Ok, settle down you old salty dogs, these aren't the fair-weather countersunk sailors you see sunning themselves on the decks of 50 ft. sailboats.  We're talking about weather classifications.

We hear the terms "small craft warnings" or it's "blowing a gale" often enough to take a  more detailed look at what these terms really mean as far as wind speed and water conditions. Let's start with small craft warnings.

There are no exact definitions for small craft warning and therefore is subjective to the local marine area.  Let's call it lower 20 to just over 30 mph winds where my neighbor Pat may want to delay his standing paddle surfing gig for another day.  You could  expect  2-4  foot waves  with white caps out on the sound for at least a couple of hours.

When neighbor Jeff tells his wife "simmer down Agnes", there's usually a gale predicted to blow on www.beachdriveblog. You can expect winds in the lower 30 to upper 40 mph range. Waves come in at 4 to 6 feet commonly sending spray onto Beach Drive over Emma Schmitz park.

I'm currently in a dense fog of creeping crud caught from my sons that brought it in from high school…

Scupper

Editors Note:  Please welcome a new contributor to Beach Drive Blog who is writing under the alias of "Scupper".    Scupper is a Beach Drive resident and we look forward to more colorful post.   If you live in the Beach Drive neighborhood and are interested in contributing to the blog, please let us know!