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Wednesday, October 14, 2026
He reached the Americas centuries before Columbus. Why doesn’t he get more credit?
"Leiv Eiriksson Discovering America," by the Norwegian artist Christian Krohg, from the National Museum of Art in Oslo.
A version of the painting by the artist's son, Per Krohg, hangs in the U.S.
Capitol.
Capitol.
(Heritage Images/Getty Images)
From The Washington Post by By Matthew Hay Brown
Accounts of Leif Erikson’s voyage to present-day Canada were known to Europeans in Christopher Columbus’s time.
For the explorers from ice-covered Greenland, it must have seemed a paradise.
A genuinely green land of lush meadows irrigated by free-flowing rivers.
Whales and caribou to hunt, nesting birds and wild salmon to catch, grapes and wheat to gather.
A warmer climate, with more daylight and milder winters.
These Norsemen and women, led by the Viking Leif Erikson, built a year-round outpost believed to be a station for ship repair and staging ground for voyages farther south.
They fought and traded with Indigenous peoples.
At least one woman gave birth.
They named it Vinland.
Today, it’s called Newfoundland, in Atlantic Canada.
The Norse arrived in the year 1000, give or take a decade — half a millennium before a certain other European explorer first landed in the Bahamas.
So why, on Monday, does the United States observe Columbus Day?
‘Columbus had better PR’
Christopher Columbus, bearing sword and banner, claims the island known by its natives as Guanahani for Spain in this 1893 lithograph.
It's believed to be San Salvador in the present-day Bahamas.
It's believed to be San Salvador in the present-day Bahamas.
(Library of Congress)
Christopher Columbus never set foot on the North American continent.
It wasn’t until after his death that Juan Ponce de León became the first European to reach what is now the United States.Ask The Post AIDive deeper
“Columbus had better PR,” says John Steinberg, an archeologist at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Much of what’s understood about the Norse presence in North America comes from the Vinland Sagas, a pair of 13th-century Icelandic works of genealogy, stories and navigational data that was uncorroborated until the discovery of Norse artifacts in Newfoundland in the 1960s.
Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the Americas in 1492, by contrast, was detailed by the contemporary writer Bartolomé de las Casas, a lawyer and Dominican friar working in part from Columbus’s own logs.
“The Vinland Sagas are stories told around a campfire,” Steinberg says.
“We have legends and archeology but no real history.
...
With Columbus, someone writes the story from his point of view.”
An Italian American heritage day
(Wisconsin Historical Society/Getty Images)
The Genoan navigator also benefited from a strong Italian American lobby, during a period when Italian immigrants to the United States were subjected to sometimes violent discrimination.
Columbus Day is first known to have been celebrated in New York on Oct. 12, 1792, the 300th anniversary of his landfall.
The first distinctly Italian American observance came in 1866.
In 1891, a mob in New Orleans lynched 11 Italian immigrants.
Italy severed diplomatic relations with the United States.
The following year, President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed Oct. 12 a national holiday.
Lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal order, and prominent Italian Americans eventually led to its proclamation as a federal holiday in 1937 by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt.
In reaching the Americas, Columbus and those who followed him brought slavery, disease and death to the native population, and academics and activists in recent years have called for an end to the holiday.
In 1989, as the 500th anniversary of his first voyage approached, South Dakota, home to nine federally recognized tribes, replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day.
More than a dozen states and the District of Columbia have followed suit.
Joe Biden in 2021 became the first president to proclaim Indigenous Peoples’ Day, alongside Columbus Day.
President Donald Trump, whose administration has pushed to scrub federal institutions of what it calls “corrosive ideology” — including policies or programs recognizing historical oppression and racism — last year signed a presidential proclamation to recognize Columbus as “the original American hero.”
Trump last year proclaimed that he was “bringing Columbus Day back from the ashes,” though many places had never stopped celebrating it.
Corroborating the sagas
(Science Source)
For centuries, the Norse claim to have reached Americas rested on the Saga of the Greenlanders and the Saga of Erik the Red, sometimes contradictory works written some 250 years after the events they depict.
As history, the sagas can be problematic.
Alongside plausible descriptions of Viking life on land and at sea, they recount, for example, the time that the recently deceased Thorstein Erikson sits up to speak to his widow.
Also the mortal wounding of Thorvald Erikson by a one-legged creature, and the natives who elude Norse capture by vanishing.
(Leif, Thorstein and Thorvald were all sons of the explorer Erik the Red.)
