Final Post

I’m sure that most people who avidly keep watch on the upcoming weather forecasts have noticed that the information given can sometimes be a little off. The truth is, weather is extremely hard to predict, as the science of it hasn’t gotten down into an equation that yields several different weather coefficients. We know what is going to affect what, but only to an extent do we know why it is doing so. However, the extent to which we do know is extremely far, yielding intricate ways of producing accurate weather forecasts. Not only in forecasting, but live weather is also sometimes a little skewed from what it should really say. One would think that NOAA has enough mini observatories around to produce an accurate depiction of the weather, but from the research and observing I did for this project the live government forecast is only correct (within 2uu’s which considers a forecast to be “accurate”) about 70% of the time. So, that means that if you were to look at a live weather forecast for your local area, there is a 70% chance it is accurate, according to my relatively non-extensive observations. This however does not mean that there is a 70% chance of the weather being accurate for the specific spot one is in. The process of gathering weather data doesn’t only require sticking an anemometer in the air on your back porch, or looking out the window to check the thermometer. One collecting weather data has to go into several different environments to get several pieces of data to average them together. These environments include fields, high and low topography, woods and over bare rock due to the usual humidity rising off of the grass. In addition, the observer has to be a certain distance away from any rivers, lakes, or oceans when gathering data. This part makes it tricky for coastal communities such as a place like Plum Island. The closest thing one can do to get an accurate depiction of the weather there is to look at the Newbury regional forecast and just assume that it is going to be a little colder and a little windier.

My house was far enough from the river to get an accurate reading for most of the observations I made, but like I stated earlier several different spots in West Newbury had to be tested. I stuck to three general locations around the area to gather the data from, and I did this 10 times over the past few weeks. The first spot was my house. My houses observations seemed to be pretty consistent with the forecast provided by NOAA excluding the wind speeds. This is easily explainable however. The wind around here usually blows from the south and due south from my house sits a massive hill which on the other side is long hill orchard. This means that the wind direction and speed is usually distorted around my house due to the swirling, redirecting and speed loss in the wind caused by the hill. Otherwise, the humidity, temperature and sky cover were exceptionally accurate.        

The next location where I collected data was in the Emery’s properties. These are located on the east side of town, and are generally used for conservation and a retreat place for those who worship Saint John the Evangelist. Here is a field, woods, rock and elevation change so it made a great place for me to collect data. This place was accurate in terms of everything. Similar to my house there was a little change in the wind but is again easily explainable. Even though it would be considered to be far enough from the river to gather data from, it is located in the curve of a riverbend, and the wind generally moves in one specific direction according to the whole valley that creates the river. Otherwise, just like the data I got from my house, was basically spot on.

The final location I took observations from was from a field connecting Groveland and West Newbury. This was located off of Crane Neck. Here, the wind was always spot on. Every single time I went there with the exception of one, the wind was within 1uu of being totally accurate. The humidity was similar to that of the predictions, but it was correct 7 out of the 10 times. The temperature was in basically spot on. 9 out of 10.

This project was more helpful to me than any I had ever done. I chose to do it because the enhancement of field data in the weather industry is something that I want to get into. More modules collecting data to produce more accurate forecasts. Not only will this help with everyday weather, but I feel as if the sports and activities that depend on weather will benefit from it aswell, and action sport forecasting companies will want to pay big money to get the data that these collect. Anyways, this project helped give me a good look on some future plans of mine, and somewhat served as a fun activity for me to follow along with over the stressful past weeks as school was beginning to end. I am excited and ready to use the skills I have found through this semester’s reading in my present and future life!

Quote Blog

“Doesn’t make sense to you either? The skill takes years of experience to master, and only a small percentage of the entire tribe (mostly related persons) is even capable of learning this technique”

This quote serves as a follow up statement to a long description of a technique used by ancient Philippine tribes (carried down to present day) on how to navigate from island to island. The method seems completely ridiculous to me. I do not understand how it could possibly work. This navigation method includes using imagination to set checkpoints in relations to stars. Sometimes a real island can be used, but it works with imaginary islands as well. The method is kept somewhat secret from other tribes in the local area and is used as an empowerment toward them aswell. A complicated but effective method such as this one can be what moves rice from this island to this island faster, or go on longer fishing trips to better fishing grounds. These are the kinds of things that set a tribe in a much higher realm of superiority vs another. In primitive or third world countries, this is crucial to holding an original lifestyle.

Once aid from a more civilized area is needed, the aided area ends up becoming more modern in terms of production, loss of original tradition, hunting and gathering techniques and many others. This can result in either bad or good. Say explosives were introduced to a fishing community, (this happened in the Maldives, French Polynesia) the people then use them underwater to stun or kill fish so they float to the surface so that they can get 100 fish in the time they used to catch 10. The local area begins to make more money, some buildings are built and people begin to live more civilized. Now, since the whole reef system surrounding the islands is almost destroyed, the Maldivians are migrating to different archipelagoes in search of new grounds to fish. What do they leave behind? Their home land which is now covered in ruins and a bunch of destroyed reefs where a similar livelihood may not exist up to 30 years from now. The advancement of a culture can be good however, but when it happens in a place that can sustain a primitive lifestyle to a flourishing extent, it can have a damaging affect.

