Nature’s Clues & Signs 2 – Brockenhurst, New Forest
Recently I visited the town of Brockenhurst, in the New Forest, Hampshire, England. The New Forest is famous for its unique landscapes of ‘forest pasture’…
Category: How To Read Water
Full Moons Mean Big and Fast Tides
It’s a full moon today. Full moons mean unusually big, fast and powerful tides over the next few days. You might also enjoy: How to…
Dew: A Sign of a Clear Skies
There are many signs within dew, but the simplest one is that you are most likely to see it after clear and cloudless skies overnight.…
How to Spot Patterns in Calm Water
If you are trying to work out what calm water is doing, it is sometimes tempting to feel like nothing interesting is happening. There are…
David Hockney Reads about Reading Water
My thanks to Charlie Gladstone for sending an interesting email about a beautiful book, with an intriguing couple of paragraphs. The book in question is…
It’s Publication Day!
It’s publication day for The Secret World of Weather! Happy weather sign hunting!
The Colour and Shape of Navigation Marks
Most navigators, even inexperienced ones, learn that colours are important when trying to identify navigation marks at sea. And most people also know that there…
The First Review is In!
The first review of The Secret World of Weather is in and it’s a fun one. It’s in the Times today. “Gooley marshals a riveting…
SUPfm Podcast Interview
I recently did a fun interview with Simon Hutchinson for the SUPfm podcast (Stand Up Paddle board). As you’d imagine, we mostly talked about reading…
How to See Through Reflections on Water
Anyone who spends time on or near the water will have noticed that sometimes we can see through water, but often we can’t. For those…
New Book US Cover Reveal
I’m delighted and excited to reveal the North American cover of my new book, The Secret World of Weather. It is out on April 8th…
Frozen Splash Sculpture
Water sprayed by cars driving through a puddle has frozen in the layer of very cold air near the ground.
Which Way Are We Looking?
Which way are we looking in this picture? (North, South, East or West?) Answer: We are looking east. There are clues in the puddles, the…
Why do waves bend towards the shore?
When waves meet shallow water they slow down. When one side of a wave slows down, the wave bends towards that side. It is a…
Reading Ice Patterns and Compasses
Here is a selection of images from a recent dawn exploration of my local hills. I’ve explained how to read these patterns and signs in…
The Fish Cliff Clue
When John Pahl and I were sailing around Iceland, we noticed that you could use the puffins to indicate the direction of land very reliably,…
Winter Sea Cumulus
The clouds always make a map for us. On winter mornings, the cumulus clouds map the sea. A lot more about this and the other…
5 Sea Colours That Are Easy to See
Every time we look out at the sea there are lots of colours. Our brain tends to mash them all up because it is busy…
Courses Update
My thanks to everyone who has joined the online course. The cornerstone of the course is the 12 ‘Chapters’ – twelve instructional videos: The Senses,…
What is a ‘Drying Height’ on a Chart?
The definition of a drying height: “The drying height is the vertical distance of the seabed that is exposed by the tide, above the sea water level at the lowest astronomical tide.” But this…
Water-pepper, Persicaria hydropiper
Water-pepper, Persicaria hydropiper, is a bitter tasting map-maker. It is an inconspicuous annual plant, but it is useful to natural navigators. It grows up to…