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Steady Hands

Ken Houtler, captain of coastal research vessel Tioga, handles the wheel while first mate Ian Hanley joins him on watch. In March 2007, Houtler and Hanley cruised the 60-foot boat into 20-knot winds, rough seas, and air temperatures of  4°F—with sea spray freezing on the windows and railings—to help bring an injured colleague back home. Tioga made a rendezvous with the research vessel Knorr in order to evacuate its third mate, who had injured his hand during a rescue boat exercise on a research cruise 300 miles southeast of Cape Cod.
(Photo by Jayne Doucette, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)