Doldrums

[Duke Drennan]

I don't know if this topic has ever been raised before but it's one that has always stuck in my mind thinking about particular voyages.
En route from Panama to Brisbane, I stepped out on deck one morning and the sea was a virtual mirror, not even the slightest ripple. The only sound too that broke the silence was the purr from the funnel, if that's how you'd describe it. As the sun rose, the intense glare from the sea made it impossible to see the horizon, in fact you couldn't see anything other than the glare all around you. I can't remember how long this lasted but it was a first for me and if memory serves me right, it was the only time I ever experienced this. Most of the time, it was the complete opposite.
Anyone else experience this, is this what was known as the doldrums?

[alf corbyn]

hi duke . i saw it like that quite often and i will always remember those lovely flying fish skittering across the sea breaking the mirror with thier wingtips, also a lone fin sticking up and when you got close it was a turtle, miles from anywhere.
ps hope you got your sticker sorry about the mixup vis post. i am now sending them to canada and the us and oz and nz and paying the postage. less trouble that way.. alf

[Duke Drennan]

Yeah Alf, I remember the flying fish too. There were some strange sights eh! Remember the big patches of the luminous stuff, phospherous or whatever it was, you'd see it when on the bridge on lookout. It looked like there was land in the distance and it was this light coming from the water. Does anyone know what that was called?
Dave Williams has sent me a sticker, thank you for getting it to him.
Cheers.

[Jim Brady]

Hi Duke.I remember going through a great patch of this phosphorus just after leaving the Panama.If I remember rightly you could go into the toilets put the lights out and flush the toilet and the toilet pan became illuminous.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Doc Vernon]

Hi Duke
Yes this was brought up quite a while ago by me!
I cannot quite remember when it was and possibly could have been in the old Site,but had many good replies on my post anyway!
However as it is on again,i too must say that yes its quite an awesome and eerie site this phenomenun,and there were many times that i saw this !
Most times when we hit these Doldrums,the Captain of whatever Ship would either slow to a crawl,or sometimes even stop the Ship for a short while!
I do recall this on the Sterling Castle,when we stopped dead and this gave everyone on Board the great oppurtunity to experience this great site!
Cheers

[Duke Drennan]

REF POST #4

Now there's an image Jim that I wouldn't want to focus too much on, seeing your a--e lit up from the toilet pan !! It would certainly be a bowel mover to say the least.

[happy daze john in oz]

Just do not light a match at the same time. Very often on the way to the cape we would run into very calm water like that, fling fish and all. It was a bit eerie looking at it as very often the only sound was from the bow wave.

[alf corbyn]

now we are on to sights at sea. cannot remember what ship. possibly a castle intermediate. somewhere between africa and india. we went between two waterspouts towering up into the sky they were about half a mile apart and we went through a light mist with the sun shining it was a very eerie sight. alf

[Roger Dyer]

Hi Duke.......Back in 1958, in the same part of the world, I too experienced the same conditions described by you and Alf (coincidently we were eastbound from Brisbane to Panama at the time). Like most of us, during my time at sea, I experienced many different weather conditions, but never again did I see the ocean in such a placid and blissful state. I recall at the time, a feeling of utter tranquility and a sense of detachment from the rest of the world. Pacific Ocean indeed!............Roger.

[Duke Drennan]

Roger, you described it perfectly ..."tranquility and a sense of detachment", almost surreal.
On this note of sightings at sea, one other experience I had was the first time that I saw an albatross. I was told that you only see them south of the equator. Again, I stepped out onto the poop and saw this "thing" gliding about 20' or so above me, I nearly sh-t myself until an older hand told me what it was. For some reason, probably ignorance, I thought that an albatross was an old mariner term for a seagull, usually used in poetry, just shows you, eh! This monster was at least 8' - 10' wing span, or so I thought, and followed us for days on end. At times it glided so close to the sea that it disappeared behind the swell but sure enough came back into sight above the waves, all without even flapping it's wings. Amazing sight.