{"id":1948,"date":"2015-11-30T17:25:08","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T17:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/?p=1948"},"modified":"2026-04-18T19:34:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T19:34:32","slug":"ode-to-cromarty-forties-forth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2015\/11\/ode-to-cromarty-forties-forth\/","title":{"rendered":"Ode to Cromarty, Forties, Forth…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The North wind doth blow (though not very hard). Our windmill acts like a weathervane even when it\u2019s not turning and it is facing resolutely north. We shall have snow.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we do. Snowbound, I\u2019m looking out the window at the blanket of white stuff turning our back garden to wonderland with robins, squirrels and pheasants adding their splash of red in a feeding frenzy round the bird table. For some reason at the same time the shipping forecast is running its thread of poetry through my head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While our windmill turns north the shipping forecast threatened westerlies, gale force 10. Out at sea they are having it \u2018rough or very rough\u2019. Here inland, more or less in line with \u2018Sea Area Forth,\u2019 we\u2019re feeling the back end of Storm Clodagh as wintry showers. \u2018Visibility good, occasionally poor.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire\u2026Sea state: very rough, becoming high. Weather squally, wintry showers. Visibility moderate or poor<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

For fireside travellers there\u2019s comfort in the familiarity of those names. I find a shivery assurance of continuity: ports in the storm \u2013 North Utsire, South Utsire, Cromarty, Forties, Forth\u2026 (even if I didn\u2019t even know how to spell Utsire until I checked the BBC website \u2013 it\u2019s an island off the Norwegian coast, if you\u2019re interested).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shipping forecast is a litany repeated four times a day on Radio 4, a voice of calm constancy whatever the weather. And for older listeners, perhaps, it also conjures a romantic echo of national fortitude: those wartime movies with dogged Jack Hawkins and Trevor Howard steering a steady course through the perils of the sea, their handsome chiselled features etched in black and white while forces of hell rained around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“Tyne, Dogger, Fisher\u2026Sea state, very rough or high. Weather rain or showers, Visibility good occasionally poor<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A few rainy nights ago, over a meal with friends, we tried to memorise that litany as it moves down and round the coast. Dogger, Fisher, German Bight\u2026then we got lost, faltering towards Fastnet, floundering at Malin, Fair Isle\u2026then what? Faeroes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I listened intently driving home last night, as more rain battered on the windscreen, but still couldn\u2019t recite the whole list when I got inside. Maybe, like crosswords and Sudoku, capturing accurately those elusive 33 names in correct order could serve as a daily exercise for the ageing brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there\u2019s better incentive for some. Over dinner \u2013 North Sea fish as it happens \u2013 one of our friends told his tale. As a young seadog he had spent a month on a four-masted sailing ship (he\u2019s not quite as ancient as that makes him sound \u2013 it was a training vessel for personal development and he was an apprentice accountant). On the night watch, one of his tasks was to listen to the forecast and fill in the log for the captain to read in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try as he might he could not grasp details beyond the immediate area \u2013 the other names and numbers slipped by too quickly. Using his initiative he decided that what mattered was the forecast for their immediate location and dutifully logged the local visibility, seas and wind directions. The captain soon put him right, with a sharp lecture and a punishment of 20 pushups to be carried out over the weather map, as a reminder that ships and weather systems do not stay in one place. If there\u2019s trouble ahead, just round the coast, or further out to sea they need to know it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"shipping\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps I\u2019m also making heavy weather of this, but that seems a good thing to remember on the eve of the Paris Summit, plus the looming EU referendum and all the other opportunities we have to stake out national boundaries. Weather \u2013 like climate change \u2013 knows no borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shipping forecast, for this fireside wayfarer anyway, is a daily reminder that the coastline of our small lump of rock is shaped by systems beyond our control. Besides, it is pure poetry. Now how does it go?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire,
\nCromarty, Forties, Forth, Tyne, Dogger,
\nFisher, German Bight,
\nHumber, Thames, Dover, Wight,
\nPortland, Plymouth,
\nBiscay, Trafalgar, Fitzroy,
\nSole, Lundy, Fastnet,
\nIrish Sea, Shannon, Rockall, Malin,
\nHebrides, Bailey, Fair Isle,
\nFaeroes, Southeast Iceland.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

By now the windmill shows a brisk southwesterly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visibility? Moderate or poor. Occasionally (very) good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A version of this blog can be found on the author’s personal <\/a><\/em>site<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our poetry editor follows humbly in the footsteps of Seamus Heaney, Carol Ann Duffy and Blur among many others and pays tribute to the enduring resonance of the shipping forecast as it enjoys its tenth (almost uninterrupted) decade on the BBC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1948"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19001,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948\/revisions\/19001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}