Mariners Weather Log

ISSN 0025-3367

U.S. Department of Commerce

William J. Brennan Ph. D.
Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere

National Weather Service
Dr. John "Jack" L. Hayes
NOAA Assistant Administrator for Weather Services


Editorial Supervisor
John L. Wasserman

Layout and Design
U.S Government Printing Office
Marco Marchegiani

 

From the Editor

John Wasserman

Greetings shipmates and friends. Welcome to the latest and hopefully greatest installment of the Mariners Weather Log. I trust everybody had a great holiday season and is glad to be back to work this new year.

First of all, please join me in a heart felt Welcome Aboard to our newest member of the US VOS team, David Dellinger. David is the new Port Meteorological Officer for Miami. His story is included in this issue on page 11.

No sooner do I mention that I am having difficulty getting into nautical mode…before those words were even dry on the MWL page, I get the call to go to sea! That’s right, for the past six weeks I have been at sea on board the TS Kennedy with Massachusetts Maritime, Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. It was the sea term for the school and they invited me to come on board and spread the word about the US VOS program and teach weather observing and techniques. I must say that it was a terrific experience and the people I met on board…..both students and staff, were some of the finest professionals I have had the chance to work with. I really appreciate the opportunity, and I hope they will invite me again.

In this issue, we continue with what has come to be known as the “shipwreck series”; Skip Gilham with his story of the Logos. George Bancroft’s brings us up to date with his latest marine reviews of both the Atlantic and Pacific. Robert Luke, your former MWL editor provides us with an article on Call sign masking of ships. The feature that I am the most excited to share in this issues comes from Captain John Konrad. It is an article about skysails, a subject that has been getting a lot of attention these past few months. I’m very grateful to Captain Konrad and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. Last but certainly not least we have an extremely informative article on Right Whale regulations that was submitted from the NOAA fisheries office of protected resources. Thank you to Gregory Silber and Shannon Bettridge for their submission.

Well that’s about enough of my ramblings and musings. Please enjoy this issue of the Mariners Weather Log.

Please enjoy and drop me a note anytime.

John

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On the cover:
M/V Beluga SkySails enroute from Bremerhaven, Germany to Guanta, Venezuela.

Some Important Web Page Addresses

NOAA	http://www.noaa.gov
National Weather Service	http://www.weather.gov
National Data Buoy Center	http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov
AMVER Program	http://www.amver.com
VOS Program	http://www.vos.noaa.gov
SEAS Program	http://seas.amverseas.noaa.gov/seas/seasmain.html
Mariners Weather Log	http://www.vos.noaa.gov/mwl.shtml
Marine Dissemination	http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/home.htm
U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center	http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/marcomms