Florida Sea Base News

No, not watercolours like staff member Trevor O’Keefe might use to paint a Florida Sea Base sunset.  I mean water colors, as in the colors of the ocean.  Blue water usually represents clarity, great visibility, but possibly a bit cooler water.  Green water is usually a little warmer, but offers less visibility.  Milky green means zero visibility.  (And don’t forget, “brown, brown, run aground”.)

I had to go to town yesterday.  As I passed over the bridges I was not surprised to see a milky green ocean.  The high winds for the past several days is the culprit.  The wind obviously generates waves.  The waves stir the white sand on the bottom.  The white sand mixes with the green water and voilà, milky green water with zero visibility.  You might think that this would only apply in very shallow water.  But you would be underestimating the strength of the water and the wave action.

Consider this.  The wreck of the USS Spiegel Grove sits in 134′ of sea water.  The Spiegel Grove is 510′ long, and has a beam of 84′.  She displaces 8,899 long tons when empty and carried a crew of 330.  Hurricane Dennis, not a particularly strong system when passing through the Keys, picked the Spiegel Grove off the bottom and flipped her from being on her side to an upright position.

So, the wind keeps howling and the water is milky green.  But today is a new day.  The wind is laying down a bit and may drop to 10 knots today.  Just a couple of days with wind speeds below 15 knots will greatly improve the water conditions.  Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

Captain Dennis and Dr. Ellen Wyatt arrived last night.  If was a great joy to visit with them for bout an hour.  Captain Alex Bergstedt and Richard Goldman also arrived, but too late for me to be able to carry on an intelligent conversation.

I’m running late this morning.  Have a great day.

Capt. Steve Willis
Professional Scuba Bum™
Aboard S/V Escape