Analytical

In “The Lost Art of Finding Our Way”, it is very clear that the author had put in a lot of time studying and researching the content of this book to develop a phenomenal balance between a conceptual and informational read. The basis of the conceptual piece is what is lost from humanity when finding our way is just a matter of looking into the device in the palm of your hand. This occupies about a quarter of the book. The rest is all different kinds of meathods both modern and ancient civilizations have been using to go on year long life threatening voyages and how well they can use them. From the Inuit living in northern Canada to the pacific islanders, many navigation meathods are taught through this amazing book. Graphs, sub articles and maps are used frequently to reinforce his information.

Books with authors that put a lot of time researching the topic in which they are writing about always seem to be easier for me to read. This attribute is usually clearly evident in books because there are no long spaces between useful pieces and no pointless chapters. The book stays interesting this way because the author has a lot to say. When I read a book, I am for the most part looking for some sort of information rather than just listening to a story. I enjoy directly getting useful information for me to actually use in my daily activities. Go back to the previous three topics I chose to read about this year. The first: Board Culture. After reading the books I chose I learned about global surf spots, life on tour and the development of modern and classic surfboard shapes. The second: Local History. The books I read second quarter just gave me more reason to wander around where I live. It also helped me understand the roots of the local area in terms of how this place became what it is. The Third: Weather. I am going to college to study atmospheric sciences. The knowledge I learned during this quarter may have been the most valuable out of all. I learned how bad weather can get and how it gets that way. This quarter, I have learned some good tips and tricks about placer navigation. Because we all have phones and GPS these skills aren’t as useful to me. But with basic knowledge on getting my bearings and getting somewhere, it will make me a whole lot more comfortable when I’m out on the water and the fog drops down. 

“Danish ethnographer Knud Rasmussen, who led the fith Thule Expedition across the roof of north America from 1921 to 1924, documented the Netsilik culture. He recorded the ways of the Inuit at a time when their culture remained relatively undiluted by European influence.”

According to Rasmussen, the Netsilik hunters had in memory a detailed spatial knowledge of their vast flatland, streams, and inlets that allowed them to find their way. Rasmussen recorded “It is astonishing how much the Netsilingmuit know about the land they live in, be it natural conditions and fauna or its early history. Though they had no previous knowledge of paper and pencil, they were remarkably quick in outlining the shape of their territory. Along with the basic outline of the area, landmarks, muddy sections and “honey holes” as they call hunting hotspots could also be marked with great certainty. The distances, of course, could sometimes be a little off. However, the maps that they produced were so accurate that even a complete stranger to the area could identify all of the marked islands, peninsulas bays and lakes. Again, this was not done on pencil and paper. Rock slab and a certain volcanic sand were used to make maps and then were hardened by melted tree sap. In the book, there is a side by side comparison of the outline a Netsilik hunter provided Rasmussen of their island. According to Knud, this was similar to a quick sketch (rumor has it) and it is compared side by side with a modern satellite outline of the area in the book. With a few minor distance and angle errors, the map provided by the Inuits was extremely accurate.

Image of King William Island, the settling place of the Netsilik

                Further toward the beginning of this book, the author provides somewhat of a disclaimer for his work. He states that the skills described in this book are barely half of what you need to master the skill of primitive navigation. Experience takes up the other chunk. I could tell you how to navigate your way through the backwater of plum island using right and left directions and landmarks, but if I were to put everything on a map and show you  where each landmark is going to be, forget it. And, that is based off the fact that I have seen it all by satellite imaging before. Another example would be basic driving directions. “merge onto x highway continue 120 miles and exit onto interstate 13…..” These kinds of directions are easy to follow. Once the driver gets to the destination, ask him or her to draw a map of the route he just took corresponding to what he saw and where he went. No way. True mastery of an area and navigation go hand in hand. Navigation of a specific area is the current topic in my book. This is done based off of general distance knowledge and landmarks. What happens during a blizzard when you can’t see 10 feet in front of you? That is what I’m seeking to learn next. 

The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake

The Voyage of Sir Francis Drake is a perfect example of a book that achieves its purpose. The intent of the book, as I caught wind of by an interview on the author, is to describe the courage and ambition needed to embark on a half world journey with no modern materials. The information behind the storyline was dug up strictly from old articles found in old harbor records dating hundreds of years ago. This still remains one of the only documentations of this voyage Sir Francis Drake made behind the eyes of the Spanish royalty. Usually, missions or expeditions like this were funded by the government. The expense for food and material were almost unattainable at this time, so the entire mission was almost done primitively. I learned about some background info on this through internet research. Another aid the government provided conquistador like individuals such as Sir Francis Drake was all the information gathered by any voyage pertaining to the geographical landmarks or weather habits observed by previous voyages. There were previous expeditions to this area that could have helped Sir Francis out, but he went at it with the attitude of a true explorer and did it all on his own.

The area in which he traveled to is what we would call British Columbia. The name was created by Englishmen many years after Francis’ expedition. Little is truly known about this expedition. Because of this, for the author to create it into a 350 page book, there needed to be some literal underlying message or meaning to the expedition described in the book. This was, as I stated before, the ambition to carry out a task through shear desire. The book provided me a lot of information on the crew Sir Francis brought with him on the trip. Instead of just a bunch of horsepower like most crews, this voyage was done with fewer more skilled individuals. Most of which have gotten close to this area and were astounded by the beauty of the landscape. For comparison, it would be like the top hitters in the MLB back in the 90s getting together to play a game of pickup baseball now.  It is considered to be Sir Francis’ voyage, but many other well-known explorers were present on the trip. 

