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Arrival at Key West.
August 17-18, 1999
@Sea correspondent/
photographer,
Mark Carroll
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| August 17, 7:55pm, Key West, Florida -- Except for the drone of the engines and the occasional sound of thunder, the ship has been mostly quiet during today's transit to Key West. |
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| Captain George Gunther deftly squeezes the Research Vessel EDWIN LINK into dock at Key West. |
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Outside, rain storms made life on deck generally miserable, so no one much cared to spend time there (although during breaks in the squalls, shifting clouds painted wonderful light on the ocean). Instead, most of the scientists busied themselves wrapping up loose ends in the labs. |
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Even under threatening skys, Key West was a welcome sight to a crew who had not seen land in two weeks.
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By early evening, the R/V EDWIN LINK (RVEL) approached the dock at Key West. It was an adventurous docking in shallow waters, squeezed between a crowd of onlookers and the stern of a monstrous cruise ship docked nearby.
On the deck, in the fleeting light of the day, scientists and ship's crew gathered, anxious to touch dry land for the first time in two weeks. Like watching ice melt when all you need is a glass of water, the docking process was painfully slow -- taunting even, with land in plain sight. |
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