Sea Safety Seminar on Weather

The Fishing Bay YC in Deltaville, VA is sponsoring a Safety at Sea Seminar at 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. April 12. Pat Healy will lead the morning session on analyzing and understanding marine weather. He is a weather expert, the marketing director for Commanders' Weather Corporation, and an accomplished sailor, coach, and race manager. U.S. Sailing instructor Ralph Naranjo will lead an afternoon session on heavy weather sailing and storm tactics. Naranjo is a circumnavigator, sailing program manager for the Navy, and author. His first-hand experience with heavy weather spans the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Admission is $30 per person or $50 per couple. Register early at www.fbyc.net or contact George Burke at burkeg@paraccess.com or (804) 359-1187.

You never know what might develop when you're out and about... Above, an enormous extratropical low is creating havoc along the entire Eastern Atlantic Seaboard in this infrared image at 1200 UTC (0700 EST) on October 30, 1991. Labelled the "perfect storm" by the National Weather Service, the storm sank the swordfishing boat Andrea Gail, whose story became the basis for Sebastian Junger's novel The Perfect Storm. A little-known and bizarre ending came to this monster, called the Halloween Storm. A hurricane developed at the center of the storm as it was dying. The hurricane was not named to avoid further confusion at the time. Image courtesy of NOAA