October 13, 1998 transcript # 255-2
Subject(s):ocean forecasts
Title: FORECAST FOR BOATERS

Hi, I’m Dave Thurlow and this is The Weather Notebook. At any one time there are thousands of boats are on the open sea; quite often they’re at the mercy of the weather with very little warning or information. Herb Hilgenberg, a retired engineer from Toronto, Canada, is himself a boater, and he decided to do something about the lack of forecasts. He told me it was a sailing trip with his wife and two children in 1982 that made him realize that forecasters are something that sailors desperately need.

Herb: "So the 4 of us had left Bovard, NC and headed towards the Virgin Islands. And on route, we left with a good weather forecast and within 12 hours, hell broke out. And that was not forecast and we spent 6 days in gale to storm conditions probably a late season tropical storm. But it played havoc, it was incredible for 6 days and a whole lot of boats had left at the same time and I believe 2,3 of them we never heard from again."

He soon realized he wasn’t the only one who was unprepared for the weather out on the open sea:

Herb: "It’s not until I ended up in Bermuda when it became very evident that each and every day the newspaper would have an article about somebody having to be rescued and a life having been lost. I began to realize we’re not the only ones who ran into this problem. A lot of people are running into this problem everyday."

So Herb began to give weather forecasts to boats on his own; we’ll hear more about that tomorrow. The Weather Notebook is produced by the Mount Washington Observatory, with support from the National Science Foundation, and from Subaru, the beauty of all wheel drive.