On to Scotland
We were now over three weeks into the cruise and we really hadn’t got a lot of work done. A decision had been made to have a mid-cruise stop in Bergen, Norway. The rationale was that it wasn’t that far from the survey area and by this time we would have been about half way through the oceanographic survey. Given that we hadn’t even made it to the work site yet, a number of options were being considered. We’d only left Reykjavik a few days ago and we really weren’t due for another port call. So the decision was made to try and make our way north and away from the storms.
Anyone who follows the weather systems in the North Atlantic might know that usually these systems track north east across the ocean and most end up passing somewhere between the Denmark Strait and the UK. They usually dissipate after they cross the Arctic Circle. We were believers in this theory and felt that if we could get far enough north, the bad weather would miss us. This was not to be. Within a few hours the weather started to worsen and, if you follow the track plot, you will see a couple of loops on the red line where we ran into a number of bad storms. We soon learned the Beaufort scale, which categorizes storms with a number; with flat calm being a one and a violent hurricane being 12. The weather report shown above is typical of what we encountered. Forecasts of violent storm 10 increasing to hurricane force 12 and the like came in every few hours.
Some of the ship’s complement noted that the weather map of the North Atlantic looked like sliced onions! The analogy was drawn from the circles of closely spaced gradients in the low-pressure systems that stretched from the East Coast of Canada right up to the Norwegian Sea.
During one of the worst days, we sustained more damage to the ship. Antennas were lost, some problems developed with engines and hydraulic systems and it was clear we were getting nowhere. Nobody could sleep. All we could eat was soup out of cups and sandwiches because it was too rough for the cook to prepare any meals.
The final straw was the weather forecast out of Portishead on 8 February. It contained nothing but warnings of violent storms and force 12 hurricanes. While none of the damage individually put the ship in danger, Captain John Lewis decided that collectively this added up to trouble. So he made the decision to head for Glasgow, Scotland, to have the ship repaired and with the hope that by the time we put back out to sea, the weather would clear. All we needed was a window of a couple of days to get north of the storm systems. On the morning of 10 February we sailed between the northeast coast of Ireland and the Mull of Kintyre into the Firth of Clyde.
We were now well sheltered by land and the ship stopped pitching and rolling for the first time in weeks. We made our way up the Clyde River toward Glasgow. This being early February, we had expected snow and ice. Because of the warming from the North Atlantic current, and maybe a bit of luck, we found the weather to be surprisingly mild. The hillsides of Scotland were green and there wasn’t any snow to be seen. This was one of the most beautiful and unique sites most of us had ever seen. The Clyde River is long and winding and after what we had been through, the sight of the green hillsides and trees was overwhelming. Maybe in a different time and under different circumstances we would have been less impressed, but I think not. Sailing up the Clyde in something that has to be experienced. Scotland is famous for its beauty and we enjoyed every minute of it.
Last updated on Thursday, 12 April 2007