Church's Diary III

The snow has finally stopped, and the sun is shining on the sea again. Even though it's winter in the southern hemisphere, it's possible to get sunburned if you keep sun on deck. But Anderson was fishing there again, and he did it all year round, and he didn't see any skin allergies.

We left Port Fitzroy and sailed north-east. Mr. Robbins asked me if I knew about Maria Theresa and Ernest Legouve. I've heard of those two places, which are the legendary Ghost Island. Verne wrote about Maria Theresa Reef in several books, and oh, it seemed like a beautiful island in his writing. In fact, it is just a very small coral reef that was first discovered by a whaling ship, and it is said that some earlier European navigators also discovered the islands and wrote down their coordinates.

But for nearly 50 years, the navies of New Zealand and the United States have searched the area extensively, and found nothing, a basin of water with an average depth of 4,000 meters and a maximum depth of more than 5,000 meters, which is large enough to hold the whole of Australia.

However, the legends about Ghost Island have always gone on, but like the monsters in Loch Ness, the UFOs over Mexico, and the lizardmen in the ore swamps, many people claim to have found them again every year, but no one takes their words seriously.

I've passed through that area twice in my sailing career, but I've never seen any ghost islands. If the people who see miracles are God's favorites, then I am certainly not God's favorite. So I'm not too optimistic about the outcome of this trip, but I'm not going to say it in public, because as a captain I have to do my job well and be optimistic.

I said to Mr. Robbins, sir, I feel that we are going more on an expedition than on a scientific expedition, and I have never seen a research ship full of advanced equipment just to go to an uncertain place.

Robbins said you're right, we're just going to explore, and it's not just ghost islands, we're going to more mysterious places, we're going to do more interesting things.

I don't know what interesting things can happen at sea, could it be that these scientists got a treasure map, and there is a huge shipwreck there? But in the basin of the sea, even if there is a wreck, it is impossible to salvage it!

At this time, Anderson came over with his fishing rod, heard our conversation, and interjected, "Interesting thing?" What could be more fun in the middle of the ocean than fishing?

Robbins laughed and nodded his head and said, yes, Anderson, you're right, fishing is the funniest thing.

His laughter was contagious, and Anderson and I both laughed.

Stephen Robbins was the captain of the expedition, and the crew respected him, including the scientists on the ship, and even the usually cold Mrs. Larry was polite to him. But he never put on a show, not only was it difficult to deal with, but he was also very talkative. He was a complete gentleman, who made people feel good when they met, and he was always gentle when he spoke, and he walked unhurriedly.

Every time he came to the deck, he always said, ladies and gentlemen, what a day! When he met a lady in the aisle, he would always turn sideways, put his hand on his chest, bow slightly, and say, "Hello, beautiful lady!" Although there were only two women on our ship, Mrs. Larry and her assistant, Miss Alice.

Mr. Robbins was very good at getting along with the crew and the sailors, as he had been with Anderson for most of the day about sea fishing.

I admire his versatility, he is not only a scientist, but he is also familiar with everything at sea. Sometimes I feel that he is more suitable to be a captain than I am. However, he was very modest, and he said that all he knew was learned from books, and that the real ocean voyage still depends on professional people like us.

I asked him about cold drift snow, and why he found it unusual when snow was a common phenomenon.

Robbins said that New Zealand's North Island, especially the port of Auckland, is already in the northernmost corner, and there is not much snow, and it is not yet the coldest time. Also, cold current clouds are usually symptomatic and do not appear suddenly. Cold current clouds will appear only when the strong cold air passes through the warm sea and the difference between the air temperature and the water temperature reaches more than 10°C, and the warm and humid air masses on the ocean surface are forced to rise, and the warming and humidification of the lower atmosphere leads to the instability of the low-level atmosphere.

Moreover, as a common meteorological phenomenon, meteorological satellites can make predictions very accurately through cloud images. But neither the New Zealand Meteorological Service nor the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has been in constant communication with the research vessels, issued a warning before we set sail. The point is, this snow is a bit heavy and shouldn't be in this position in the Southern Hemisphere at this time. The eastern part of New Zealand is so vast in the Pacific Ocean that the cold winds from Antarctica turn into warm winds long before they reach the sea, due to the large specific heat capacity of the seawater.

Mr. Robbins's face was a little heavy at this time, and he said that you are the captain of the ship, and there are some things that you should know, so I can tell you some things that I know. During our stay in Port Fitzroy, I got in touch with experts from the Bureau of Meteorology, who told me that the cold snow cloud we encountered first appeared about 1,500 nautical miles east of New Zealand, not far from where we were going, and then disappeared from satellite maps and then suddenly reappeared in the sea near the North Island of New Zealand.

I said please forgive my sir, I didn't understand very well. Are you trying to say that this snow was supposed to fall on the same area where we were going, but it suddenly fell where we docked yesterday?

Robbins nodded and said, "You're right, it's a very strange phenomenon." The ghost-like cloud formed in the 15 degrees Celsius warm spring spot in the Pacific Ocean, drifting westward as if through a wormhole, bringing a heavy snowfall to the cooled but still warm North Island of New Zealand. As you said, this snow should have fallen 1,500 nautical miles away, or it was coming from somewhere else, because there shouldn't have been such clouds.

I was dumbfounded. Although I am not a scientist, I have been driving research ships for many years and dealing with all kinds of scientists, and I dare to say that I am one of the most science-savvy captains in the world. But Mr. Robbins' narrative was clearly beyond my comprehension.

I asked him what that meant?

Stephen Robbins looked at the horizon and said, "I'm afraid that some kind of drastic change is taking place in the place we are going that we don't know about, and that the outcome of our trip will become unpredictable."