Most people now agree that the earth 's climate is changing and, for whatever reasons, the rate of change is accelerating. Years ago, I wrote an article about changes we as sailors were seeing in the weather patterns, basically noting that the extremes seemed to be getting 'extremer '.

2015 is turning out to be a very strange weather year all around the world. Europe 's weather is wet, chilly and windy, while the west coast of North America is unusually hot and dry, with drought right up into Canada. The Atlantic has been rougher with more northerly storms but few tropical storms. The Pacific has been plagued by multiple super typhoons.

My questions are these? Has the change in weather patterns affected how we as sailors travel the oceans? Have the changes affected predictability of the weather? Are sailors in a unique position to observe and report anomalies? Will we need to change how and when we think about crossing oceans? Do you have a point of view on this topic?

Vice Commodore, OCC