Whether It's the Weather
Adventure Boating and the Weather
By Captain Marc Deglinnocenti
There are many diverse types of technology used to monitor and predict the weather. That gives you a great deal of different resources to tap into. A good start is to simply check with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). They have a special National Weather Service for marine forecasts. You can access near real-time satellite images online, or you can put a weather fax machine right on board your vessel. Marine band VHF radios have access to weather advisory channels as well as special broadcasts issued by the Coast Guard. There is also information that you can access from Doppler radars, specialized buoys, and some unmanned data recorders roaming the oceans. There are also direct reports from other vessels and aircraft. I could go on and on about all of the technology available to you including weather for the mariner courses that you can take, but you can research that for yourself. The point is that you should use technology to help you predict the weather that you're going to be cruising through. You should not attempt to push your vessel into and through bad weather. That's probably some of the most obvious advice that I've ever given. There's no substitute for common sense when it comes to weather, but common sense won't always tell you that technology is not fool proof.
People tend to over rely on all of this technology. Many people fail to monitor changes in the weather once the voyage starts. They tend to think that the predicted weather from these high tech sources will remain constant. The weather is a dynamic and powerful force of nature that changes all of the time. Even more people fail to have a backup plan once all the predictions come crashing down around their feet. I have always been one to give myself a way out when the weather gets out of hand.
I was appointed the commodore of a six week training voyage that consisted of three large training ships. I planned the voyage over a year in advance, because the logistics we staggering. My time was limited, and I had to constantly consult the three captains and their crews during the planning. The weather, tides, and currents were calculated in advance to the best of my ability. I gave myself one spare or extra day per every two weeks on our cruise schedule for bad weather. So, for a six week voyage I had three spare days as a safety margin to make all of our scheduled layovers. The weather was great the day we started out, and the forecast for the future weather was even better.
We were well into remote waters when we hit a squall. That's a micro climate storm area that's extremely difficult to predict. All of the fancy technology that I was consulting had failed to do so. The winds and waves were so strong that when we were doing turns for 12 knots, we were actually making only one knot over the ground. This was a huge waste of fuel for us as well as a lot of wear and tear on our ships and crews. It soon became obvious to me that we weren't going to make it around the next point into calmer waters when one of the ships I was leading was pushed up and out of the water by the crest of a nasty rouge wave. I witnessed this myself. I could clearly see daylight under the keel of that vessel as I watched its propellers spinning water off of themselves. It then came crashing down again into the trough of another killer wave as I watched the whole steel vessel shudder in the spray. I immediately put my backup plan into action.
Every captain had a voyage packet on board their ships. Those packets included preplanned alternate ports of safe refuge all along the cruise route. We knew the names and contact phone numbers and frequencies of every harbor master at every port that could accommodate our vessels. We knew how the docks were configured as well as their current occupancy status. We had charts and Coast Pilot instructions for entering those harbors as well. We had all that information for every alternate port along the way for a six week voyage. Now you can plainly see why it took a year to plan it. All that work was done with the intention of never using the information that I researched. When the time came that I had to use that information, it was invaluable! I radioed the other two vessels to come about on our new recommended course as I contacted the harbor master to reserve our dock spaces. We used up all three of our spare bad weather days in a port that we had never intended to visit. The weather lifted right after the third day, and we were soon on our way again. Fortunately, we had no further encounters with unpredicted squalls or other bad weather conditions.
Weather can be predicted reasonably well using multiple methods of modern technology, however it has a tendency to change as time wears on. It's therefore important to closely monitor the weather at all times while you're underway. Nasty squalls and other bad weather conditions can't always be predicted. It's extremely important to have a backup plan and ports of safe refuge already lined up ahead of time. It's even more important to know when to stay away or run away from bad weather conditions that can easily overwhelm your vessel and endanger your crew.
By
Captain Marc Deglinnocenti
OldArmada@Gmail.com