Quote Blog

“There was a specific call to evacuate all trailer parks in southern New Jersey. Churchill’s double-wide was among the smaller of the park, and we were about to take on a force 4 hurricane in it.”

Reed Timmer, author of "Into the Storm"

Corresponding with this quote, storm chaser Reed Timmer, he also being the author, is on his first career storm chase in southern New Jersey. CNN happened to come across footage he captured of a vicious tornado touching down in Nebraska about three months prior to this and got back in contact with him to see if he would be down for the task again. Reed’s shared experience huddling under the underpass, where he recreationally filmed the tornado, discouraged most of his friends to join him on the next ride. He and his pal Ryan drove down to southern New Jersey under CNN’s request to get footage of a menacing purple blob (meteorologists refer purple blobs to large storms as they appear this way on a base reflectivity satellite images) for them to use during their news coverage of the event. News stations often send out thrill seeking young guys to do this since they do not have the funds to provide the chasers with much protection from the storm. This leading Reed and Ryan to end up staying in Churchill’s double wide trailer. Churchill was a nice man they met in a refuge location carrying with him wife and two kids. After hearing Reed’s story, Churchill presented Reed with the option of staying in his house. By this we can tell Reed had no real plans or intentions for safety, and was completely unprepared for this.

Luckily, the storm ended easing off back to a category 2 due to headwind coming off the shore. However, from Reed’s descriptions during his overnight in the double wide, it is easy to see that this storm was still nothing to joke about. The broken windows, soaked interior and minor structural damage are all pieces of evidence of this not being a pleasant event. Unfortunately the hurricane struck after hours and because of the lack of light Reed and Ryan couldn't capture any footage. Reed still describes this to be one of the funnest times in his career, Ryan would disagree.  

The element of fear is seen by everyone. It can be seen either as a thrill, or a fear. One is not typically willing to be scared or intimidated unless some sort of a thrill or positive experience is presented. Its people who bypass the fear aspect of situations to seek the experience who push the industries. This is broad, the idea can relate to many different circumstances. Connecting this to myself, this is how I have always felt about going about my life. Supporting those who carry out their ideas and myself carrying out my own.

The Lost Art of Finding Our Way

The above quote is the title of the first book I am going to read this quarter. I have not received the book yet as it has not been delivered yet, but a few conclusions can be drawn from the title and other descriptions of the book. From others feedback toward this book, I have found this to be an informational piece of writing rather than a rant on how the lost art of finding our way has contributed to a decay of morals in society or whatever one can draw from this. Although this book is informational, that underlying message of the title “The Lost Art of Finding Our Way” must play a role in this book somewhere. Apparently, examples from failed and successful voyages such as Lewis and Clark expeditions, St. Francis adventures and modern voyages are often used in this book. I am very curious to see how the lack of primitive navigation skills in the modern voyages have led to poor or even fatal outcomes. Not only this, but how the basic primitive navigation skills could have helped them get back to where they needed to be.

As a boater and surfer, being aware of my surroundings is very key. Always looking at every detail of the shoreline and remembering different landmarks everywhere I go have both been regular adaptations to my train of thought. Say you were to stick me on the isle of shoals. From different points on the beach that i have remembered over the years and lots of map studying I can get myself anywhere I need to be linearly from Rye NH to the tip of Cape Ann. These are the built in navigation skills that I do have. But say you were going to drop me south of the Cape. I know what islands are down there, roughly where they are, but by no means can I point out Hyannisport or Block Island from a point they are both visible. I know which spot is south of the other, but I don’t have the landmarks down as I, besides one trip, have never been down there. Simply, I need to touch up on my navigation skills before I go into any uncharted territory. Ways I can; moon patterns, celestial nav, the sun, currents and rock patterns. With a basic idea of where things are combined with these primitive navigation skills, I can expand my horizons and find my way to just about anywhere.

Quarter 4 Plan

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16241535-the-lost-art-of-finding-our-way  -  544

http://www.amazon.com/The-Secret-Voyage-Francis-Drake/dp/0142004596  -  368

The skill of navigation has been a key role in the development of humanity until just recently. The inventions of things like GPS systems, digital maps and satellite images make basic navigation skills almost unnecessary. These skills, in my opinion, should still be a part of society. In a survival situation these basic navigation skills can mean life or death. The decay of these skills coincide with the loss of the original lifestyle. For my fourth quarter topic, I decided to get at this somewhat of an issue. I'm reading two books adding up to around 850 pages, one getting at this issue and the other a journey by a man that navigation skills were necessary. The first book I am going to read, The Lost Art of Finding Our Way, gets directly at this issue. How humans have lost their skill of being able to get lost. This is to compare my thoughts toward this topic to another opinion. I am hoping to gain some knowledge from this because the author, to write this book, must of had to do research and more thought than I have. The next book I read is to reinforce my idea of how necessary navigation skills are in a survival situation.

The Lost Art of Finding Our Way - John Edward Huth - 544 pages

The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake - Samuel Bawf - 368 pages

I plan on finishing The Lost Art of Finding Our Way by the end of the fidth week of this quarter. The Secret Voyage will carry me until the end of the school year with a week to spare to work on my project.

