Weekend Morning Show: "Weather or not"

I opened up the v-berth hatch this morning to a beautiful blue sky. What a relief. That clear sky is something to celebrate for those of us who try to live on the water during the summer. The weather becomes the framework of our existence, our state of mind and dominates much of the conversation among sailors.

For some reason my neighbors want to blame me for any bad boating weather. "You guys really blew that forecast", I will hear.along with, "can't you do better than this?". Working in a tv newsroom in proximity to the meteorologists somehow makes us culpable for the weather forecast. Of course, everybody really knows that forecasting weather near Lake Erie is equal parts art and science. It's just nice to blame somebody for getting the forecast wrong.

I am sure Betsy, A.J., Bruce, and Holly take an inaccurate forecast personally. They probably get peppered with comments everywhere they go if it rains on a supposedly "sunny" day. They are also wise enough to take credit for an accurate forecast but not the good weather. Although how many times have you heard a news anchor say, "see if you can do something to warm up these temps" to the weather person. As if the meteorologist has some special satellite phone request line to the wx gods.

Today we're going to have winds out of the north around 10 knots. That means it's going to be a bit chilly on the water for sailors heading up wind. There will be a lot of fleece on deck as we trim our headsails and crack off on a reach across the lake. But I can guarantee everybody will be smiling. We've been waiting for this kind of weekend since October.

But at the end of the day, when all the boats are back in their slips tied up safely and the owners are relaxing in the cockpit with a beverage, folks will still be talking about the weather. "It's about time we had a good day", you will hear along with "they say it's supposed to be even nicer tomorrow, but what do they know".

With summer on the Great Lakes so short and precious, we treasure every weekend and the weather is the key to that enjoyment. That's why I won't mind it one bit when somebody complains and tells me on the dock, "can't your weekend weatherman warm things up?".

We're all in the same weather boat up here!!!