Reading the Signs – Lessons from Neptune and Jesus

Leaving Indonesia for an even stormier place

After officially clearing out of Indonesia in Belitung we were not allowed to go ashore anymore. But before we would reach Malaysia, we still had to sail over 300 nautical miles of Indonesian territory and cross the Singapore Strait, through which runs the busiest shipping channel in the world.

We set off from Belitung early in the morning towards Lingga Island in the Riau Archipelago which lay about 210nm northwest. This we were hoping, was to be our last two nights at sea, whereafter we would be able to day hop the rest of the way to Malaysia.

The wind was light, but being a south-westerly, we were able to at least make slow progress in the right direction. At night we had a full moon which even through the heavy clouds of the squally skies, lit up the water and gave good visibility.
I should tell you that we are now sailing an area, we are on the equator, where squalls are unbelievably frequent and often rather hectic.

Something is to be said about an approaching squall at sea, with their tendencies to appear out of nowhere and always aim for the little sailor. And on equator, it can seem like an endless game of dodgeball with a sadistic playmate.
But there is a hidden language in the clouds which, if you learn to read, you will know what will happen next, and that is quite consoling.

“To know the laws that govern the winds, and to know that you know them, will give you an easy mind on your voyage round the world; otherwise, you may tremble at the appearance of every cloud.”

Joshua Slocum

My fascination with weather forecasting is ever-increasing, and I have been astonished by just how accurately it has come to be predicted. Meteorologists are now not only predicting tomorrow’s rainclouds but, by looking at weather patterns from years of data and monitoring small changes in the climate, they are getting an idea of what will happen far into the future.

I think it is important to appreciate just how much it has actually changed the world, not only in helping us understand the past but also in allowing us to prepare for the changes to come.
And when it comes to sailing, safety at sea has greatly improved because of the ability to forecast so precisely.

JESUS WAS A WEATHERMAN

Weather forecasting is an art which has been developed for thousands of years, from the ancient Babylonian methods of reading cloud formations, Chinese weather lore and Ancient Indian Astrology to Aristotle’s ‘Meteorologica’ and on to our time of Doppler Radars, Satellites and Supercomputers.
And somewhere between all this, we find ourselves, us modern sailors, with all the technology at hand, still having to sometimes read an unpredicted cloud just like they did back then, with mere eye-to-cloud observation and maybe a measurement taken with the thumb.

In the New Testament (Matthew XVI: 2-3,) Jesus says: “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’, and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and threatening.’” Sailors will recognize that this is the original and much less catchy version of a rhyme we know so well: “Red sky at night sailors delight; red sky in the morning sailors take warning.”

Do you want to know how the colour of a sunset and sunrise can be an indication of coming weather? Jesus might not have known this, but there is a simple scientific explanation for this. When the sun is on the horizon, its light, shining at an angle, must pass through more atmosphere.
Red is the colour of the spectrum with the longest wavelengths and can therefore reach all the way through to where water vapour and dust is denser. Here it reflects off the vapour and dust projecting a red light to our eye.
In mid-latitudes, storms predominantly move from west to east. We can, therefore, say that when the sunset in the west reflects off particles of a low pressure in the east, creating the red light, it means the weather has passed, making way for improved conditions. And when the sunrise in the east reflects off particles of a low pressure in the west, making the red light, we can assume that it is approaching, and the weather should worsen.

It is easy to get carried away (metaphorically) with the weather. I guess it could be another one of those ‘Sailor Fixations` yet quite a sensible one I would think. Life at sea is a life lived at the mercy of the weather, and how could you possibly choose this sensibly without trying to at least understand its disposition?
If you are choosing to travel with the sheer force of the winds, should you not at least know how it is they are blowing? And equally so, would it not be wise to know at least the basics of the laws which drive the powers that exist, able to bring you to your end?
Considering this to be a fixation is an understatement; devotion would be more appropriate.

This is also the reason why I so enjoy the mythos of King Neptune, which for the imaginative minds of us humans, who seem to have always used the imagery in religions and philosophies to help fathom the omnipotence of nature, likewise achieve a modesty for the weather of which we must make ourselves disciples, or else easily find ourselves become victims.

