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.