About the Weather at Sea
Wind
The windforce can be given in different ways: "Beaufort (Bft.)", "metres per second" or "knots", depending on whom you ask, captain, mate, able seaman... Trainees tend to look at the waves and say something like "if you see foam it must be 6" (6 what?!). So the best is to go to the bridge and ask there. Only problem is that they use different messuring systems, too. So you better ask what they use today. To make it easier to translate this now into the units you feel comfortable with see the following table:
| Beauforts-Scale | ||||||
| wind force | wind speed | sea state | ||||
| Bft | in m/sec | in km/h | in knots (nm/h) | waves (m) | ||
| light air | 1 | 0,3 - 1,5 | 1 - 5 | 1 - 3 | 1 | calm-rippled |
| light breeze | 2 | 1,6 - 3,3 | 6 - 11 | 4 - 6 | 2 | smooth wavelets |
| gentle breeze | 3 | 3,4 - 5,4 | 12 - 19 | 7 - 10 | 2,5 | ... |
| moderate breeze | 4 | 5,5 - 7,9 | 20 - 28 | 11 - 15 | 3 | slight |
| fresh breeze | 5 | 8 - 10,7 | 29 - 38 | 16 - 21 | 4 | moderate |
| strong breeze | 6 | 10,8 - 13,8 | 39 - 49 | 22 - 27 | 5 | rough |
| near gale | 7 | 13,9 - 17,1 | 50 - 61 | 28 - 33 | 6 | very rough |
| gale | 8 | 17,2 - 20,7 | 62 - 74 | 34 - 40 | 7 | high |
| strong gale | 9 | 20,8 - 24,4 | 75 - 88 | 41 - 47 | 7,5 | ... |
| storm | 10 | 24,5 - 28,4 | 89 - 102 | 48 - 55 | 8 | very high |
| violent storm | 11 | 28,5 - 32,6 | 103 - 117 | 56 - 63 | 9 | phenomenal |
| hurricane | 12 | > 32,7 | > 118 | > 64 | > 10 | ... |
Beaufort's wind scale from 1806
Of course you can, especially when at the helm, read the instrument yourself. But keep in mind that all instruments showing the windforce or direction can only tell the "relative wind" that hits the ship. To find out the "true" wind force it is neccessary in accordance to the course to either add (before-the-wind-courses) or substract (by-the-wind-courses) the speed of the ship, and to ask for streams and drifts that might influence, too. Too difficult? Well, you can always ask in the galley. The cook will tell you that if the pots get carried away from the oven we have storm...
visibility:
The visibility of course influences sailing, too. Yes, we have a radar. But bad visibility can mean that for safety reasons the sails get stowed away and we proceed under engine.
| Sichtweite - visibility | |
| 25nm | excellent visibility |
| 10nm | very good visibility |
| 5nm | good visibility |
| 2nm | moderate visibility |
| 1nm | poor visibility |
| 0,5nm | very poor visibility |
| 500m | moderate fog |
| 200m | fog |
| 50m | thick fog |
| < 50m | dense fog |