Although the study of weather is obviously a science, there are still some underlying questions as to why we have to study the weather, what causes “weather” and why are some people so passionate about learning more about the weather. These being my essential questions for this quarter, this blog’s purpose is to share my opinions on the above questions after investigating the topic through various means of literature.

The weather that this world throws at us is different all around the world. It directly controls the climate of every place on the map. Hot, dry weather: you get a desert. Hot, wet weather: you get a rainforest. Varying weather: (like where we live in New England) you get a temperate forest, covered in species of both plants and animals that have adapted to the ecosystem around them, all shaped by the weather. It is not only in the natural world where the impacts of climate affect life, but also the lifestyle of humans pertaining to a specific region vary. Although we have created ways of avoiding weather actions like rain, cold, snow and heat, there are some things we as humans just cannot stop. Examples: hurricanes, tornadoes, avalanches, floods, violent snow storms, shore pounding waves and baseball size hail. Wouldn’t it be nice to know a hurricane is headed your way? Yes, it would be, and that is why it is necessary for us humans to study the weather.

The study of weather causes no harm to our planet. No metrological instruments are put into place that can cause any damage what so ever. Without the study of the weather, we would not be able to predict not only the upcoming storm, but the upcoming time period when all of the toxins we release into the air start to affect us as if it hasn’t already.

There are millions of factors that can affect the weather, humans being one. Besides our own impacts, basic rules of physics, convection, absorption and even elasticity play major roles in the development of weather. Convection is the main catalyst for the weather we forecast. Heat expands, cold contracts. The colder the air, the more dense it is, and the world is constantly trying to reach equilibrium by cold air (cold front or high pressure system) attempting to permeate into warmer less dense air; vice versa. If the world wasn’t rapidly spinning, heating up and cooling down the farther it drifts back and forth toward the sun, the world would reach equilibrium in a few hours, violently. See notes on the last ice age. Adding physics into the equation, the constant rotating of the earth plays a massive role in the development of massive storms. If timed and fueled correctly, the surface air movement caused by the rotation of earth and the direction of the jet stream pertaining to the location causes rotational winds up to 300 mph which we call either hurricanes or tornadoes. 

Passion

There are several applicable themes to Into the Storm written by Reed Timmer. Although there are many, the most evident and visible theme explained by Timmer is passion. The circumstances of the setting and his explanations about himself are what make this theme very clear. One aspect of the beginning of the book I have to keep in mind is that he is still in college. He is attending an enormous university known for intense partying and school spirit. Along with this, Reed belonged to a fraternity and lived in the house for a considerable amount of time. While living in these living conditions he went on many storm chases and took part in much internship all around the area for things like local news stations, weather observatories and global companies through the internet. Needless to say, he was a busy guy, however, there is more evidence about towards making this passion a true part of his lifestyle. Reed tells us that he would often skip out on activities with his friends in order to be able to go do things such as storm chase, study unnecessary topics still pertaining to meteorology, or even to first hand gather and document weather data for his own personal use. This portion of the book taught me a lot about Reed Timmer.

The theme of passion has came up in every book that I have read this year besides the ones involving local history. I easily connect to books involving passion because I have a passion for passion. I absolutely love when people follow their passion, I believe a huge part of true success is following a passion. I believe people have many passions. Some may find that they have true passion, but others like myself have passionate feelings toward a lot of ideas, activities or subjects. I feel like I have a lot of passions for just one guy. Some are stereotypical to almost all guys while others are a little obscure. This I feel is the case with everybody, though many I feel never find their obscure passions. Whether they just haven't explored enough to locate them or they have already been located and he/she doesn't want to go out on a limb to peruse or expose the passion we all have many things we are passionate about.

Footage Gone Viral

“CNN wants the footage, they also want an interview. Better hustle over there.”

The last few pages of my book have been describing a storm chase Reed and two of his buddies were in that sparked their whole storm chasing craze. Crammed inside an old jeep wrangler and losing control of the vehicle, the boys were right in the direct path of an F7 tornado. That being, the strongest force tornado possible. The surrounding winds made driving almost impossible described Reed, so the gang tucked themselves under an overpass along with another family seeking refuge under the I-beam constructed shelter. The scene viewed by those boys that day was described to be life changing. “it was just so violent” Reed Timmer states in an interview I watched on Youtube the other day. But, not only did they watch the storm play out, they captured it on camera. It was Timmers hands and camera that were used to capture the footage, giving him the only rights to the death defying images and video recordings taken of the tornado. When he returned to his dorm at OU, word spread around his hall about the footage and everyone was itching to see it. Eventually, word got out to people who know people who knew people who knew some producers at CNN. This was a major hookup for Reed, and this hookip eventually got him some money in return.

Writing Style and Qualification

I have just begun reading Into The Storm by Reed Timmer. I chose this book son somewhat of a whim so since I am only about to finish the first chapter I do not know what this book is quite about yet. What I do know: Reed Timmer is one of the most successful storm chasers on this planet. About 1 in 10 chases result in an interception with a storm on average, and Reed’s stats out-do that by a long shot. I also know that a WX man rarely has any literal training besides field reports, so this book is likely to be more of a factual read rather than a book with a story line. Reeds writing style is extremely informative. It is clear that his main goal with this writing is to help others get a better understanding of both storm chasing in general and his methods with storm chasing. Although his writing is informative, it really isn’t that, well, good. There are no “big” words, no sentences with inversion, no indirect meanings to things just kind of plain text, which I like. He begins his first chapter with his experiences as a freshman attending Oaklahoma University, and being in a lecture hall with a hundred other kids and seeming like he was the one paying the least attention. Its written like he is talking for the most part, which is how the first book I read this quarter was.

