A key to all this SEA lingo (weather, sailing, and more!)

As you've been reading about all my adventures at sea thus far, I'm sure you've come across a whole lot of lingo that we the students had to pick up fairly quickly to adjust to life aboard the Robert C. Seamans. The following is a collection of classroom teachings, sail-science, lingo, and other terms used in my blog posts that became common to us on our floating home.

Let's take a look at the log entry from February 15th, when C watch took the deck at 3am.
0300
Sailing on a broad reach, starboard tack under the four lowers (main, main staysail, fore staysail, and jib) with a shallow reefed main, steering 280° Per Ship’s Compass, making 2 kts (nm/hr) Speed Over Ground. Wind E’ly F3, seas ExN 3-5’, skies 1/8 St.

Weather

Part of our responsibilities when on watch (see day-to-day life here) were to constantly monitor and record the ship's surroundings. This was for scientific purposes, as well as in the interests of our own safety. A dropping barometer might speak of bad weather on the way. At the beginnings of my blog posts I often include a bit about the weather that day, in the standard format that we record it in. Topics include the wind, with direction and force. The log from Feb 15 described the weather: "Wind E’ly F3, seas ExN 3-5’, skies 1/8 St". The Beaufort Scale is used as a rough indicator of wind force, and you can see the exact diagram we used to evaluate it here. By that log reading, the winds were coming from the East at a Beaufort Force 3, or about 7-10 knots, which is a rough equivalent to mph. 

Second most important to the wind however were the seas. Often these two were correlated, and aboard the Seamans you could feel both wherever you were. While the seas were often driven from the same direction as the wind, exceptions existed, and in our weather log we recorded the sea height. 2-foot swells were inconsequential, while 10-12 footers were sure to have us clinging to the rail. 

Another common entry into our weather log was the clouds, described by 'eighths' of the sky filled. The chart we used to evaluate this is to the left. Obviously, an entry of 0/8 meant clear skies and sunny! The most common clouds were Cu or cumulus, but observing the clouds were important to forecasting oncoming weather, like a cold front or a squall. In the log, "skies 1/8 St" meant a clear stary night with patches of high stratus clouds.

Sailing

Unless otherwise noted, sailing is the way we got anywhere on this journey! One of the first pieces of business to tackle as students was learning the science of the sail plan, balancing sail area fore and aft, as well as top to bottom. The beginning of each blog post might begin with a description of the day's sail plan (which sails were up), our tack (the wind direction relative to the ship), and any other special notes about the sails. The most common sail plan was under the four lowers, as described in that Feb 15 log, which consists of the mainsail, the main staysail, the forestaysail, and the jib. 


This keeps the sail area balanced across the ship fore and aft, and keeps it lower on the masts, which helps prevent luffing of sails up above. In that log, winds were light (7-10 knots), and this sail plan allowed us to most effectively use that wind to our advantage. In the tack diagram, the 'dead area' is the zone where sailing too close to the wind would stop movement. The Seamans can sail about 60-70 degrees toward the wind, which would be called close hauled. From the Feb 15 log, "Sailing on a broad reach, starboard tack" would look something like 8 o'clock on that diagram, with the sails sheeted to port and the wind coming over the quarterdeck to starboard.

Navigation

To make progress on our journey we used a variety of tools to get us from one place to another. Besides modern GPS equipment, we were also learned in the way of traditional maritime navigation: the use of a compass, dead reckoning, and chart plotting. Many logs describe the course ordered, which is passed down by the captain (or a mate) to steer 'per the ship's compass', which accounts for variation in Earth's magnetic field affecting our ship. This number would be from the 360 degrees of the compass rose, and in conversation 280° would be read as two-eight-zero, to avoid confusion. Based on our speed over ground (SOG) and direction, we could plot vectors from our last known position and 'reckon' our current location on the chart (map). Of course, GPS units were able to tell us SOG and a relatively accurate position, however when we were nearest land it was more accurate to use radar and visual bearings (sight-lines) to triangulate our position.

Abbreviations and Other noteworthy terms

Often the log describes the shallow reefed main (mains'l), which simply means that more sail area is exposed. When the main is deep reefed, the food (lower portion) of the sail is furled and lashed down, reducing sail area. The main may also be 'prevented', meaning a line from the end of the boom at the bottom of the sail is secured to a cleat on the quarterdeck preventing it from swinging back and forth.

• stbd=starboard (right)    port=(left)
• nm=nautical miles         kts=knots=nm/hour
• PSC=per ship's compass     c/o=course ordered
• s.r.=shallow reefed [mains'l]
• SOG=speed over ground

Life at sea

• kitchen=galley    floor=sole    ceiling=overhead    wheel=helm    toilet=head
• door=hatch          dirt=mung   hook=anchor           cleaning=mandatory
• your shipmates=your best friends