If the prospect of 1,500 miles of ocean sailing weren’t enough to put nerves on edge, crews aboard 115 boats queued up for the Salty Dawg Sailing Association (SDSA) Caribbean Rally last November were also confronted with on-the-nose tropical winds—winds that eventually strengthened into Hurricane Nicole.
Pinned against the Eastern Seaboard for nearly two weeks past the end of the official hurricane season, rally Director Bob Osborn was asked more than once, “Is this normal?”
“It’s very easy for us to say global warming is affecting us now,” he said in a call months later from Antigua. “Was this year’s delay a direct result of global warming? Or was it a variation in the weather? I don’t know.”
Sailors, like telltales, are sensitive to small changes in the environment. They’re out there in it, trained to adjust quickly. Every season they watch Jim Cantore bend into the wind. They’ve seen