But as navigational guides, historian Eleanor Barraclough says, the sagas are remarkably helpful.
“Part of it is the stuff you need to know to survive out in the world, which is directions and how to get across seas,” says Barraclough, author of “Beyond the Northlands: Viking Voyages and the Old Norse Sagas.”
“And so that material is really quite neatly mapped.”
It was the sagas that pointed the Norwegian husband-and-wife team of explorer Helge Ingstad and archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad to L’Anse aux Meadows on the northern shore of Newfoundland, where in 1960 they discovered traces of a Norse settlement — the first evidence of European contact with the Americas before Columbus.
Found at the site were the remnants of eight sod-and-wood structures — three longhouses that could have housed scores of people, an iron forge and several workshops — identical to those the Vikings built in Iceland and Greenland, and artifacts including bone needles, iron nails, ship rivets and a bronze ring-headed cloak pin.
Researchers using carbon dating estimated the outpost to have been in use at some point between 990 and 1050.
In 2021, scientists at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands used a new method — counting tree rings from the radiocarbon signature left by a solar disturbance known to have occurred in 993 — to date three pieces of wood hewn there to 1021.
L’Anse aux Meadows is now a Canadian National Historic Site with artifacts, replica buildings and historical interpreters, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
What were Vikings doing in Newfoundland?
We don’t know, precisely, but we can theorize.
The Norse were known to have ranged as far south as the Mediterranean and as far east as Kievan Rus’, present-day Russia.
To build ships, they needed lumber, a commodity scarce in Iceland and Greenland.
According to the Saga of the Greenlanders, the Icelandic merchant Bjarni Herjólfsson, blown off course while attempting to reach Erik the Red’s settlement in Greenland, was the first Norseman to sight Vinland.
Leif Erikson, intrigued by Herjólfsson’s stories of a forested land, bought his ship and attempted to retrace his steps.
With a crew of 35, he found territory he called Helluland (Land of Flat Stones), believed to be present-day Baffin Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut; Markland (Land of Forest), believed to be Labrador; and Vinland (Land of Wine).
The outpost at L’Anse aux Meadows might have been one in a network of sites used by the Norse throughout the year, as in Greenland and Iceland.
“They would have summer dairy stations, fishing stations,” Steinberg says.
The relatively modest accommodations, lack of burial sites and comparatively shallow midden pile — waste dump — all suggest that it was not intended as a permanent settlement.
“It’s an outpost,” Barraclough says.
“They’re using that place as a sort of springboard so they can spend their winters mending ships and then they can keep going further inland.”
Among the most compelling finds at the site are butternut shells.
Butternut trees don’t grow naturally in Newfoundland.
Their presence suggests that the Norse ventured farther south, perhaps to the Saint Lawrence River Valley or New Brunswick, or at least traded with people who did.
According to the sagas, the Norse had both friendly and violent encounters with Indigenous peoples.
A notable figure in the sagas is Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir, the widow of Thorstein Erikson.
She is said to have remarried and given birth to a son, Snorri, believed to be the first child of European descent born on the North American mainland; attempted a conversation with an Indigenous woman; and, after converting to Christianity, made a pilgrimage to Rome.
It’s unclear how long the Norse remained in contact with Vinland.
Scientists conjecture sporadic visits over decades.
Barraclough notes a 14th-century report of a ship blown off course from Markland — Labrador — turning up in Iceland.
“And so even in the 1300s,” she says, “it seems quite plausible that there are at least foraging expeditions, because Greenland doesn’t have an awful lot of wood, and the Norse really do need wood for the type of lifestyle that they’re trying to keep going.”
The campaign for Leif Erikson Day
It was the sagas that pointed the Norwegian husband-and-wife team of explorer Helge Ingstad and archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad to L’Anse aux Meadows on the northern shore of Newfoundland, where in 1960 they discovered traces of a Norse settlement — the first evidence of European contact with the Americas before Columbus.
Found at the site were the remnants of eight sod-and-wood structures — three longhouses that could have housed scores of people, an iron forge and several workshops — identical to those the Vikings built in Iceland and Greenland, and artifacts including bone needles, iron nails, ship rivets and a bronze ring-headed cloak pin.
Researchers using carbon dating estimated the outpost to have been in use at some point between 990 and 1050.
In 2021, scientists at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands used a new method — counting tree rings from the radiocarbon signature left by a solar disturbance known to have occurred in 993 — to date three pieces of wood hewn there to 1021.
