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We believe every day’s a school day on a boat! That’s why we built Nautical Know-How, dedicated to answering your questions. Even better, if it can’t answer your question immediately, you can request it, and we’ll add it to our knowledge base.
Nautical weather terminology is like a secret language designed to keep landlubbers guessing. Why say ‘storm’s brewing’ when you can declare there’s a ‘cyclonic gale on the Beaufort scale’? And don’t even get us started on terms like ‘sea state 5’—is that a weather warning or a new action movie? Mariner-speak turns clouds into ‘cumulonimbus monstrosities’ and drizzle into ‘light spindrift.’ Meanwhile, the rest of us are just trying to figure out if we need a raincoat. Don’t worry, we can help you navigate this foggy jargon without needing a barometer tattooed on your arm!
A sustained movement of water with a measurable direction and speed. Currents may be driven by wind, density differences, large-scale ocean circulation, river flow, pressure gradients or other processes. Tidal streams are periodic horizontal water movements caused by the tide and are often treated separately in UK navigation terminology. A current changes a vessel’s movement…
An area of relatively low atmospheric pressure, usually associated with cyclonic circulation and unsettled weather. In the Northern Hemisphere the circulation is anticlockwise around the low; in the Southern Hemisphere it is clockwise. Mid-latitude depressions commonly include warm and cold fronts and can bring changing wind, rain, squalls, reduced visibility and altered sea state as…
In or towards the direction to which the wind is blowing. A position downwind lies on the lee side of the reference point. A vessel travelling downwind is making progress generally in the same direction as the true wind, although its exact point of sail may be a broad reach or a run rather than…
To move under the influence of wind, waves or water flow rather than a deliberately maintained track. A vessel can drift when stopped, disabled or intentionally allowed to move with the water, while a floating object drifts according to its windage and immersion. An anchored vessel that moves because the anchor is not holding is…
The airflow component attributable to a vessel’s own motion through the surrounding air. It is a teaching term used when constructing apparent wind. The motion-wind vector acts opposite to the vessel’s velocity through the air; during ordinary forward motion it therefore appears to come from ahead and becomes larger as that velocity increases. Boat wind…
The wind velocity experienced on a moving vessel, resulting from the actual wind combined with the vessel’s motion. It is a vector quantity with both speed and direction. A masthead instrument measures apparent wind relative to the moving vessel; true-wind information is calculated by combining that measurement with vessel motion and, depending on the system,…
For the wind direction to change anticlockwise when viewed on a compass. For example, a change from north through northwest towards west is backing. The opposite change, clockwise around the compass, is called veering. Backing describes the direction of change, not its cause, speed or forecast significance. Local effects, weather systems and frontal passages can…
A numbered scale from 0 to 12 that relates wind-force descriptions to defined wind-speed ranges and observable effects. Force 0 is calm and force 12 is hurricane force, with named forces and speed bands between them. Descriptions of effects on the sea or land allow wind force to be estimated when a reliable instrument reading…
To become less intense or severe, especially when describing wind, sea or weather. A forecast, log or report may state that a gale, swell or storm is abating when its strength is decreasing. The word describes a trend rather than a particular force, wave height or rate of change. Abating conditions have not necessarily ended…
If you belive the Earth is flat, you're about to fall of the end...
If you belive the Earth is flat, you're about to fall of the end...
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