Cruise - 2008 Dispatches
Calendar

Dispatch 6, July 22, 2008
By Gerty Ward

Beautiful and Unusual Things

Good morning from 70.52N 139.58W. We traveled through scattered ice this morning.

We traveled through patches of scattered ice this morning.		For most of the morning, we had a beautiful fogbow in front of the ship. The fogbow over the fore deck gives the ship a mystical look.

A fogbow is like a rainbow in that it is caused by sunlight shining onto water droplets. Because the water droplets that cause fog are very small, they can't refract the light into a spectrum of colors. Thus, the fogbow has little or no color.

Fogbow from monkey's island. I took this picture from "monkey's island" which is on top of the Bridge. The Bridge is where the Captain and navigators drive the ship.		It is unusual to meet another ship in the Arctic. The Amundsen has been at sea for more than 8 months. The Louis was its "ship of opportunity" meaning that we are the first ship to cross its path. We carried fresh food supplies and spent an afternoon transferring them over by helicopter.

Today is the first sunny morning since we left Cambridge Bay.

Question: Do you know an easy way to remember the colors of the rainbow (in order)?

All photos by PolarTREC teacher Gerty Ward unless indicated.

  Previous Dispatch     Next Dispatch