L’Anse aux Meadows is now a Canadian National Historic Site with artifacts, replica buildings and historical interpreters, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
What were Vikings doing in Newfoundland?
We don’t know, precisely, but we can theorize.
The Norse were known to have ranged as far south as the Mediterranean and as far east as Kievan Rus’, present-day Russia.
To build ships, they needed lumber, a commodity scarce in Iceland and Greenland.
According to the Saga of the Greenlanders, the Icelandic merchant Bjarni Herjólfsson, blown off course while attempting to reach Erik the Red’s settlement in Greenland, was the first Norseman to sight Vinland.
Leif Erikson, intrigued by Herjólfsson’s stories of a forested land, bought his ship and attempted to retrace his steps.
With a crew of 35, he found territory he called Helluland (Land of Flat Stones), believed to be present-day Baffin Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut; Markland (Land of Forest), believed to be Labrador; and Vinland (Land of Wine).
The outpost at L’Anse aux Meadows might have been one in a network of sites used by the Norse throughout the year, as in Greenland and Iceland.
“They would have summer dairy stations, fishing stations,” Steinberg says.
The relatively modest accommodations, lack of burial sites and comparatively shallow midden pile — waste dump — all suggest that it was not intended as a permanent settlement.
“It’s an outpost,” Barraclough says.
“They’re using that place as a sort of springboard so they can spend their winters mending ships and then they can keep going further inland.”
Among the most compelling finds at the site are butternut shells.
Butternut trees don’t grow naturally in Newfoundland.
Their presence suggests that the Norse ventured farther south, perhaps to the Saint Lawrence River Valley or New Brunswick, or at least traded with people who did.
According to the sagas, the Norse had both friendly and violent encounters with Indigenous peoples.
A notable figure in the sagas is Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir, the widow of Thorstein Erikson.
She is said to have remarried and given birth to a son, Snorri, believed to be the first child of European descent born on the North American mainland; attempted a conversation with an Indigenous woman; and, after converting to Christianity, made a pilgrimage to Rome.
It’s unclear how long the Norse remained in contact with Vinland.
Scientists conjecture sporadic visits over decades.
Barraclough notes a 14th-century report of a ship blown off course from Markland — Labrador — turning up in Iceland.
“And so even in the 1300s,” she says, “it seems quite plausible that there are at least foraging expeditions, because Greenland doesn’t have an awful lot of wood, and the Norse really do need wood for the type of lifestyle that they’re trying to keep going.”
The campaign for Leif Erikson Day
(Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images)
As 19th-century Italian Americans began lobbying for Columbus Day, so Scandinavians sought recognition for Leif Erickson Day.
The movement was fueled by the 1874 publication of “America Not Discovered by Columbus” by Rasmus B. Anderson, a professor of Scandinavian studies at the University of Wisconsin and later a U.S. ambassador to Denmark.
Though overbroad in its claims — Anderson writes of Leif Erikson’s travel to present-day New England, for which no evidence has been found — the work helped to popularize the idea of the Norse “discovery” of the Americas.
In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge, speaking to a group of Norwegian Americans on the 100th anniversary of the arrival of Norwegian immigrants in New York Harbor, called Erikson the discoverer of America.
Soon, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, all home to substantial Scandinavian American populations, declared Leif Erikson days.
President Lyndon Johnson followed with a national holiday in 1964, proclaimed by every president since.
It’s celebrated today principally in the Upper Midwest.
As it was on Friday.
It falls each Oct. 9 — not a date from Erikson’s life, but the anniversary of the arrival of those 1825 immigrants.
And, conveniently, a few days before that other explorer’s day.
Links :
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
What about the nautical chart content?
Figure 3: Very detailed bathymetric information on a Transit ENC (compilation scale 90,000) displayed on SEAiq Pilot.
The area is also covered by ENCs at compilation scales 45,000 and 22,000. (Image courtesy: Shom)
From Hydro by Christian Mouden, SHOM
Why the transition to S-101 is a unique review opportunity
Hydrographic offices (HOs) are preparing their transition into the new S-100 era.
Why the transition to S-101 is a unique review opportunity
Hydrographic offices (HOs) are preparing their transition into the new S-100 era.
This will require them to scheme different S-100 products that will be used in future ECDIS systems, set up the production, validation and distribution processes, train staff and so on.
The imminent transition from S-57 to S-101 offers a unique opportunity to review and optimize the content of nautical charts for modern navigation.
