What is hidden in a cloud? How do jet streams and hurricanes form? How could Polynesian explorers sail east when the trade winds had been driving ships west for centuries, and what exactly is El Niño? After 30 years on board a wide range of ships, Elliot Rappaport shares his knowledge of the weather in a recently published, gripping book that should be essential reading for every sports skipper.
“The wind, which has been blowing from the southwest for twenty-four hours, is now dying down and starting to change. According to the barometer, the air pressure has dropped from 1,016 to 994 millibars and seems to be approaching its lowest point. Suddenly, there is a lot to be said for taking advantage of the moment to reduce the sail area.
When the free watch arrives for the changing of the guard, we take the initiative and take in half the sails until only a jib, the foresail and the trysail remain instead of the mainsail.
With a last sigh, the wind falls asleep, and the air becomes piercingly cold. The crew members whose watch is coming to an end say goodbye with a smirk and disappear into their berths. A light breeze from the north sets in. An hour later, a storm is raging. We take in the foresail.
The wind tears out the causch at the clew of the trysail. The cloth flaps furiously back and forth over the aft deck and only calms down when we have also taken it in. Just in time for breakfast, the gusts reach wind force ten – a severe storm – and icy spray whips over the open deck like bird shot.”
Nowhere is there more reason to pay attention to the weather than on a sailing or motor
boat.
“Once again it turns out that nowhere is there more reason to pay attention to the weather than on a sailing ship. Motor boats don’t rely on the wind to get them where they want to go, although of course their crews have to realize from time to time that extreme weather can throw a spanner in the works.
But for those who opt for the much more dusty form of locomotion using wind power, the weather means everything. Knowing your way around it is tantamount to reaching your destination safely or knowing when it’s better not to try at all. And last but not least, knowing the weather reconciles you with those gloomy days that you spend in adverse conditions that you can’t change.”
“Anyone planning a trip in a sailing boat tries to assess the expected wind and wave conditions for each leg. If conditions change, the plan changes. The daily routine is determined by the constant reception and processing of new information. What do we see? What does the forecast say? What were the conditions on the last trip?
A beginner becomes an expert through the accumulation of experience. Sailors love to tell long stories about the weather, but these conversations primarily serve the purpose of acquiring and passing on knowledge, knowledge that is based on a shared understanding of a complicated and potentially dangerous environment.”
The geoscientist (with a focus on meteorology) Elliot Rappaport takes us with his recently published book on sailing trips from the Mexican coast to the heart of the tropics, from the icy waters of Greenland to the Roaring Forties.
Based on his own extensive experiences at sea, the professor of maritime transportation at the Maine Maritime Academy, where he prepares cadets for a career at sea, explains phenomena such as thunderstorms, ice formation and volcanism in a gripping and vivid way, and introduces us to great circle navigation and how radar works.
Last but not least, he draws connections to larger contexts such as climate development, thus combining personal experience with science.
The book “Das Wetter lesen” is aimed particularly at all sports skippers who want to be able to better interpret weather phenomena and how they develop. Especially in times of frequent extreme weather events in Europe, such as the recent Ibiza and Formentera as well as the passage of several tornadoes across the Adriatic in August this year, sailors and motorboat drivers are equally well advised to obtain comprehensive information about the weather.
Elliot Rappaport, who was a captain and professor of nautical science at the SEA Education Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, for more than two decades, offers bachelor’s degrees in oceanography aboard sailing ships. He reports entertainingly and vividly from his own experience in 14 chapters, from well-known and lesser-known weather phenomena, and explains how to better anticipate them and how to prepare yourself and your boat in advance in the event of a storm.
Seen in this light, this book has what it takes to encourage skippers to navigate even more consciously and carefully on board a ship, and thus perhaps even save human lives and high material assets. If, however, something unforeseen should happen on the water – SeaHelp’s rescue boats are never far from the stricken vessel in the relevant operational areas – pressing the emergency button in the practical SeaHelp app and/or a phone call to the control center in Punat is all that is needed.
24-hour EUROPEAN EMERGENCY CALL: 0043 50 43 112
In an emergency, SeaHelp’s boats can be deployed using the practical Sea Help app, or by calling the toll-free emergency number for Europe, 0043 50 43 112 (or the alternative emergency number for Europe, 00385 919 112 112).
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