5/1/10 - Weather

We were finally able to get a good weather fax.  It looks like we´re leaving today.  In an effort to make myself more useful on the boat in areas besides cooking, cleaning and schooling, I decided to read up on weather and ask my extremely knowledgeable husband a few questions about reading weather faxes.  Sometimes he gives a bit too much information.  I never noticed this until we got out here away from everything and into subjects I don´t know very much about.  The exchange went like this...

Me:  What´s a millobar?
Andy: It´s a way of measuring ambient pressure by measuring millimeters of mercury in a vacuum.

Me:  Huh?  Uh... but what is it?  What does it do?
Andy:  There was this guy that developed a way of measuring atomospheric pressure by creating a glass tube that was full of mercury.  He had a vacuum at one end and the other end was open ot the atmosphere.  As a high pressure moved in, it would push the mercury down into the vacuum end and you could see the rise in pressure and vice versa when a low came through.

Me:  (long pause) Well...duuhh.  I new that.  How does it help me read the weather fax?
Andy:  The higher the number, the higher the pressure, the more fair the weather.
Me:  Oh right.  Thanks.
Andy:  Sure ( I think I saw him roll his eyes)

I´ve been accused of a lot of things, but being stupid was never one of them.  For some reason though, just about everything on this boat is in the realm of "I don´t get it."  Weather being one of them.  Next, I think I´ll ask Andy how the watermaker works.