This article focuses on the use of electronic navigational charts (ENCs) in ECDIS systems, while recognizing the increasing use of ENCs on electronic chart systems (ECS) for non-SOLAS navigation.
For the past 30 years or so, mariners have been using official S-57 ENCs on their ECDIS systems, supporting safety of life at sea (SOLAS).
For the past 30 years or so, mariners have been using official S-57 ENCs on their ECDIS systems, supporting safety of life at sea (SOLAS).
The primary goal for HOs was to provide ENC coverage of the main maritime routes as quickly as possible.
That is why S-57 ENCs have almost always been produced by digitizing all the information on paper charts that formed national portfolios, with content dating back many decades or more.
While these ENCs were indeed new digital products, they were certainly not newly charted information (see Figure 1).
It was customary at the time to portray the maximum amount of information on the entire chart extent, and the content was designed with the sole purpose of being printed at certain scales and used accordingly by the mariner.
It was customary at the time to portray the maximum amount of information on the entire chart extent, and the content was designed with the sole purpose of being printed at certain scales and used accordingly by the mariner.
Obviously, it was not considered for use on an ECDIS. This ‘show all’ compilation method is defined as ‘full depiction’ in the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) S-4 standard.
Full depiction is applied on the largest-scale charts, with the aim of showing as much information as space permits.
Figure 1: Shom chart 6540 (published in 1970) and the equivalent ENC FR565400 displayed on SEAiq Pilot. (Image courtesy: Shom)In reality, charted information (topographic features, bathymetric data, etc) varies considerably, not only from one HO to another but also over time within a single HO – and it can even depend on an individual cartographer’s interpretation.
The overall result can be very dense, with charts showing detail in areas where the mariner is not intended to navigate, or information of no benefit to navigation.
This often leads to ECDIS screen clutter. SCAMIN attribution, which is encoded on most of the ENC objects, is intended to optimize the display when the mariner zooms out by reducing clutter.
However, the current optional implementation by most HOs is not optimum and can certainly be improved.
The qualities of a good chart
In the case of the ENC specifically, being free of validation check errors (IHO S-58 standard) does not necessarily mean it is a high-quality product.
While S-58 validation checks ensure the digital product is consistent with the IHO ENC Product Specification, they do not consider the three basic qualities of a nautical chart:
1. It must be safe.
1. It must be safe.
This is the responsibility of the producing authority.
It is worth noting that safe does not mean, for instance, that the chart has been entirely compiled from recent surveys conducted with modern techniques.
Rather, it means that the overall charted features – including metadata on the quality of surveys (typically CATZOC attribute) or position accuracy attribute POSACC – provide the mariners with ad-hoc information so that they can appreciate the accuracy of the depth information in any area and adjust their routes and ECDIS look-ahead settings accordingly.
2. It must meet user requirements.
2. It must meet user requirements.
This means that the chart content is optimized with regard to the navigational purpose and the complexity of the area.
The chart content must also be adjusted depending on the possible existence of larger-scale charts in the area.
3. It must be easy to read.
3. It must be easy to read.
This quality is sometimes overlooked.
The best illustration of this is probably the density of soundings, which is often very high, even in areas with a relatively regular seabed with few significant shoals.
When displayed on the ECDIS, this makes it difficult to distinguish the objects that are most helpful for navigation.
The situation often becomes critical when text is displayed; then, screen clutter reaches saturation point.
It is important that HOs avoid producing unnecessarily crowded charts, recognizing that mariners often do not fully understand the technical content of the charts.
It is important that HOs avoid producing unnecessarily crowded charts, recognizing that mariners often do not fully understand the technical content of the charts.
For example, S-4 standard includes some detailed charting rules that the mariner may be ignorant of. The recent merging of abbreviations for ‘Position Approximate’ and ‘Position Doubtful’ (PA/PD) offers a good example of how charts can be made easier to read for mariners. Keeping charts as simple as possible facilitates their task
Less information also significantly reduces the number of features in the ECDIS pick report.
More generalization for more efficiency
Generalization is the cartographic process used to produce a smaller-scale chart from a larger-scale one. Nautical chart generalization principles are described in the S-4 standard, which provides basic guidance to cartographers on the levels of detail to be retained according to the navigational purpose of the chart.
S-4 also mentions that some vessels might not carry all the largest-scale charts and may be forced by unplanned circumstances (e.g. bad weather) to approach the coast or shelter using a smaller-scale chart.
