Seafarer's Log: The closest Close-encounter of a 3rd kind!

"You are only given a little spark of madness......You mustn't lose it" - Robbin Williams.  

      Well, that must be the bravest explanation one should give it to oneself when you deplete all your defence tactics. In short, when you cannot give a satisfying explanation about a spontaneous or a much more slow-motion deliberate act, you may resort to this quote. And yes, I always have it, and i believe that makes me, my mannersisms, my acts and my words into a different branch of madness! 

     All these while, i used to believe in alien theory, UFOs, Rosewell incident, Area 51, Finger prints of Gods.....so on and so forth.  I even had a wish to see it in real although i was sceptical to witness one in this lifetime.  I was proved wrong; this 22nd November of 2016 I-WAS-PROVED-WRONG! The following is a short note on (what i prefer to call) The Closest Close-encounter of a 3rd kind (in my life)!

      My ship was deployed for patrolling south of Andaman &n Nicobar islands.  We follow a 4 hour watch roster at sea and it was my turn to do the 'Middle watch' i.e 0001 hrs to 0400 hrs. On that night my ship was crossing the 'ten degree channel' and as part of th duty i was checking my lookouts. The lookouts are those whose duty is to keep a lookout for other vessels, lights, objects.etc at sea.  At around 0115 hrs my lookout reported about an 'aircraft' in elevation about 40 degrees heading to South-South-East. It was nothing serious about this aircraft, as the international flights operating those times use the Andaman & Nicobar corridor.  I came out of bridge to the bridge wing to have a look at the aircraft.  I saw a normal aircraft's strobing lights (Red & Green) , possibly of a 747 heading to Malaysia or Singapore (high probability of Visakhapatnam-Singapore aircraft).  As me and my lookout was having a little chat, we saw another light appearing close to the south east bound aircraft, appeared as if around 2000 ft above us on an elevation of 45 degrees.  

     Usually, at nights one can spot satellites which will be constantly moving in their orbits, and may appear bigger also.  But not this one; it was brighter than any aircraft lights, distinctly we saw 3 lights, like LED lights in a line.  It took about 30 seconds to realize its not a fixed wing aircraft, not at all a helicopter as there were no rotor sound and since a chopper hovering at such height is highly unlikely....then what is it??? It could not be identified, and for me its an Unidentified Flying Object...a.k.a UFO !    Then in next 60 seconds it just zipped past in a southerly direction fastly and vanished. It was defenitely not a normal aircraft, it was different; th lights, the hovering ability, the absolute silence, and the enormous speed with which it vanished.  Meanwhile i checked my Nav-Radar and couldn't find anything also there is a limitation since it is a navigational radar and not a air-radar. 

     Remember the opening statment on 'madness'?? i think it was the spark.....me my lookout, my sideboy and communicator...four of us froze...quickly grabbed the binoculars but it was fogged.I was excited, thrilled to bits....and couldn't sleep post watch! Shared the story to everyone and as usual everyone shunned me.  Finally me and my three crew nearly ridiculed.  But, that's what has been happening all around the world upon anyone who has seen it.  

        All these while i devoured it with a kind of curiosity about the unexplained things, me and my best friend @chackophilip used to spend hours and hours about discussing these phenomenons, excerpts from reports, books.etc. and there it was and i froze.   For me, it was a part of my #bucketlist.  I saw it...and i'm carrying it with me.  Maybe i wont explain it to anyone as it can be easily shunned as another piece of my madness.  The spark .......let it move with me.....may it remain in my memory till my last.  

Seafarer's Log: Search and Rescue; a Ringside view.

     Once again a Search and Rescue Ops!  An Airforce carrier AN32 has gone missing on its way from Chennai to Port Blair on 22 Jul 16.  Perhaps we all knew the drill and was partially prepared for the obvious.  The orders came almost 24 hours later for SAR (Search and Rescue) deployment in a possible area consequently setting sail on 23 Jul 16.

     SAR Ops is always a kind of an unknown feeling where your adversity quotient needs to be reset, because as the unknown protocol goes which is "Hope, they float and those floats, hope".  I am not sure from where i got this phrase nor i'm aware of its origin.  The SAR for AN32 happens to be the 4th of its kind in my life so far.