                I’m glad this book is written the way it is. Reading truly isn’t in the mix with my other hobbies so its nice to read a book that I can get something out of. On the other hand, storm chasing sounds pretty sweet, and I am excited to learn more about it. This is also a rookie approach to a book, it is this the first book Reed has ever written and on an interview I watched about the book with Reed himself he mentioned that he wasn’t really a reader himself. What was evident was that he had a love for the weather. Storm chasing in specific. In the first chapter I have heard all about how he fell in love with chasing, and when his passion is combined with his statistics, it is clearly evident that he is qualified to write a book on this subject.

The Perfect Storm, originally written by Sebastian Junger, has developed into a very well known novel and an icon to the Gloucester fishing community. Because of its widespread interest, a film company has taken it upon themselves to create a visual of what the crew of the Andrea Gail went through those few days before the destruction of the vessel. This turned into a massive motion picture and just like the book it became a large hit throughout the United States. I started reading the book initially forgetting that I have watched the movie. Within the first chapter I had realized I actually have seen the movie before. The connection was made when jflska’s wife asked him “did I do that” as she looked at his black eye. I am now about halfway through the book and have recently watched the movie again to compare and contrast the plot, themes and accurate story depiction. The plot of both the book and movie are the exact same but similar to all movies written about a book some parts are either skipped over, not given the same attention or given too much attention.

One example of this is the communication between the Andrea Gail and ground control about the upcoming storm. The book goes through no dialog about the communications but in the movie much of it is present. My best guess as to why this is the case is because in the book, the readers are given what is almost data about the storm. This is truly needed in order to understand what the crew is going through. Facts and descriptions like how waves are formed initially by a storm and how the storm faced by the Andrea Gail relate to other storms are all explained in the book but not in the movie at all. There are just a few scenes of the control room in a state of bedlam as they try to figure out what in the world this freak of a storm is doing. There is also a noticeable difference in the themes presented in both the book and the movie. In the movie, a theme of love especially between jfkdls and jhfsdlkajk is clearly represented. In the book, love is really not presented between human and human but is very evident between human and sea. In the beginning of the movie, when the Andrea Gail and crew set out on their voyage to the north Atlantic seas in search of great fishing out on the Georges Bank, fjkdsl and jfkldsa go through this full love scene. He “needs to go fishing” but she doesn’t want him to leave and she “has a bad feeling” and “its gonna be the last one” he promises and so and so. His love for the sea takes over and he leaves and throughout the entire movie their love is represented with constant flash backs and refrains back to Gloucester of her missing him and such. At the end of the movie, the rest of the crew sinks down with the ship and he floats up to the surface and he says in his mind something to her as he gets pounded by waves and she is listening to him speak and it somewhat kills the accuracy and validity of the movie but not to an extent of making it a bad depiction. Overall, I feel like both the movie and book do a great job accurately representing what the crew of the Andrea Gail went through during that violent tempest that cost them their lives. I recommend to anybody who has read the book to watch the movie and vice versa. 

“He popped up into a world of shrieking darkness and landsliding seas. At one point the crest of a wave drove him so far under the surface that the pressure changed damaged his inner ear.” Pg. 246

There are many life threatening events written about in The Perfect Storm which all relate with the same perfect storm. The combination of stories told by any of the first hand viewers of this storm and the little information about the Andrea Gail voyage shape the story line into what it is. The combination factor mainly allows the writer to describe to the reader how intense the storm was for the Gloucester crew members.

In an attempt to save the Andrea Gail, a Navy Seal team helicopter ran out of gas and the team had to “abandon ship” as the helicopter plunged into the bone chilling North Atlantic water. The above quote describes an example of how rough the seas were that night. Each SEAL in the helicopter made it out of the sinking aircraft and regrouped in the white washed ocean. During the process of regrouping one of member of the team encountered a wave so powerful that it knocked him below the surface to the point where the water pressure causes damage in the ear drum. With a little additional research I found out that around 14 feet a human ear is vulnerable to damage if not acclimated properly. It takes a massive wave to drive a human body 14 feet below the surface, especially in an open ocean where the force of the crest of the wave is significantly lower than that of a wave breaking on the shore. As a surfer, I know how powerful a 10ft wave can be and how it can slam me to the bottom with depths up to 6 feet or so. I can only imagine how big that wave must have been and how rough the oceans were to create such a monster.

It is almost unfathomable to envision what seas as big as the ones faced by the Andrea Gail actually look like. Not only the wave height but the wind speed, foam spray, and pitch black atmosphere must all contribute to making this death defying image of mother earth. Not really being able to see, losing feeling of your extremities, getting pounded under the surface of the freezing water, taking waves up to 90 feet to the head and the thought of your crew members who just passed away cannot make for a pleasant time.

