Look Out, Look Up, Look Down

At Sea
32 39.93 N 079 37.50 W

It is 0130; the middle of the night. The wind and waves are light. The sky is clear and moonless. It is surprisingly warm for a clear night; 69F (21C) In those circumstances, I like to move up near the bow to stand my watch rather than sitting in the cockpit. That gets me away from the lights of all those instruments. My eyes adjust and I can appreciate the night scene better. Tonight there is lots to see.

Looking out horizontally, I am amazed that I can make out the fine details of waves up to 100 feet away by just starlight. I guess there is a vast difference between a dark moonless clear night and a dark moonless cloudy night. Modern man who is seldom far from artificial light sources doesn't get mush opportunity to study outdoor scenes by starlight very often. I for one, tend to underestimate how much starlight there is.

Also, looking out horizontally I can see the lights of Myrtle Beach reflecting on the sky to the north, and the lights of Charleston to the southwest. Before it got dark I could also see the band of clouds that mark the Gulf Stream about 20 miles eastward. Since we're heading south, we don't want to be anywhere near the Gulf Stream.

Looking up, the stars and the milky way are beautiful. But that's not all. There is a very active meteor shower in progress tonight. I see about one meteor per minute and one veryl big one every 10 minutes or so. One in particular was outstanding. I didn't see it streak across the sky but I did see an intense burst of light. It was comparable to the light of one of those big bank rockets at a fireworks display. I looked in that direction and I could see a glowing smoke trail. The trail stayed visible for a minute. Wow; that was very cool.

Looking down, I see the phosphorescence in the bow wave that Tarwathie throws off the hull. It glows blue-green and it is flecked with fleeting sparkles of brither white light. Actually, this phosphorescence is moderate. I saw much brighter phosphorescence off the coast of New Jersey. Someone told me that the phosphorescence is due to chemicals manufactured by bacteria in the water. If that's true it should be called bio luminescence rather than phosphorescence.

Is is possible that the bio luminescent glow of Tarwathie's wake could be detected by a satellite? I think not. However, the sensitivity of those instruments grows rapidly. I would not be surprised to hear of wake tracking by satellite within a decade or two. How about deep space probes? The day may come when they might be able to detect bio luminescence in the night sky of planets in distant solar systems. I think a spectrographic analysis of that light would show conclusive proof of the existence of the organic molecules that glow. That would be extremely strong evidence of life on another planet. I think detection of bio luminescence is an excellent candidate for the first detection of life on a distant planet. Not in our lifetimes but soon.

As I write this, I'm entertained by a pod of dolphins that are following us. It is exciting to see them jump so high out of the water and to crash back down with an enormous splash. That's the third pod we picked up so far. I'll take that as a good omen.