Harbour Towns
A Harbour Wall Is a Machine and Its Entrance Faces One Way for a Reason
Breakwater arms, entrance angle and inner basins are all answers to a specific swell direction that troubled the port.
Rohit Barve
Contributing writer, Travel Near Sea
Rohit writes the practical pieces and has missed enough ferries to be useful.
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14 articles
Harbour Towns
Ice Plants and Chandleries: How to Tell a Port Still Works
The businesses on a quay are a more honest indicator of a harbour's condition than the number of boats moored in it.
Harbour Towns
Jumping Off a Harbour Wall: What the Water Underneath Is Doing
Depth at a quay changes by metres through the tide, and what is on the bottom does not announce itself from above.
Seasons & Weather
The Swell Arrives From a Storm You Never Saw
Waves outlive the wind that made them and travel for days, which is why a blue sky can come with a closed beach.
Seasons & Weather
On a Coast, Wind Direction Matters More Than Wind Speed
The same twenty knots can be a perfect day or an unusable one depending entirely on which way it is coming from.
Seasons & Weather
Onshore and Offshore Wind Change the Beach as Well as the Water
The direction of the breeze decides where the sand goes, how clear the water is and whether an inflatable is a hazard.
Seasons & Weather
Storm Season Closes Paths and Ferries Before It Closes Anything Else
The first things a coastal storm removes are the connections, and they come back more slowly than the weather does.
Seasons & Weather
A Winter Coast Is a Different Place and the Light Is Why
Low sun, long shadows and short days change how a shoreline looks and how a day on it has to be structured.
Seasons & Weather
Cyclone Season Windows and What Shoulder Really Means There
On tropical coasts the shoulder season sits against a hazard season, and the trade-off is different from a temperate one.
Harbour Towns
Why a Harbour Floods on a Calm and Sunny Day
Water can come up through the drains under a clear sky, because sea level is set by air pressure and distant weather as well as by…
Seasons & Weather
A Coastal Forecast Is Three Different Forecasts Stacked Together
The land forecast, the inshore waters forecast and the tide are separate products with separate assumptions, and the coast is where…
Seasons & Weather
Some Years the Sea Simply Behaves Differently
Averages describe a coast in general and no particular season, because ocean conditions swing between years in ways that reshape…
Seasons & Weather
Gale, Gust and Force: The Words in a Marine Forecast Have Definitions
A marine forecast is a technical document in disguise, and most of its vocabulary refers to defined ranges rather than to…
Seasons & Weather
Daylight, Not Temperature, Sets the Shape of a Coastal Day
How long the sun is up, and how slowly it sets, decides when a coast is worth being outside on far more reliably than the forecast…