The Beaufort Scale of Wind Strength and what it can mean to your holiday in Greece and the Greek Islands

Sea State	#	Description	Knots	Velocity km/h	Term	Code	Wave Height Meters
Mirror	0	calm, glassy	<1	<1	Calm	0	0
Ripples	1	light airs, rippled	1-3	1-5	Calm	1	0 - 0.1
Sm wavelets	2	Light breeze, wavelets	4-6	6-11	Smooth	2	0.1 - 0.5
Lg wavelets	3	Gentle breeze	7-10	12-19	Slight	3	0.5 - 1.25
Sm breaking waves	4	Moderate breeze	11-16	20-28	Moderate	4	1.25 - 2.5
Moderate waves & foam	5	Fresh Breeze	17-21	29-38	Rough	5	2.5 - 4
Lg waves, foam, spray	6	Strong Breeze	22-27	39-49
Sea heads up streaked foam	7	Near Gale	28-33	50-61	Very Rough	6	4 - 6
Higher long waves foam in streaks	8	Gale	34-40	62-74
High waves, dense foam,impaired visibility	9	Strong Gale	41-47	75-88	High	7	6 -9
Very high tumbling waves, surface white with foam, visibility affected	10	Storm	48-55	89-102	Very High	8	9 -14
Exceptionally high waves, sea covered in foam, visibility affected	11	Violent Storm	56-62	103-117	Phenomenal	9	Over 14
Air filled with spray and foam, visibility severely impaired	12	Hurricane	>63	>118

All ferry boat departures in Greece are subject to the Beaufort scale of wind strength. The Greeks pronounce Beaufort as 'Bofor' or 'Boforia' and most of them never heard of Beaufort but they all know 'Bofor'. On land they measure by kilometers but afloat by nautical miles so confusion can arise. Anyway, if the wind goes over 8 on the Beaufort Scale an 'Apa-go-ref-ti-KO' or 'Forbidding' is issued and all boats are not allow to leave port. However some smaller boats and especially catamarans are less stable and forbidden to leave port at lower levels of Beaufort strength as well.

The British Navy's greatest hydrographer and map-maker was actually an Irishman originally from Navan Co. Meath. Born in 1774 Francis Beaufort is best remembered as the originator of the Beaufort Scale which classifies the velocity and force of winds at sea.

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