woodsmoke, tell me just what a "copper sea" in the Tonkin Gulf looks like? I spent almost two years all over the Gulf in the Tonkin Yacht Club, and I never seen one....... or heard anyone speak of seeing one! Please fill me in.

LOl, I actually never tried to "look it up on the net".....and found that..........there is no........."information on the net". lol

HOWEVER..........lol..........I did find reference to a book........... and surprisingly.......... it was published in 1978 and.........it was on my ship! I read part of it...... related to the "copper sea" part, never finished it.. Others on the ship had read parts or all of it of course.

This was an old WWII "ashcan"..........that is now a museum piece and had a certain President actually inaugurate a certain weapon system on it... a doughty old grayhound of the sea......

Here is a linky to the wikipedia on the book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Empty_Copper_Sea

The thing about the "copper sea" effect, also informally called an "orange" sea is that it is a confluence of being at the right time and right place on the ocean or on the land and viewing the ocean. The effect is seen, as far as I know, only when viewing generally toward "the west" over the ocean so that at the exact right time the refraction of the "orange" wavelengths of ROYGBIVE are reflected off the water into the eye of the viewer. Kind of like that a rainbow does not exist except in the eye of the beholder.

There are times, I did NOT see one, in which the colors "invert", and there is an effect known as green flash .

Here is an image of "a copper sea".... I did NOT find it using that search term, I had to use "orange".



And this is not a good image but it shows that with the sun at approximately viewing angle that the effect is not necessarily seen.



Now, yes, also, there is the whole thing of "particulates" in the air, I'm not saying "smog" or anything, there can just be "dust"....that is why us ol' swabbies would be....ummmmm "swabbing" the deck periodically...........in the middle of the ocean! lol

What happened with me and my dive buddy is that we literally were on the "back side" of the hotel which is the "gulf side" and the evening of the first day, got to see the effect while standing on the balcony........while hanging gear on the railing to dry! lol

The keys really are "narrow" in the context of what most people think of on the mainland. One can view the Atlantig from one side of the building and the Gulf from the other.

As a note......... it may be that the only reason that the guys on my ship "knew the term" was........the book! lol :0

Another note: I never did get one of the "Yacht Club" sew on's for my jacket! lol

I hope this helped a little and if not pleas so say!

woodsmoke

Here is a side view of Christ of the Abyss, the water was churned up by a lot of boats, it is a popular dive and probably fourty snorkelers and a few divers.

It is clickable to see the larger image at Photobucket if desired.



woodsmoke