     The first one was off Visakhapatnam in 2012-13 season when one Chetak helicopter was lost at sea, on an approximate area where depth was 50+mtrs depth.  Still there was hope but 02 out of 04 men lost their life.  It took almost 48 hours to trace its location underwater using Side Scan Sonar towfish.  However due to the lack of the requisite infrastructure & resources the navy had to resort to a Seismic vessel named 'Olympic Canyon" which has set its temporary base at Kakinada and is liaised by Reliance Petrochemicals.  That vessel was called upon and carried out the salvaging using ROV and deep sea diving bell.  The remains of the two men who lost their lives were found still tied to theri seat belts.

     then in season 2014-15 a torpedo recovery vessel which sank off vizag at a reported area with depth of approx 450+mtrs   This time even after there were clear eye witness for the incident, the ship was untraceable.  The dynamics of the water & ocean behaviour pertaining to the prevailing current and the sea bed topography (as usual) will render one clueless.  The side scan sonar proved its limitations and the lack of long sea-cable we couldn't trace it.  Four men lost their lives, of which three of them couldn't be traced.  The first and only recovered casualty was one senior sailor named James Jacob, who was an old shipmate of mine, a brilliant guy, calm & composed, lost his life.

     The third incident took place off Nagapatinam, Tamil Nadu and my ship was undertaking hydrographic survey off Palk Bay.  A coast guard Dornier aircraft during its patrol sortie suddenly vanished.  it was night and the local fishermen reported a 'fire ball'falling over the sea.  The approximate datum was established and a joint SAR ops was launched by navy & Coast Guard.

     There is a technical side to every aircraft and ship regarding aid/  gadgets which help for SAR, generally termed as "Position Indicating beacons".  Onboard a ship its termed as "Emergency Position Indicating Radio beacon" or EPIRB.  It is generally fitted in any location which is exposed, preferably bridge wings.  It has a sea-water activated battery which, in contact within a particular depth functions by sending distress signal for a particular duration.  This signal is routed through satellite to MRCC (Marine Rescue Coordination Centre) which is further distributed across various authorities to initiate SAR.       On a similar method a 'Position Indicator Beacon' (PIB) exists in all aircrafts which functions almost in the same method explained above, but with a difference viz, the beacon sends acoustic pulse at a frequency of 7KHz and not an electromagnetic pulse.

     Acoustics:  the acoustic pulse of low frequencies travel father hence they are termed as "Deep-Sea Acoustic Pulse" and the frequencies much lower than the above mentioned come under 'seismic' category.  Imagine the beacon sank along with the aircraft, it will keep on pinging every second and continues to do so for a stipulated period.  Hence, by deploying a listening device attuned to receive 7KHz frequency can pin point the location  of the wreckage, salvage, investigate and carry out further actions.

     However the underwater acoustics is an altogether different ballgame!  There exists different thermal layers of water which has the ability to deflect the sound pulses or even block them, thereby acting as a wall.  Various factors decide this barrier or layer ranging from depth, pressure, seabed topography, conductivity of water.etc.  When it comes to seabed topography one should  (in all respect) imagine all the permutation combination of hills, valleys, gorges, trenches.etc underwater.

     The Coast Guard Dornier which ditched off Nagapattinam had a PIB and it was pinging, the listening device which was deployed from my ship got intermittent pings about 2 pings in a period of 4 hours!  Analysing it, a datum was established, around an area of 10 square miles.  But then again, the lack of resources popped up and once again "Olympic Canyon" was summoned.  They deployed their AUV/ROV and found the wreckage from a depth of 1250 meters against the reported 500 meter area.  The wreckage was salvaged along with the remains of 3 pilots and were laid to rest with all ceremonies.

     The news of AN32 missing invoked the same emotions as it was for the Coast Guard Dornier, except the approximate location was unknown!  The least approximation could be anywhere between the 650 Nm area with an average depth of 3 Kms.  Still, one cling on to the phrase of "hope floats", hoping its real.  The sea tests a mariner with her might, reminding you time and again that we are never a match.  Then again, you tell yourself that they too were men, they could be one among those strangers who might have appeared in front of you or even passed by.  The more you search it turns into a conflict within oneself.  The very own lines you believed on regarding hope tend to become a tunneled vision, a kind of pipe dream within time.  Maybe the only thing that floats is hope and nothing else, only hope remains, a hope for belonging, for those kith n kin who hope for their loved ones to return.  They remain as a pain, then you realize that everything else clouds and leaves in the ringside.....as just an observer!

(Love and Respect for those hopes, and hope for those who floats...AN32, MH370 and so on!)