David Swanbrow

Weather Forecasting for Lively Lady
 
Sending weather forecasts to Lively Lady throughout her voyage round the World just sort of happened.  I didn’t plan to do it but on the day she left Portsmouth back in 2006 I sent an email wishing her and her crew bon voyage and adding a weather forecast that I copied from the BBC web site.  Alan said that he appreciated this and asked if I would keep sending them.  Stupidly I agreed and have generally been sending forecasts twice a day whenever Lively Lady has been at sea. 
 
The task was easy while she was in the English Channel as all I had to do was copy forecasts from the Met Office web site but once she moved out into the Atlantic and beyond I was more or less on my own and had to get what synoptic charts (charts showing the air pressure patterns) I could and interpreting them from my meagre knowledge of meteorology.  In some parts of the World there is a wealth of data and professional forecasts to copy but in others you are devoid of anything other than the most basic information to base a forecast on.  Even the professionally produced forecasts that are available are fairly general and you have to interpret them carefully and allow for the way that the wind tends to follow the coast, or increases round headlands, or even when it flows over or round islands.  In some areas a difference of 30 miles can be the difference between a flat calm or a full gale.
 
There are two other problems.  One is the feeling of being responsible for the weather.  If the winds were going to be in the wrong direction and very strong I really did feel that it was my fault.  Aftyer sending a forecast of ideal weather I really did feel great.  After sending a bad one I felt quite depressed and almost ashamed. 
 
The other problem has been having to get up that much earlier than otherwise to prepare a forecast, probably waking up my wife, Jane, in the process and denying her a chance to sleep in, or rushing home from a day out to get a forecast off.  In a way my life has revolved around weather update times ever since the voyage started.  I have to admit, however, that my knowledge of geography has increased no end, and also my use of search engines when asked things like “can you identify this bird?”, or “ can I get fuel at this totally unknown island in the Pacific?” which often came back in reply to a forecast.
 
This little task of being the “weather man” has made me feel very much part of the project and as with everyone who has been involved I feel a great sense of achievement in helping this massive task come to fruition..
  
A Little Bit about Me and Lively Lady
 
The first time that I saw Lively Lady was soon after she had completed her first circumnavigation.  She was at anchor in Cawsand bay near Plymouth and I was sailing on a another yacht and we sailed right round her to get a complete view of this famous vessel.  I never dreamed then that I would get to know her so well.  I did get to know her better, however, when I spent many days in 1996 working on her to get her shipshape again after she suffered neglect for several years.  I then skippered her for two years taking out young people and giving them a taste of sailing.  In that time I learned a lot about her and the more I learned the more I loved her.  She is a boat that you either love or hate.  I don’t think that there is anything in between with this lady.  She can be difficult but she can be a joy to sail but one thing that you can’t do is take her for granted.
 
In 1998 I left Lively Lady and it never occurred to me that I would ever sail her again.  Then along came Alan Priddy and once more I was hooked.  I have not done as much on her as most of the other co-skippers but what I have done has been a joy and I am proud to be able to say that I have sailed this lovely old yacht.