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MWL MASTHEAD

Articles, photographs, and letters should be sent to:

Mr. Robert A. Luke, Editorial Supervisor
Mariners Weather Log
NDBC (W/OPS 51)
Building 3203, Room 305B
Stennis Space Center, MS 39529-6000

Phone: (228) 688-1457
Fax: (228) 688-3923
E-mail: robert.luke@noaa.gov

Hello and welcome to another issue of the Mariners Weather Log (MWL). My basic guidelines for this introduction is to wish y'all well, pass on some interesting events that have happened since the last issue, and get you excited about what you are about to read in this issue. Well, all I can think about is a line from a Grateful Dead song, "Well, what a long strange trip it's been." The Mariners Weather Log calls south Mississippi home and we definitely got shaken, stirred, and tossed to the wayside with Hurricane Katrina. Between waiting for the insurance adjuster (mine finally showed up just before Halloween), clearing 150 foot tall (ok, long now) oaks off the shed, pool and house, standing in lines for gas, ice, MREs (don't try the pork riblet - ugh), I am actually one of the lucky ones. There are many folks here who do not have homes to go home to, or at least not where they left them anyway. Well, as Thomas Paine once said, "These are the times that try men's souls" so as long as we use a little common sense and keep on the right bearing, all will be just fine.

Ok, enough of my mindless wanderings. This is a very exciting issue that brings chills to my spine. - Oh wait! That is because we have a couple of articles about ice accretion on ships and about Great Lakes icing in an Electronic Atlas. Skip Gilham has yet another interesting historical article, this time about the Prins Willem V., and our latest offering in the section "From the Desk of a PMO" comes all the way from Kodiak, Alaska. The National Hurricane Centers' (NHC) Tropical Review submission will be absent in this issue. Due to the extreme busy season we have experienced, NHC has asked to defer their submission until the April issue. There is also a great story on how MARAD is helping out New Orleans by using some of the Maritime Academy training ships as berthing units for the recovery operations.

I just want to take a personal moment to thank everyone who has helped the entire Gulf South after Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Thanks for the many kind thoughts, prayers, and donations that have poured down to the coast from all over the world. Thank you from all of us and I hope you find this an enjoyable issue to read.

Thanks Once Again - Luke

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

See these web pages for further links

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