Basic HTML Version
any planning of the start or the prolongation of a
voyage has to take full cognisance of the weather
forecast. But since many users of all kinds of
vessels associate their impending holiday at sea
with totally switching off from everyday life,
sometimes this desire to forget the cares of the
diurnal also includes stopping using the TV,
radio and newspapers… which do, after all,
convey information of some importance for the
success of the trip.
Seafarers can get a forecast on their VHF radio.
The Opatija area is covered by Radio Rijeka on
Channel 24, and a forecast is broadcast at 7.45,
13.45 and 19.45.
If the meteorological report forecasts a bora,
since this wind reaches its greatest power in the
Senj straits, we have plenty of reason to plan our
cruise along the western side of Cres.
For those who know how the bora is formed it will
be enough to take a look up at Velebit. According
to the size of the cap above the mountain, one
can work out what strength the bora will blow
with. For the cap is composed of the bora clouds,
as the locals call them.
One should not forget that the bora calms about
noon, but this weakening should not be
interpreted as a sign that it is about to stop. The
oldsters say that the bora goes off for lunch at this
time. In the afternoon it can come back still more
fiercely (perhaps the lunch was not to its taste,
though the old folks say nothing of this).
You often hear it said that it is enough to look
fromOpatija in the direction of Rijeka, above the
southern part of which a great chimney pokes
out. If the smoke goes straight up, there is no
bora. If it goes parallel with the surface of the
sea, the bora is very strong. But sailors and
weathervanes in the shape of industrial
chimneys are somehow incongruous. And what if
there is a fault in the plant one day, and there is
no wind? Or if for the sake of the environment
the wind should be sent off in some other, less
visible direction?
Medveja
Brseè
Lovran