Step 1 - Scenario/Narrative

You and your family are on a 44’ Beneteau circumnavigating Vancouver Island. You are currently anchored in Bull Harbour (Hope Island) and want to make it around Cape Scott early in the day so you can have time to explore the beaches on the other side in the afternoon before carrying on to Sea Otter Cove for the night. Your first obstacle will be Nahwitti Bar, a shallow sandbar approximately 5km wide. You are concerned about the timing of crossing the bar and the hazards posed by breaking waves. Do you:

· Cross the bar first thing in the morning at low slack. It will be dark and your crew may not want to get up and help you, but then you will have time for the beach exploring you wanted to do. The weather looks good.

· Cross at high slack. It will be lighter out by that time and the weather looks good.

· Cross in the afternoon, but you likely arrive in Sea Otter Cove as it’s starting to get dark and you won’t have time for any beach exploring on the way.

· Try going around the bar in the morning. There’s a reef close to shore where you’ve heard that some boats are able to make it through if they carefully monitor their depth and their GPS.

· The weather doesn’t look so good. Stay in Bull Harbour an extra day and leave the following day under instead.

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Step 2 – Access to Related Info

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Step 3 – Your Weather Queries

Often, the first step to making a good decision is knowing what questions to ask regarding the weather and the outing.

Your assignment: What questions do YOU want to ask, to help you make the best decision?

(Example of a weather question: What days will the visibility in the alpine be good?)

Enter your questions into the UBC Connect system, for the module: Sailing Sports w00 Step 3. (will need to change for each case)

These count towards your grade (for grade weights, see the Evaluation link from the course home page). The grade is based on the relevance of the questions you ask for the scenario of this learning module, not on the amount of questions you ask. Please be brief/succinct. We don't need the answers yet - only your questions.

Step 4 – Meteorological Concepts

New Page

Title: page 2 (steps 5 – 6)

UBC ATSC113 Sailing Weather - Module (case ID = w00-page 2)

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Group Activities (not available until you have finished your readings & quizzes from Step 4)

These next activities are done by groups of four students. You have the opportunity to change groups if you wish. To do this, go to Snow-Weather-Snow-Groups on Connect. You will stay in the same group for all the snow modules. You will have the opportunity to change groups again at the start of the Sailing-Weather theme.

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Step 5 – Data Available at the Start of Trip

Click on each link below to get details of the specific weather situation for this particular scenario. Use this specific info, along with the general weather fundamentals you learned in Step 4, to help you make a safe decision in Step 6.

Don't know how to interpret these data? Review the meteorological concepts back in Step 4.

Step 5b. Discuss your interpretation of these data with your group-mates.

Your grade for this module depends partly on whether you make a good decision in Step 6, AND on how many of your group-mates make the same decision. So you can improve your grade by discussing with your group-mates the reasons for your decision. To enable this group chat and debate, we use an app called "Slack". Click here for instructions on how to join the Slack chat-room for your group.

Step 6 below is a non-working sample of the decision choices from which you select the best one. Use the Step 6 "quiz" on UBC Connect to select your choice. You can change your mind as often as you want (i.e., multiple attempts on this "quiz" are allowed) until the deadline listed on the course home page Schedule.

Tips:

· In Slack, chat with your groupmates to find a time when you can all be online at the same time to discuss the options. Be sure to do this before the deadline as given on the course home page.

· Do your "homework" by accessing all of the data in Step 5a before your online group meeting starts.

· During your group meeting, you will likely have 2 apps open simultaneously in separate windows on your computer:

1. Slack

2. This web page.

· That way, you can go back and look at the weather and snow data as you debate which recommendation to make.

· In real life, sometimes there is not a "perfect" decision, because of uncertainties in the weather. Your job is to find the most reasonable recommendation, given the uncertainty.

Good luck.

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Step 6 – Your Recommendations

Note: Your grade will depend on whether your individual recommendation is correct AND on how many of your team members agree with you. Feel free to go back to Step 5a to discuss more in the Slack chat-room before you make your final decision. No changes are allowed after you check your "decision is final" box below.

The deadline to finish section 6 is given on the course home web page, after which Steps 7 - 10 of this Module will be revealed.

Title: page 1 (steps 7 – 10)

UBC ATSC113 Sailing Weather - Module (case ID = w00-page 3)

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Readings and online activities done by each student individually.

Step 7 - Actual Outcome

This module was not based on an incident, however it is based on personal experience. The boat I’ve described is one that my family and I go out cruising on every summer. Nahwitti Bar is infamous for its hazards to boaters, but that doesn’t stop them from crossing it under the right conditions. Due to the shallowing of the sea floor at Nahwitti Bar, approaching swell can build into breaking waves very quickly. This is of particular concern at low slack after the tide has ebbed out through Goletas Channel. This is when the tide is the lowest and thus when the water is shallowest over the bar, causing breaking waves to form. Furthermore, the direction of the tide and wind can generate waves over the bar. If the tide is ebbing (flowing out to sea) and the winds are opposing from the northwest, you will likely see some big choppy waves developing.

I have crossed the bar once myself and it was very unremarkable because we timed it right. We crossed the bar at high slack, and you wouldn’t even have known it was there. The waters were relatively calm, with only a gentle ocean swell coming in from the Pacific. The window of high slack, however, can be quite short, and I recall looking back an hour or so after crossing the bar to see white caps in the distance.

Step 8 – Related Stories and Links

Most bars are formed at the entrances to rivers or harbours. There are endless reports of fishing boats and recreational boaters getting caught in the waves as they try to cross the bar. Many of these bars have constantly breaking waves, meaning you can’t just wait for calm seas at high slack as we did in the Nahwitti Bar example. I wouldn’t recommend crossing these bars in a sailboat, although some people do:

Catamaran crosses the Southport Seaway: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp9WvZzxdR8).

Sail boat crossing Port Macquarie bar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_QOqkMtdMw

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Step 9 – Thoughts by Experts

Crossing ocean bars can be very dangerous, and should only be undertaken by experienced boaters. Every sand bar is different so it is important to learn as much as you can about the bar and the waters around it before crossing.

Always check the tides and currents when planning to cross a bar, without them, you are essentially gambling with your life.

Note that crossing an ocean bar in a sailboat is very different than crossing in a power boat. Many small power boats are able to cross ocean bars while waves are breaking due to their increased maneuverability, however they too need to assess the risks and plan their course appropriately.

From Maritime Safety Victoria:

While approaching the bar keep a close lookout for the depth of water, wave size, and where the breakers are. Make sure you also monitor the wind direction and force, wave pattern timing and potential alternate routes. Note: breaking waves indicate shallow water.

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Step 10 – Do-over/Reset

If you could start over for this particular case study (knowing the actual outcome from Step 7), what would you do differently?

For example, would you make a different decision?

Would you want more or different data to help you make your decision (if so, which data), etc.

Enter your statements into the UBC Connect system, for the module: Sailing Weather w00 Step 10.

These count towards your grade (for grade weights, see the Evaluation link from the course home page). The grade is based on the relevance of your statements for the scenario of this learning module, and on the indication that you learned from your mistakes (if any), not on the amount of statements you make. Please be brief/succinct.