For one should never doubt the authority of the weather at sea, or they might very well end up like the Hero Ajax when he failed to show humbleness.

He said the gods could not drown him even though they had tried to do so, and when Neptune heard this large talk, he seized his trident in his two brawny hands, and split the rock of Gyrae in two pieces.

The Great Odyssey by Homer

Do you want to know how a thunderstorm is formed? A squall or thunderstorm is formed when warm air rises, bringing moisture up and forming a cumulus cloud. As the moisture rises it condenses into water droplets, which grow larger as more water is added from the rising air. As the water accumulates in the cloud, the cloud turns grey and the water becomes heavy. When the droplets have become so heavy that the rising air can no longer hold them, it begins to rain.
At the same time, cool air flows downwards in the cloud pulling down the rain with it. The cloud has now become a cumulonimbus and the cycling of air within it is called a thunderstorm cell.
The lighting is created as the cloud builds up electric charges from the friction when moving air inside the cloud slides past each other. Just like a battery, a cloud has a positive and negative end, the top being positive. When the charge has built enough, it sends out a burst of energy, either between negatives and positives between clouds or between the cloud and the ground.
It is fascinating to know that because sound travels slower than light, you are able to count how far away the lighting is. Count the seconds between the lightning strike and the sound of thunder and divide it by 5, then you will know how far away the lightning is in miles.

SAILOR’S INTUITION

We arrived at South Lingga Island late on the third day, and it had already turned dark.
Following the recommendations of our Cruising Guide, we anchored up against the northeast shore, tucked a little behind an island lying to the south. But although the night was utterly still, we were aware of our exposure to the southwest wherefrom we had seen a lot of squalls come.

I am not superstitious, but I do earnestly believe in the power of a Sailor’s intuition, or what we generally call ‘gut feeling’, for so many times it has proven to be right.
I am not sure about the nature of this intuition, but regardless of whether it is instinct or attentiveness, it should never be ignored.

It was still dark outside, and everything was calm, but something had woken me up. I looked at the clock; it was only three.
I had this feeling; a feeling which, if you believe in Sailor’s Intuition, compels you to go and check outside.
Right enough, there in the sky it read: Big squall from the southwest coming your way in a matter of minutes. And so we scrambled out of bed, turned on the engine and started to pull up anchor. And as we did, the wind picked up and the seas awoke. But all was good, for we were on our way.

Once we were out of the bay and had rounded the island, we set our course north. And soon the squall passed and left behind a nice steady breeze from the west, meant for us to sail on.

POPCORN FOR KING NEPTUNE

The day turned out to be better than any day we could have hoped for, with clear skies and a reliable breeze. And later that day we crossed the equator for the 3rd time this year, leaving behind the Southern Hemisphere for at least a good while.
As it wasn’t the first equator crossing for either of us, no humiliations were needed, but as we still thought it good manners to greet King Neptune, especially before our crossing of the Singapore Strait, we made a ritual of it. This time he got no lime in his cocktail, but he did however get popcorn, which goes incredibly well with sea salt.

Previously, Asbjørn from the Danish ship, Nordkaperen, had told me about equator baptisms, where sailors who cross for the first time are granted a sea name. Since we had not yet gotten one, we decided to do it then, for who of their right mind would miss out on a sea name?

I forgot to ask Asbjørn how exactly you are supposed to execute the ritual, so we had to make it up ourselves. It involved submitting our requested names on yellow sticky notes into the sea as we crossed and drawing on each other’s chests an ‘N’ with water scooped up from the equator and of course the delivery of the payment of Arak and Popcorn.

And so, I think we were baptized: Riley; Easy Breezy which is a symbol of both his attitude and his passion for sailing, and me; Seagle (short for Sea Eagle), which refers to my confusion about exactly what kind of seabird I am, the cool one or the one that cannot help collecting chips on the seashores.

King Neptune must have been happy with his popcorn, for the next day the breeze was light and steady, And when we saw no signs in the sky, we decided to fly our spinnaker, and it was one of the happiest things we have done at sea.

Thank you for Reading!

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