Hurricane dreams

Perhaps influenced by my day off investigations into this years brew of Atlantic hurricanes with emphasis on Ivan, Frances and Charley, I had some pretty wild dreams last night. If Ivan follows the same general (very common) trajectory that Charley had, the west coast of Florida is going to get swiped again and this time the panhandle (or Alabama) is going to get the worst of it.

Before moving on, I need to make note of one thing that's become abundantly clear to me this summer. The tools produced by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have made orders of magnitude improvements in their efficiency and the monitoring data available to anyone with an interest. The predictive models, based on real world experience are really very good. The work of the scientists, engineers and admins (and even the bureaucratic administration around them) in building the system available today should not be overlooked. Good stuff. And yet, they've been attacked by some for being less than 100 percent accurate. Shame on that kind of response. For those folks who don't think the current hurricane tracking systems are very good might I suggest coming and living in earthquake country for a while?

Anyway, about those dreams...

In one tiny fragment, I was back on the upper bridge of a CGN class cruiser, watching the huge walls of water wash over the lifting and plunging foredeck when a huge wave appeared, the ship dipped into and then hit it, there was water coming over the front of the bridge and I woke with a start. That brought back some memories. It wasn't expressly forbidden to be outside in wild weather, but it was certainly implied. Since most of the crew was seasick to some extent when we were in big storms, no one felt a need to remind us not to be there. I had a friend who also liked to go up on the upper bridge area with me (no one was around) during these times, but I went alone a few times too (ah! to be young and massively dumb again). The weird thing about the dream was the lack of sound (I don't remember any). The real thing was accompanied by a cacophony; the incredible wind, hard rain often running nearly horizontal, the steel ship slamming into water, waves breaking against every vertical surface and the eternal groaning and shuddering of the ship itself as it fought through the seas. While escorting the Nimitz in a big storm, our sister ship USS Mississippi (CGN-40) lost the 500 pound bell that had been hung over the bullnose; in it's departure it damaged the forward launcher or 5" gun mount, although I no longer recall which.

The other dream was also pretty weird. I was suddenly back on my old skinny plastic yellow skateboard (not the fatter, longer boards my kids rode) churning back and forth to keep going in a downpour on some street I didn't recognize. The water in the street kept getting deeper and... suddenly I was in a huge wave riding what had become a banana board, the wave caught up, I was flying... and I woke up. I haven't thought about that skateboard in years, but it was nice of my subconscious to remind me of it.