For this reason, according to S-4, omission of details on smaller scales should be considered carefully. Although this is valid for paper chart navigation, the situation is different for SOLAS vessels that have the capacity to acquire ENCs on demand.
Apart from the full depiction provided on larger-scale charts and the generalization that should be applied on smaller-scale ones, the S-4 standard also allows the use of minimal depiction.
Apart from the full depiction provided on larger-scale charts and the generalization that should be applied on smaller-scale ones, the S-4 standard also allows the use of minimal depiction.
This is an extreme case of generalization that omits most features in an area, even though space is available to show some of them.
This process could be used more frequently on small-scale ENCs in specific areas such as estuaries or harbours.
On current charts, generalization is often minimal; many small-scale charts show detailed information, even in areas that are covered by larger scales.
On current charts, generalization is often minimal; many small-scale charts show detailed information, even in areas that are covered by larger scales.
Is there a need to show detailed information close to the shore on a ENC for transit navigation? Minimal depiction areas should be preferred in such cases (see Figure 4).
This would make charts easier to read and would also reduce the volume of the digital files.
S-101: a unique opportunity
The transition to S-101 is challenge for data providers as they will have to convert their existing S-57 data (or rather S-57 database, in some cases) to S-101.
Although this conversion will be an automated process executed using mapping files, it will require a careful initial review and consolidation of existing data to minimize both potential conversion issues and post-conversion edits of S-101 data.
This necessary preparation can be a huge task, but it is also a unique and perfect opportunity to review chart content so that it completely fits the actual needs of modern navigation.
Apart from the general chart content described above, HOs can also take advantage of this opportunity to review their national portfolios, such as by:
Apart from the general chart content described above, HOs can also take advantage of this opportunity to review their national portfolios, such as by:
- optimizing the number of scales used
- reviewing the S-57 encoding to reduce the number of alarms on the ECDIS (this has been a constant complaint from mariners)
- encoding more depth contours than traditionally, especially in port areas where the seabed is not evolutive and where S-102 products (bathymetric surface) will not be necessary or available
- reviewing areas encoded with a CATZOC value ‘Unassessed’
- replacing qualitative accuracy attributes such as QUAPOS with quantitative attributes that can be used by the ECDIS look-ahead functionality
For HOs, this not only means a lighter workload for the conversion, validation and S-101 data post-conversion edits, but will also significantly reduce the necessary updates once the charts have been published.
Too heavy a task?
Hydrographic Offices may very well argue that the S-57 to S-101 conversion is already a challenge and that they do not have the resources to review their entire chart portfolio content.
This is only partly true.
Before changing the chart portfolio content, it will of course be necessary to define the new chart content.
Before changing the chart portfolio content, it will of course be necessary to define the new chart content.
Once these principles have been agreed, digital data and existing tools will allow a high level of automation.
It is possible to automate the reduction of sounding density, or remove specific features in selected areas, for instance. Ideally, this should be done before converting the data to S-101.
Nations with small ENC portfolios will be able to optimize their chart content ‘manually’.
Other producers can take advantage of existing tools to reduce the resources necessary to accomplish their chart modernization.
Conclusion
Although it may be out of scope for most hydrographic offices, they should at least consider rationalizing their nautical chart portfolio and content.
For HOs, this is a long-term investment to reduce their chart maintenance workload.
At this point in time, it is also a unique opportunity to ultimately better address mariners’ real-world challenges and provide them with all the data they need specifically and only the data they need, to ensure safe and easy navigation on their ECDIS or ECS.
There is no doubt they will be grateful when they experience the results.
The Atlantic’s near-record hurricane drought is about to end
Photograph : Joe Raedle/Getty Images
From Wired by Brian Kahn
Tropical Storm Isaias is set to become the basin’s first hurricane of the season, bringing life-threatening rain and storm surge to the Gulf Coast.
THE 2026 ATLANTIC hurricane season has been mercifully dull, but that’s set to change this week.
Tropical Storm Isaias is forecast to become the season’s first hurricane before making landfall somewhere between Mississippi and Florida by the weekend.
El Niño has turned the Atlantic basin into a graveyard by changing winds high in the atmosphere so that they rip apart storms.
That’s helped depress tropical cyclone activity to near-record-low levels and resulted in zero hurricanes.
That could change imminently, though.
Latest first Atlantic hurricane in 121 years bears down on US Gulf coast
Isaias is churning in the Gulf of Mexico with winds of 65 mph, according to the latest update from the US National Hurricane Center.
