StugeronSteve
Well-Known Member
Apparently we would be much better off investing in a GPS, whatever one of them is, than listening to the Shipping Forecast on R4.
Bring back Sailing By! BBC News
Bring back Sailing By! BBC News
Baffling Shipping Forecast
- Thread starter StugeronSteve
- Start date
tjfmmaes
Well-Known Member
Talk about baffling forecasts, last weekends Met Office forecast as broadcast by Solent Coastguard was definitely keeping things very open. Predictions like: Wind, 4 to 5, occassionally six to seven, perhaps 8 later don't really leave you much better informed (and we actually had, for a brief spell, F2 to 3 /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif ), the same went for weather: rain or showers, visibility: good, occassionally very bad, sea state: slight to moderate, occassionaly rough.
It probably accounted for the wide variety of sail configurations you saw out on the Solent: single and double reefed and full mains, running on genoa alone, cruising chutes etc. Still, had a cracking sail in a force 3 to 5/6 back and made it in before the clouds really came in, it started raining, followed by fog patches. That all happened on the drive back later that day. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
It probably accounted for the wide variety of sail configurations you saw out on the Solent: single and double reefed and full mains, running on genoa alone, cruising chutes etc. Still, had a cracking sail in a force 3 to 5/6 back and made it in before the clouds really came in, it started raining, followed by fog patches. That all happened on the drive back later that day. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
EdWingfield
Well-Known Member
The active front we had on Tuesday and severe weather warning had us terminate our cruise one day early - unnecessarily as it turned out. Those tornadoes occurred a long way south. But I think we made the right decision. It would've been reckless to ignore.
StoicWarrior
Well-Known Member
What's most baffling to me is Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer himself, who today still describes the forecast itself as "baffling", yet he stumbles on to say ""It scans poetically. It's got a rhythm of its own. It's eccentric, it's unique, it's English." Duh. Try "British", mate; try nautical; try important-to-maritime-safety. Now remember, this guy is the one who, nearly 2 years ago now, put the chop to the old Radio 4 Morning Theme which preceded the day's 1st Forecast. He was "baffled" by it then and he wanted to make it LESS poetic and LESS British because he thought the Theme was too "parochial". Sounds to me more like a politician than a controller.
Well, maybe he was traumatized by his rubber ducky early on and, to this day, probably takes a shower instead of a bath. He says he wants to moderize things at Radio 4, so his advice to seafarers is to get a GPS for weather reporting. Ha! There's knowledge at work for ya. Unbelieveable.
Baffled is as baffled does.
Well, maybe he was traumatized by his rubber ducky early on and, to this day, probably takes a shower instead of a bath. He says he wants to moderize things at Radio 4, so his advice to seafarers is to get a GPS for weather reporting. Ha! There's knowledge at work for ya. Unbelieveable.
Baffled is as baffled does.
Blue5
Well-Known Member
Echo your comments on last Sunday, the forecast was indicating a steady pick up of wind speed from quite early so we were out in the Solent by 9am, although it was only a F3 we opted to put the reef in before setting out but it was a cracking sail