Each week, Bateaux.com offers you a question about the boat license. To validate your skills or even to discover unexplored areas. This week, we are tackling a question about signals on semaphores.
What do those red and white lights on a semaphore mean?
The semaphores, when they are present on our coasts, give indications on the weather. When the wind is announced at force 8 and more, the semaphore lights up red and white lights at night and raises black cones during the day.
In our example, it is to announce a gale or storm (force 8 to 11) starting in the North East quadrant. This same daytime signal would have been two black cones pointing up.
Here is a small reminder to remember the indications that can be found on the semaphores.
It is a question of boat license, but it is clear that this kind of method to communicate the weather is now obsolete. A boater will be quicker to consult his phone and his favorite weather application which will offer a much better forecast..