That’s just a shade below hurricane strength.
The storm is forecast to pass over a patch of abnormally warm water, providing fuel for it to blossom into a hurricane.
It could peak as a Category 2 storm with winds of 110 mph as it lumbers to the northeast.
The storm is expected to weaken due to those aforementioned gnarly winds shortly before it makes landfall somewhere along the Gulf Coast.
The NHC has issued hurricane watches for all the coastline in Mississippi and Alabama as well as parts of the Florida Panhandle.
(Tropical storm watches extend into Louisiana as well.)
Folks in that region can expect rainfall totals of up to 7 inches, though some spots in the Panhandle could see as much as 10 inches and storm surge as high as 7 feet.
Tornadoes aren’t out of the question either.
In other words, it’s a storm to take seriously.
Isaias could make also (or at least tie) history as the latest first Atlantic hurricane to form on record.
The current record was set in 1905, when the season’s first hurricane formed on October 8.
There’s still one more update scheduled for Isaias on Wednesday, so it’s possible it could just miss out on tying that mark.
Record or not, Isaias is indicative of the hurricane season that wasn’t.
This year’s Atlantic hurricane season was forecast to be below average.
But it’s been even quieter than expected owing to an El Niño that’s been dubbed “super,” “Godzilla,” and “supersized.” The superlatives—which meteorologists will be quick to tell you are notofficial designations—are indicative of the strength of this year’s event.
El Niño is measured by ocean temperatures in a part of the tropical Pacific, and this year’s iteration has seen record highs throughout the summer and first part of fall.
The intensity has had a heavy hand in rearranging the atmosphere around the world, including over the Atlantic.
Saharan dust has also played a role in quieting things by making the air in one of the major areas where hurricanes develop too damn dry.
For a sense of how that has impacted the Atlantic hurricane season, we can look at some averages.
From 1991 to 2020, the basin saw an average of 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes—that is, storms of Category 3 or greater—annually, according to NHC data.
This year has seen eight tropical storms and one soon-to-be hurricane.
Another metric to measure the season is accumulated cyclone energy (ACE for short), which takes into account not just the number and intensity of storms but how long they stick around.
The ACE to date for 2026 is 10.8 units.
The average for this time of year?
That’s just a shade below hurricane strength.
The storm is forecast to pass over a patch of abnormally warm water, providing fuel for it to blossom into a hurricane.
It could peak as a Category 2 storm with winds of 110 mph as it lumbers to the northeast.
The storm is expected to weaken due to those aforementioned gnarly winds shortly before it makes landfall somewhere along the Gulf Coast.
The NHC has issued hurricane watches for all the coastline in Mississippi and Alabama as well as parts of the Florida Panhandle.
(Tropical storm watches extend into Louisiana as well.)
Folks in that region can expect rainfall totals of up to 7 inches, though some spots in the Panhandle could see as much as 10 inches and storm surge as high as 7 feet.
Tornadoes aren’t out of the question either.
In other words, it’s a storm to take seriously.
Isaias could make also (or at least tie) history as the latest first Atlantic hurricane to form on record.
The current record was set in 1905, when the season’s first hurricane formed on October 8.
There’s still one more update scheduled for Isaias on Wednesday, so it’s possible it could just miss out on tying that mark.
Record or not, Isaias is indicative of the hurricane season that wasn’t.
This year’s Atlantic hurricane season was forecast to be below average.
But it’s been even quieter than expected owing to an El Niño that’s been dubbed “super,” “Godzilla,” and “supersized.” The superlatives—which meteorologists will be quick to tell you are notofficial designations—are indicative of the strength of this year’s event.
El Niño is measured by ocean temperatures in a part of the tropical Pacific, and this year’s iteration has seen record highs throughout the summer and first part of fall.
The intensity has had a heavy hand in rearranging the atmosphere around the world, including over the Atlantic.
Saharan dust has also played a role in quieting things by making the air in one of the major areas where hurricanes develop too damn dry.
For a sense of how that has impacted the Atlantic hurricane season, we can look at some averages.
From 1991 to 2020, the basin saw an average of 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes—that is, storms of Category 3 or greater—annually, according to NHC data.
This year has seen eight tropical storms and one soon-to-be hurricane.
Another metric to measure the season is accumulated cyclone energy (ACE for short), which takes into account not just the number and intensity of storms but how long they stick around.
The ACE to date for 2026 is 10.8 units.
The average for this time of year?
