characteristic of HF radio at that time of day and frequency.
(Background CW start/stop control)
FORECAST FROM GKA PORTISHEAD
VALID FOR 24 HRS.
STORM WARNING LOW 51N 38W 981 EXPECTED NEAR SOUTHWEST ICELAND 939
BY 060000Z. WINDS EXPECTED TO REACH STORM 10 AT TIMES IN SOUTHERN
QUADRANT AT FIRST, INCREASING TO HURRICANE FORCE 12 AT TIMES IN THE
SOUTHERN SEMICIRCLE WITHIN 450 MILES OF CENTRE. STORM 10 TO VIOLENT
STORM 11 IN DENMARK STRAIT AND NORTH ICELAND LATER STORM WILL
ABSORB LOW NEAR 64N 36W 982.
HIGH SOUTH FINISTERRE 1035 EXPECTED BISCAY 1039 BY SAME TIME.
DENMARK STRAIT
VARIABLE 4 BECOMING NORTH EASTERLY AND INCREASING SEVERE GALE 9 TO
VIOLENT STORM 11. TEMP -6 TO -9. ICING BECOMING SEVERE.
NORTH ICELAND
NORTHERLY 6 TO GALE 8 DECREASING 5 THEN VEERING NORTH EASTERLY SEVERE
GALE 9 TO VIOLENT STORM 11.
TEMPS -6 TO -9. ICING BECOMING SEVERE.
1000Z MJS
| The Beaufort Sea State Scale
| ||||
| Force | Wind Speed | Nautical Term | Detailed description | |
| (10 m above surface) | ||||
| Miles per hour | knots | |||
| 0 | 0-1 | 0-1 | Calm | Sea like a mirror |
| 1 | 1-3 | 1-3 | Light air | Ripple with the appearance of scales are formed, but without foam crests. |
| 2 | 4-7 | 4-6 | Light Breeze | Small wavelets, still short, but more pronounced. Crests have a glassy appearance and do not break. |
| 3 | 8-12 | 7-10 | Gentle Breeze | Large wavelets. Crests begin to break. Foam of glassy appearance. Perhaps scattered white horses. |
| 4 | 13-18 | 11-16 | Moderate Breeze | Small waves, becoming larger; fairly frequent white horses. |
| 5 | 19-24 | 17-21 | Fresh Breeze | Moderate waves, taking a more pronounced long form; many white horses are formed. Chance of some spray. |
| 6 | 25-31 | 22-27 | Strong Breeze | Large waves begin to form; the white foam crests are more extensive everywhere. Probably some spray. |
| 7 | 32-38 | 28-33 | Near Gale | Sea heaps up and white foam from breaking waves begins to be blown in streaks along the direction of the wind. |
| 8 | 39-46 | 34-40 | Gale | Moderately high waves of greater length; edges of crests begin to break into spindrift. The foam is blown in well-marked streaks along the direction of the wind. |
| 9 | 47-54 | 41-47 | Severe Gale | High waves. Dense streaks of foam along the direction of the wind. Crests of waves begin to topple, tumble and roll over. Spray may affect visibility. |
| 10 | 55-63 | 48-55 | Storm | Very high waves with long overhanging crests. The resulting foam, in great patches, is blown in dense white streaks along the direction of the wind. On the whole the surface of the sea takes on a white appearance. The 'tumbling' of the sea becomes heavy and shock-like. Visibility affected. |
| 11 | 64-72 | 56-63 | Violent Storm | Exceptionally high waves (small and medium-size ships might be for a time lost to view behind the waves). The sea is completely covered with long white patches of foam lying along the direction of the wind. Everywhere the edges of the wave crests are blown into froth. Visibility affected. |
| 12 | 73-83 | 64-71 | Hurricane | The air is filled with foam and spray. Sea completely white with driving spray; visibility very seriously affected. |
Last updated on Thursday, 12 April 2007