Every author has their own unique style of writing. The storm written by Norman Olstad, displays a great example of style within an author.specifically, the style in which I am talking about is somewhat informal. Often times while reading this book I will notice unnecessary swearwords, lack of quotations and other informalities that don't make the author look uneducated or whatever but give The text a little personality. Norman all start is by no means a popular or serious author; he's got a day job and is from what I have researched a physically active guy. There is no in-depth literary content to this book such as symbolism or allusions like you would find in a book like the Great Gatsby. That literary content is almost sacrificed for accurate story telling as this is a completely non-fiction book written by the main character on a personal experience. Although there's not much to figure out about this book between the lines, the author has a very defined style of writing. He uses a lot of jargon which to some may get in the way of understanding some of the situations. Luckily The author and I share similar interests and all of that jargon is second nature to me. It not only gives me a sense of satisfaction while I'm reading it, but it really helps me to get on his level when he is describing a lot of the situations in the book. 

I personally enjoy reading this book. Going into it I had no idea that the author shed the exact same interests as I do and it was clearly evident that he did it right from the beginning of the book before he directly shared his interests. All of the life lessons indirectly suggested are ones that I have learned by going through the same kinds of things. Although I have some first-hand experience on what the book is about, Norman has a lot more than I do and on a more extreme level as his father would push him as a young boy to be a daredevil. 

Quote blog

“My father always trained me to stay calm in the storm.” Pg. 286

Norm releases this statement during a very tense part of the book. Currently, Norm is at the base of a mountain he just descended from and is starting to lose his energy as he tries to find something to keep him alive. The snow he traveling on is covering a dense bush creates sink hole like structures in the snow when stepped on because of all the empty space below the snow. The winds are howling at hurricane force and the 4,000ft elevation temperature is surely below 20 regardless of the wind chill. After descending from the plane crash he was just involved with, it is easy to see that 10 year old Norm could be pretty stressed out right now. Norm’s father raised him to become mature quick. He was always dragging him out of bed early to take him on ski or surf excursions and constantly pushed him out of his comfort zone whenever they were out together. This ties in with the quote because it’s all those uncomfortable situations that Norm was thrown into by his father that help him survive this terrible accident.            

I believe this training is very crucial for not only people that participate in activities with high risks but for everybody in general. The man who can out of a dire situation the quickest and most efficiently is the stronger man. The man who can survive the longest without any resources is the stronger man. To do this, one has to be trained to stay calm. Stress and panic block out sections in one’s brain that need to be easily accessible during times of high risk. Life defying decisions need to be made in a situation like Norm was put into, with no room for error. If he hadn't of kept his mind clear during all of this he would have not remembered all of the backcountry tips his father has taught him over the years and many other things. Norm eventually makes his way out of this mess which some may consider a miracle. Personally, this seems to me like a perfect example of hard work pays off. These situations mix in with humanity not as often as they used to. I believe that the loss of survival instincts contributes to the loss of the original mankind. Everybody should train to stay calm in the storm.

Ananytical 2 27

I have recently began reading The Perfect Storm written by Sebastian Junger. Though I have not read much of this book so far, I have noticed that the author has a very good way of conveying to the reader what each of the characters are like through his writing. The book starts off describing how, when and where each member of the Andrea Gail fishing vessel gets up in the morning before their hectic and ultimately fatal voyage. The way in which he does this sets the stage for each character amazingly and shows true talent in his literature. Not only does it describe each character individually, but it explains what their whole crew is like as a whole. And, not only that, but what the fishing scene from downtown Gloucester is all about. Each member of the crew goes about their morning a different way according to their situation in life, attitude, and nightly drinking habits only to find themselves in the bars once again before noon, before their voyage. This explains the Gloucester fishing scene very well as it relates to what I have been told.

The crew meets up at the “Crows Nest” bar around 10:30 in the morning. The Crows Nest is known to be one of the rowdiest bars around. To most, just a glance through the door opening the gates into this place is enough to discourage you from entering on any given night, but to these men it can be considered a home. The first deckhand introduced is Bobby Shatford. He wakes up in the morning to a house with empty beer cans and laundry thrown about. He and his attractive wife get into an argument about something ridiculous and he stumbles out with his bloodshot eyes and head pounding from last night's induced hangover. The next crew member, coming from a little bit more civil home with kids and a wife wakes up and makes his way over to the Crows Nest. His wife ends up coming by and a scared look falls upon his face because he doesn’t want her to see him drinking this early. Instead of a violent lecture, she comes in peace just to make sure that he got himself up to get onto the boat for the trip. She still wasn’t thrilled about him drinking though of course. All in all, it seems like just an average day for the three members of the crew as they go about their morning routines. This can be considered as the calm before the storm.

Analytical

The set up of the storm, written by Norman Olstad, is unlike many of the other books that I've read. Instead of a continuous story this book is divided up into the main plot, and some background on Norman's life.these two stories are divided up by chapters. Alternating one by one until the end of the book. I am without a doubt a huge fan of this book, but the interruption of the background story would sometimes aggravate me as a reader because the plot part of the story is very very tense as he is scaling down a mountain during a blizzard by himself. One page would be describing the dissent while and then the next page would be Norman and his mother get him into some basic argument like any mother and child would get into. Eventually the two stories come together but there is no relation between the two besides the fact that The setting part of the story just leads up to the flight that crashed that stranded Norman, his father and soon to be step mom, and a pilot in Californian Rockies. 

