oracle

Today was fantastic. I actually got to fly (first time since the middle of November) We were scheduled for a routine patrol, we get out to our area, the sun is shining, there is a white fluffy undercast a beautiful day for a flight. Who knew what hell was underneith those happy fluffy clouds. Radar finds our first contact, the plane makes its way over to it, starts its decent, we enter the cloud, completely blind, our altitude gets lower and lower,turbulance rattles the plane (nothing out of the ordinary) , still nothing but white...we start to break through the happy clouds and it is a scene out of "perfect storm" Rain, hurricane force winds, the sea is VERY angry, waves over 30ft high, we are now a mere 500ft off the ocean surface, flying over 250kts (roughly 500 mph) towards the ship..we get closer and closer still nothing except swells and waves that compare to nothing I have seen. The ocean is full of white caps, foam and swirls of brilliant blues and greens as the storm stirs up the depths of the ocean. It was a big blender and we were just trying not to become part of the mix. We passed behind a ship, I could look straight down the lenght of the boat, see what the crew sees and what I saw was a HUGE wall of black in front of this huge sea vessel...the bow of vessels slips into the wave, its still growing, finally the white cap breaks hard on to the boat...it was the most surreal thing I have ever seen. We found another vessel coming out of the mist and waves, we could barely see it, it looked like a ghost ship coming out of the dark.
It was a very awesome day...man I love my job.

I wish I was a writer or I could paint...the images I saw today were too amazing not to share...