Long before anyone here checked a phone for the weather, the harbour told its own story to those who paid attention. With the storm season creeping earlier each year, it is worth remembering that the bay still gives plenty of notice to anyone willing to look up from the screen.
None of this is mysticism. It is simply the accumulated observation of people who have watched the same stretch of water in all its moods, and it lines up neatly with what the instruments measure.
The old signs, and what they mean
The most reliable warnings tend to come from the interaction of wind, swell and tide rather than any single one of them. When they arrive together, the working boats notice first.
- A long, low swell rolling in under a flat sky often runs ahead of weather still out of sight.
- Gulls moving inland in numbers usually means it is worth checking your mooring lines.
- An easterly building against a rising tide is the combination Lower Quay watches most closely.
The forecasts are good and getting better, and nobody should ignore them. But the harbour has been keeping its own records far longer, and reading both together is how the people who live by this water have always stayed a step ahead of it.
Related: Harbour & Coast · tide-gate repairs and winter flooding
Further reading: Storm surge