It was tough for me to find the purpose behind this format of a book. In other words, I could not figure out what the author was intending. To find this out, I took a step back and thought about the morals and lessons that are described in this book. Strategies like staying calm, trusting your instincts, and using the skills you have down the best to accomplish something are often displayed in the book in both parts of the story. Now, my best guess as to why the author did this was to give the reader a better understanding of how Norman's lifestyle when he was younger shaped him into a person that is capable of handling these sticky situations.

Quote Blog

"The sideways blowing snow swept me off of my feet and I plunged down the chute."

In every book that I have read this year pertaining to action sports, the weather has determined many fates for either events, activities and in some cases peoples lives. In the quote above, Norm finds himself in a very sticky situation as he is using a horizontal stick to keep him from riding down this tall frozen waterfall during his descent back to civilization after taking part in a deadly plane crash. He watched his father pass away in front of him, his step mom the same, and the pilot be ejected from the cockpit during impact and not surviving the blow. Its just 10 year old Norm out there all by himself. 4,000 feet up from any other sign of life. If that isnt bad enough, there is an epic blizzard that has erupted in the mountains completely unexpectingly. Without notice, this ominous storm made its way into the Rocky Mountains after gaining wind over the plains to the west. The plane was driven off course by the winds and instead of flying through this section of plains leading from one side of the rockies to the other, it veered off into the mountains that formed a barrier to this plain. The mountains, being so tall, were too much for the plane to overcome.

It is situations like these that reinforce my thoughts about studying weather. Because this storm was completely unexpected and it turned out to be so deadly, there should have been some way of finding out about its path. I beleive that the technology that this world is able to come out with is completely capapble of doing a better job. Yes, this was back in the early 90's and things have come along a little more but us humans can do a better job of this. We're capable. I think the fault in the observatory system is simply not enough observatories. I think if some organization came togeather and engineered some sort of mini module that gathered data such as wind speed, wind direction, pressure etc... and scattered them around the country our knowledge on whats going on above us would be substantially more valid.

Midterm

It is new news to most that the local area in which we live in was once in contribution to America's mining industry. There are several sites around Essex County where anyone willing to go for an off trail hike through the woods can get to and witness this part of our local history. From personal experience, these areas are tricky to find as the local mining trend occurred around the later end of the 1800s. Because of this, the areas that were mined are now very overgrown.

I visited a few mining sites around the area to get a look at these places myself as an action piece for this project. The first site i visited was the Chipman Silver mine in Newbury, Ma. The old mine ruins are located about a half mile into the woods behind the Scotland Hights subdivision. I could tell i was getting closer to the main site when i began to see random pipes sticking out of the ground in places and rock shavings strewn about. I kept going in the right direction and ended up in a 20by20 yard pit of shail shavings and in the middle a hole with water filled in until about 5 feet below the main elevation. I found out that this hole was extremely deep when i took a very long stick that i found and threw in it there vertically. The stick was roughly 10 feet long, and it went all the way under, stayed down for a little and bobbed back up to the surface. Around the rock pit there were a few weathered structures made out of rocks and concrete that I couldn't really fit a purpose into. In some spots I could identify possible foundations that have since been filled with decaying leaves and sticks. The area surrounding the site used to be completely cleared for miles according to the old pictures. It is now in a reasonably dense forest and the youthful trees tell its past of being once a field.

The next mining site i visited was Devils Den in Newbury, Ma. Devils den is now a cave under a rock, it really is not that interesting but still a cool site to visit. It used to be in the middle of a field located in the southern end of the town, but is now immersed in an overgrown area of shrubbery. Devils den was excavated also in the later 1800s and was for purpose of lime stone. There is still some remains of the once precious mineral around but it is tough to find due to an abundance of graffiti. One interesting piece to this place are all of the haunted rumors that were set in place about the area.

Another thing i read about in the book was the plotting of the outlines or boundaries of all of the towns. Each town has several granite posts marking the corners of the towns. To get a first hand look at these myself, I visited one of the corners in West Newbury that i found from a map on Google earth. Surprisingly when I got there, I noticed that the entire area around it was flooded badly. With further searching I found that this was a result of a beaver dam. Not only did this flood the area around the stone, but it also flooded an old road that I found going through what is now a thriving swamp.

The next site i visited was an old dam that once captivated the water coming from Mill Pond flowing into the Indian River. I read in my book that this flooded area was a fish breeding ground for freshwater perch. There were 4 of these fisheries in West Newbury and none currebntly exist. I could not find any pictures of these, but evidence from the dams past was present when i visited the site.

Toward the end of my first book, I read about a thriving hotel on the southern tip of Plum Island. Called the Ipswitch Bluffs Resort, this massive structure stood atop a bluff (shown in the below pictures) facing the bluffs of Ipswitch over the harbor. The building had some sort of relation to Castle Hill and had many famous visitors come for a stay at this luxury resort. The building was destroyed by high winds and caught fire when collapsed, starting a wildfire destroying a solid chunk of the southern part of the island. This was one of the many wildfires on Plum Island. There are no remains of the site.

