Photo 1: Wilson's Current Location
This week Wilson is floating around the same area as he was last week, right along the Canaveral National Seashore. If you recall last week he was heading down this same shore and was just North of Cape Canaveral. He apparently loves this area a bit too much and has turned around heading north up the coast instead. This is very strange behavior for the buoy since the currents along the coast should continue pushing him south. Last week Wilson had an obvious turnaround along his path just like this, temporarily sending him north. We believed this was due to a strong rip current since this happened when he was only a ½ mile off shore and the turn was a sharp right angle, which is characteristic for rip currents. (See previous blog for more information!) This time, however, we don't believe it is a rip current that has turned him around since the turn was not close to shore where the waves break, making his movement even more curious. (Refer to Photo 3 to see how close to shore rip currents can be!) The map above may look like his turn was made close to shore however, if you zoom up and compare the rip current turn from last week to Wilsons 180 from this week it is very obvious to see this difference. (Refer to Photo 2)
Photo 2: Comparison of this weeks turn (left) to last weeks turn (right)
Photo 3: Rip current very close to shore. Be careful out there!
Since the rip current explanation has been crossed off the list we had to look to other answers to explain his odd movement. Part of it could be the GPS’s noise we have previously talked about. To re-inform you, noise is simply statistical randomness that is purposely in most GPS devices similar to ours. However, since the turn is so large it is most likely not due to noise.
We looked to the nearshore currents for an explanation that should be moving south but obviously is not pushing the buoy in that direction. Nearshore currents are primarily wind based. The wind for this week was not only slow but also lacked any sense of direction so we think that this may be having an effect on the confused circling buoy, Wilson. (Refer to Photo 4). Usually, the wind pushes against the water creating friction that will drag the ocean waters surface creating a flow, but with the lack of wind there is a lack of flow.
Photo 4: Week of Weather for Wilson. Bottom row represent wind mph and direction.
Still, we were not sure if lack of wind was enough for Wilson to be stuck in the same area for almost two weeks. After further research some very interesting information was revealed. Instead of looking to the general currents as an explanation we looked to the specific area, the Canaveral National Seashore, due North of Cape Canaveral. Turns out this hunch lead to a lot of credible explanation for Wilsons circling in that area. As the photo below obviously shows, a cape is a prominent piece of land that juts out into a body of water, usually an ocean. This particular Cape and many alike creates an area where northern and southern ocean currents merge. (1) It’s no wonder Wilson has been going in circles!
After further research some very interesting history of Cape Canaveral was revealed. Throughout the early to mid 1500’s Spanish colonists were very familiar with trading, exploring, and settling within this area. However, the cape quickly became famous for one thing, shipwrecks. The area was actually nick named by the renowned Spanish explorer, Ponce de Leon, the Cape of Currents. Through the centuries and into the 1800s as the settlers increased, so did the shipwrecks and to this day there is said to be dozens of sunken ships in these waters from the colonial era. (2) We can only hope that Wilson does not go down with the rest of the ships and that he can miraculously make it though the Cape of Currents!
Fun Fact! Cape Canaveral was previously named Cape Kennedy and is considered to be part of the "space coast" because of the Cape Canaveral Airforce Station that is primarily devoted to space exploration, as well as NASA's famous Kennedy Space Center located at the nearby Merrit Island. (3)
References:
1) Graham, John. Geologic Resources Division National Park Service. Geologic Resources Inventory Scoping Summary Canaveral National Seashore, Florida. August 7, 2009.
2) nps.gov/nr/travel/american_latino_heritage/Canaveral_National_Seashore.html
3) NASA.gov