Lullaby

Picture from the Admiralty Blog

Here in Indiana, we’ve begun 2014 with a snow storm.  Listening to the weather forecasts on the radio takes me back to my childhood in England, listening to BBC Radio Four.   The broadcast day would always end with the news at midnight, followed by the Shipping Forecast – giving all the weather details necessary for the thirty-one shipping zones around the U.K.  Finally, the listener would be serenaded with the soothing strains of “Sailing By” as the radio drifted towards the silence of night.

There is such poetry in the Shipping Forecast, at least to me. The piece that follows really needs to be read aloud.  Preferably while wrapped up warm indoors.  Happy New Year to all!

Lullaby

And now the shipping forecast,
issued by the Met Office on behalf of
the Maritime and Coastguard Agency at 2300 UTC today.
There are warnings of gales in all areas except Trafalgar.

The General synopsis at 2300: Low Southeast Iceland 967
moving away northeastwards by midday tomorrow.
New deepening low expected 250 miles southwest of Iceland 959
by same time. New high expected Thames 1025 by that time.

The area forecasts for the next 24 hours
Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire…
Forties, Cromarty…
Forth, Tyne, Dogger,

Fisher, German Bight
Southwest 6 to gale 8, veering west or northwest 5,
then backing southwest 4 later. Moderate or rough,
becoming slight or moderate. Occasional rain. Moderate or good

Humber… Thames, Dover,
Southwest 6 to gale 8, veering north 5, then veering east 4 later.
Moderate or rough, becoming slight or moderate. Occasional rain.
Moderate or poor, occasionally good

Wight, Portland, Plymouth, Biscay, Trafalgar…
FitzRoy, Sole, Lundy, Fastnet, Irish Sea…
Shannon, Rockall, Malin, Hebrides…
Bailey, Fair Isle, Faeroes…

Southeast Iceland
Easterly or northeasterly becoming cyclonic for a time,
7 to severe gale 9. Rough or very rough, occasionally high in northwest.
Rain or showers. Good, occasionally poor

Sailing By