My last first hand look at the local history was another mining operation. This one however was in Groveland. Although Groveland was no topic to the books that I read, it was still recognized as a large factor in the mining industry to the local area. This was because of a massive quarry. I could not identify what stone was searched for here, but it is evident they were looking for something. About a mile off a main road, this site has a series of 2 rock walls standing about 30 feet high each. This place was mined in the very early 1900s.

fadfds

Chipman Mine in Newbury
It is new news to most that the local area in which we live in was once in contribution to America's mining industry. There are several sites around essex county where anyone willing to go for an off trail hike through the woods can get to and witness this part of our local history. From personal experience, these areas are tricky to find as the local mining trend occured around the later end of the 1800s. Because of this, the areas that were mined are now very overgrown.
I visited a few mining sites around the area to get a look at these places myself as an action piece for this project. The first site i visited was the Chipman Silver mine in Newbury, Ma. The old mine ruins are located about a half mile into the woods behind the Scotland Hights subdivision. I could tell i was getting closer to the main site when i began to see random pipes sticking out of the ground in places and rock shavings strewn about. I kept going in the right direction and ended up in a 20by20 yard pit of shail shavings and in the middle a hole with water filled in untill about 5 feet below the main elevation. I found out that this hole was extremely deep when i took a veryh long stick that i found and threw in it there vertically. The stick was roughly 10 feet long, and it went all the way under, stayed down for a little and bobbed back up to the surface. Around the rock pit there were a few weathered structures made out of rocks and concrete that i couldnt really fit a purpose into. In some spots i could identify possible foundations that have since been filled with decaying leaves and sticks. The area surrounding the site used to be completely cleared for miles according to the old pictures. It is now in a reasonably dense forest and the youthful trees tell its past of being once a field.

Old Records

“ At an adjourned meeting held august 10, 1774, the following report was read, accepted and a copy ordered to be sent to the delegates in congress from the province of Massachusetts ----- To the inhabitants of the Town of Newbury Port in Town meeting assembled nu adjournment from the 3^rd day of this present month, august:

This quote from the book, first an introduction by the author, followed by the introduction to the report in which it introduces, can be found on page 533 in The History of Newburyport. The document was basically a message to the congress of Massachusetts that they were going to cut off all trade for an amount of time not specified. Confusing to me was the reason for this. The unknown author claims that it was to “obtain more speedy and effectual relief”. Their motive behind this plan I guess was the speed and organization of the trading process of Newburyport when compared to similar sized towns. Later in the report, Newburyport’s importance in general trade is explained with the author describing their importance with the trading between Great Britain, French West Indian Islands, along with the distilleries and shipbuilders of the local area. Somehow, I couldn’t grasp why, the document ties in with the town’s involvement in the revolutionary war. Several times I tried to read around it to see how it fit in but I just couldn’t grasp it because everything around it is like documents similar to this one with a brief introduction in the beginning by the author of the book.

There are countless examples of old excerpts similar to this throughout this book. Many of which contain very interesting information about how the town was either developed or stabilized. Reading these documents is extremely difficult as it seems that every author of them has no literary skills higher than that of a present day fourth grader. From run on sentences to subject/predicate agreement (or non-agreement) these old documents are hard to obtain any information from. However, with careful reading and willingness to learn these documents can be very useful in depicting an accurate view on what things were like back then. The constant use of them in this novel is one of the things that keep me reading.

Modern Pricetags

“The work was completed in December 1903, at a cost of three hundred and twenty five thousand dollars.”  Pg 375-376 The History of Newburyport

This quote taken from my most recent read The History of Newburyport refers to the old-fashioned cost towards the surrounding towns of the bridge connecting Newburyport and Salisbury. This cash total goes to show how the cost behind general necessities was greatly lower around a hundred years ago than it is today. For example the new bridge connecting Groveland to Haverhill, a little shorter than the one that passes over Newburyport harbor, cost 49.7 million dollars to construct. The cost to build the bridge was divided up between companies, states, counties and towns; with the country paying the largest chunk out of all at 250k. The old bridge was completely removed, pillars and all. This was all part of a plan thought out by the Haverhill & Amesbury Street Railroad Company. Constructed with a drawbridge, iron truss system and fixed pillars this bridge was thought to be one of the more technologically advanced bridges of its time. Although this same bridge does not stand today, the original pillars and channels are still in action with only a few minor repairs from over the years.

Going back to the original quotes purpose, I find it so hard to understand how a project of similar nature could cost close to 150 times more now than it did back then. Is it because of more skilled labor being put into this workplace? Is it because of the cost of higher quality materials that may not be in the same abundance of what they used to be? Going off my knowledge I can’t formulate an honest response to that question as I have not studied the economics behind construction. But what I do know is that the engineering and materials used in order to complete this task are of much higher quality than what they were back then. When a new bridge is built in this present day, it is said that because of the advancements in technology the new bridges last far far longer than the old ones, which really doesn’t surprise me. They say things aren’t built to last anymore? Looks like that doesn’t apply to bridge building! Bridges back then used to be in trouble if the ice got too thick, now, troubles like that are no longer troubles. With fixed pillars (pillars that are dug into the riverbed) the ice, current and wind don’t stand a chance! It’s not the cost of the fixed pillar itself that boosts the modern bridge build price tag up, but it’s what you need to build it. The surrounding area on the riverbed has to be bare in order to dig accurately. The cost of pumping all of that water out and the equipment to keep water from coming in in the first place is what makes this a multimillion dollar endeavor.