Lesson 1. Spend the time backing up to the cloud all digital information of value. (Or whichever safe location one chooses.) Especially passwords. In a foreign country with limited internet it is a tall order re-establishing passwords and authorization, especially when your devices have been lost. Lesson 2. Work on your security. Every time you leave the boat, raise the dinghy and outboard, lock everything away, hide valuables below and leave outside lights on even though energy is a precious commodity. It is an absolute pain but it has to be done. Have some good hiding places for surplus cash…
Examining a recent Atlantic storm offers some insight Ocean-going mariners have many sources for weather forecast information these days, and thanks to the internet and satellite communication technologies, these resources are readily available both ashore and at sea. Improvements in the science of weather forecasting have allowed longer and longer-range forecasts to be produced in recent years to the point that 96- and 120-hour (four- and five-day) forecasts are now routinely available, and even longer range forecast information can be accessed. But it is worth asking the question: How reliable are these forecasts? To answer this question, let’s look at a recent…
One of the most powerful tools meteorologists use in their work is the computer model of the atmosphere. These models use mathematical representations of the existing physics of the atmosphere, and step forward in time to provide plausible forecasts for various weather parameters for the future. Because of advances in the understanding of atmospheric physics, better methods of observing the atmosphere (assessing the initial conditions for each model run), more sophisticated modeling techniques, and more powerful computers, the models have shown significant improvement in predictive power over the past few decades. They are certainly not perfect, but they are able…
How atmospheric oscillations can affect tropical storm formation The 2022 Hurricane Season approaches. It’s known that the La Nina atmospheric effect usually correlates with active Atlantic hurricane seasons and 2020-21 were back-to-back La Nina years! So, what are the odds of La Nina in 2022, making it an unusual three in a row? The 2021 season generated 21 named storms, the third most for any Atlantic hurricane season, behind only 2020’s record 30 named storms. Did these back-to-back La Nina years have a common denominator? Let’s look at the El Nino/Southern Oscillation, otherwise known as ENSO. The Southern…
An autopilot failure forces an offshore crew to improvise We had just entered the Gulf Stream heading north from Palm Beach with some 1,100 nautical miles to Martha’s Vineyard when our autopilot failed. Even though we were in settled conditions, we instantly knew the gravity of the issue – that without a reliable repair we would need to turn back or face more than a thousand miles of hand steering including hundreds of miles in the stream, not a pretty prospect, especially with just three on board. Sea Witch is John Stephenson’s 53-foot Pearson ketch. She displaces more than 40…
It’s a famous marine survival story. How a courageous band of brothers survived the loss of their ship thousands of miles from all help. How Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew persevered, establishing the template for surviving harsh conditions. In March of this year their ship, Endurance, was located 10,000 feet deep in the Weddell Sea in a remarkable state of preservation. Even before Roald Amundsen had reached the South Pole in 1912, Sir Ernest Shackleton had contemplated another Antarctic effort. The Trans-Antarctic expedition; a sled journey across the continent. The plan was to take the ship Endurance into the…