In meteorology, what is a hectopascal?
Send your answers to cruisingcompass@bwsailing.com. A winner will be selected randomly from the correct answers and will win a one-year subscription to the digital version of Blue Water Sailing magazine.
Congratulations to Sara Sullivan, Honolulu, HI who correctly answered last week’s question. “You will see the undersides of clouds turn a light shade of turquoise in a tropic sea when the clouds are over a low lying coral lagoon or atoll that may be over the horizon. The color is a reflection of the turquoise color of the water in the lagoon. Polynesian navigators of old used this knowledge to locate low lying atolls while voyaging around the North and South Pacific Oceans without compasses or any other instruments. They also used the sun, moon, planets and stars to guide them. And they could also identify their proximity to land by watching wave patterns change and noting changes in the pelagic bird population. Really amazing.”