Nearly 102, according to data maintained by Colorado State University.
Most of that energy typically accumulates from mid-August through late September.
None of this is to say there might not be another surprise storm in the coming weeks.
But with El Niño continuing to intensify and the peak of the season well past, the odds of this season seeing a sudden spurt of activity are minimal at best.
Most of that energy typically accumulates from mid-August through late September.
None of this is to say there might not be another surprise storm in the coming weeks.
But with El Niño continuing to intensify and the peak of the season well past, the odds of this season seeing a sudden spurt of activity are minimal at best.
Links :
- Scientific America : Hurricane-isaias-just-set-a-new-record-for-atlantic-storms
Monday, October 12, 2026
Jimmy Cornell, the ARC mastermind on routing: ‘Sailing your own boat is still the most rewarding way to explore our planet’
From YachtingWorld by Jimmy Cornell
Jimmy Cornell has spent half a century sailing and mapping the globe.
He shares how bluewater cruising and ocean routing have changed.
He shares how bluewater cruising and ocean routing have changed.
When I started planning my first voyage in the early 1970s there was only one book dealing specifically with ocean routing: the British Admiralty Ocean Passages for the World, first published in 1895.
The edition available (the third, published in 1973), had very little information relevant for sailing yachts with its focus on well-established commercial routes.
While those details still made interesting reading, they were very different from those routes sailed by modern cruising yachts.
The edition available (the third, published in 1973), had very little information relevant for sailing yachts with its focus on well-established commercial routes.
While those details still made interesting reading, they were very different from those routes sailed by modern cruising yachts.
Jimmy Cornell sets off from London at the start of his 1975 round the world voyage.
Photo: Jimmy Cornell
Photo: Jimmy Cornell
As I started preparing for my passage from La Palma to Barbados in November 1976, the only information for a passage from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean was to proceed west on a great circle route and cross the 25° parallel between 25° and 30° to reach the north-east trade winds as soon as possible.
It also mentioned the risk of tropical storms between June and mid-November.
So this is what I did.
We left La Palma on 15 November, crossed the 25° parallel six days later, but it took us five more days to find steady north-east winds.
We arrived in Barbados on 11 December, having sailed 2,697 miles in 26 days.
All through our six-year 58,000-mile voyage I gathered material on offshore routes, wind and weather conditions, and on my return started work on the kind of book that I’d have liked to have had when I was planning our round the world voyage.
Photo: Oyster World Rally
My research took me from the British Library to the Maritime Museum in Greenwich, where I was given permission to study the original logbooks of ships that had roamed the oceans in previous centuries.
I was even allowed to consult Captain Cook’s original logs, and I can still feel the thrill of seeing the neat writing of the man whom I regard as the greatest navigator of all times.
My own experience, and the lessons learned from those captains, have formed the basis of my attitude to routing.
Put simply, it is to do your best to be in the right place at the right time and, conversely, to avoid being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Making landfall in the Caribbean marks the first ocean passage for many world voyagers.
Photo: Grand Large Yachting World Odyssey
First-hand experience
The tactics outlined in the first edition of World Cruising Routes, and those that followed, observed that basic principle, but also attempted to help cruisers benefit from favourable sailing conditions.
World Cruising Routes listed the favourable periods for every passage, the safest time, with details of tropical storm seasons and areas affected by them, the UK and US charts for the area to be sailed, and the cruising guides covering the destination area.
The accompanying comments referred to prevailing winds and currents, local conditions, suggested tactics for that route, and recommended landfalls.
It was very much influenced by the experience gained, and the observations made, during my first round the world voyage between 1975 and 1981.
During the voyage with my wife, Gwenda, and our two young children, we’d made detours to many places off the usual sailing routes, sometimes becoming the first yacht to have called there.
Finding paradise: technology has changed ocean voyaging, but the need for verified information remains constant.
Photo: James Tomlinson/Oyster World Rally
World Cruising Routes also reflected my own style of navigation.
Our first Aventura’s navigation system was quite rudimentary with only a sextant, a battery-operated depth sounder and a radio direction finder (RDF).
The latter was only useful for inshore navigation within 25 to 30 miles of land where it was possible to tune into AM stations or coastal radio beacons to calculate your position by triangulation.
On offshore passages, astronavigation was the only way to work out where you were.
Setting off on a bluewater adventure is still the greatest way to explore the world!
