Captain's Log

July 14, 2006

Today the ship awoke early and found itself well into the “inter-tropical convergence zone.”  This is the area of strong convection around the equator that typically has morning and afternoon thunderstorms.  During the northern summer, the zone moves north and expands to an area from 0 degrees of latitude to 10 degrees of latitude north.  In addition, we had a moderate low pressure system moving through the area which caused extremely heavy rain and about 50 knots of wind from about 0400 until afternoon.  Currently the wind and the rain have abated, but we would expect more moderate thunderstorms again just before the sun sets.

This should be over in the next day or two and then we will have a few days of the doldrums until we reach the Peru current, a cold current similar to the California current.  That could mean fog. 

The cooling temperatures and the fresh water wash down of the ship was appreciated by most of the crew.