Photo: Tor Johnson
Changing tech
Over four decades World Cruising Routes has evolved – both reflecting my own peripatetic sailing life, and also the arrival of revolutionary aids to navigation, from GPS to satellite communications and AIS to electronic charts, and their impact on offshore navigation.
These developments made it possible for the second edition, published in 1990, to list waypoints for each route.
New routes were added as boats ventured further afield, and new cruising grounds were being discovered.
More detailed landfall information, as well as official ports of entry and clearance formalities, were included to assist in passage planning.
Over four decades World Cruising Routes has evolved – both reflecting my own peripatetic sailing life, and also the arrival of revolutionary aids to navigation, from GPS to satellite communications and AIS to electronic charts, and their impact on offshore navigation.
These developments made it possible for the second edition, published in 1990, to list waypoints for each route.
New routes were added as boats ventured further afield, and new cruising grounds were being discovered.
More detailed landfall information, as well as official ports of entry and clearance formalities, were included to assist in passage planning.
A routing error saw Volvo Race yacht Team Vestas Wind wrecked on charted shoals in the Indian Ocean.
Photo: NCG Operations Room, MRCC Mauritius/Getty
In the following years, on Aventura II, I completed my second circumnavigation and became increasingly aware of several changes in weather conditions compared to the past.
I noted some of these changes in the third edition (published 1995), and many of the points remain salient today:
‘Sailing routes depend primarily on weather, which changes little over the years.
However, possibly as a result of the profound changes that have occurred in the ecological balance of the world environment, there have been several freak weather conditions in recent years.
‘Their most worrying aspect is that they are rarely predicted, occur in the wrong season, and often in places where they have not been known before.
‘The unimaginable force of megahurricanes should be a warning of worse things to come.’
There are now multiple options for a world tour, including rallies organised by brands such as Grand Large.
Photo: Grand Large Yachting World Odyssey
Photo: Grand Large Yachting World Odyssey
Innovations
Future editions took into account the observations I had made from the growing popularity of the transatlantic and round the world rallies that I was running at the time, and my own voyages to Antartica and Alaska.
But the arrival of chartplotters and electronic charts in the early 2000s was the most fundamental innovation in offshore navigation since the invention of the sextant.
The benefits in terms of both safety and accuracy were unquestioned until the running aground of the 65ft yacht Team Vestas Wind in November 2014 during the Volvo Ocean Race.
Vestas was wrecked on the St Brandon reef, north of Mauritius in the South Indian Ocean.
The navigator had failed to zoom in far enough on the electronic chart to notice the shallow reef.
That area, known as the Cargados Carajos Shoals, is clearly marked on paper charts.
Approaching Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas.
Photo: Rick Tomlinson/Oyster World Rally
My immediate reaction on hearing about the grounding was to check my book, and it was indeed mentioned as a hazard.
However, I’d not have expected my book to be on board a racing yacht.
Nor, for that matter, on a submarine!
One of the greatest compliments I ever received came from a most unexpected direction.
While in Las Palmas before the start of the ARC, a participant who had been an officer in the Royal Navy barged into my office and exclaimed, “Jimmy, you will never believe this.
I have just visited a British nuclear submarine that is here on a goodwill mission and guess what? On the shelf above the nav table I saw a copy of your Routes!”
I asked the captain why on earth he’d carry that doorstopper of a book with him?
“He responded: ‘So I know where those silly yachts go, to be extra careful not to smash into one when we surface’.”
While in Las Palmas before the start of the ARC, a participant who had been an officer in the Royal Navy barged into my office and exclaimed, “Jimmy, you will never believe this.
I have just visited a British nuclear submarine that is here on a goodwill mission and guess what? On the shelf above the nav table I saw a copy of your Routes!”
I asked the captain why on earth he’d carry that doorstopper of a book with him?
“He responded: ‘So I know where those silly yachts go, to be extra careful not to smash into one when we surface’.”
Spinnaker sailing between San Blas and Portobelo, Panama.
Photo: Rick Tomlinson/Oyster World Rally
I made sure the seventh edition (2014), mentioned all known hazards in areas crossed by sailing routes by giving their coordinates, and listing waypoints that avoid isolated reefs, unlit atolls, offshore oil fields and wind farms.
We also revised some route planning tactics on popular cruising routes based on the work we did for Cornells’ Ocean Atlas (2011), which included information on changes that had occurred in the wind systems of the world based on 20 years of satellite observations.
Cornell and family’s first circumnavigation aboard Aventura.
Photo: Jimmy Cornell
Photo: Jimmy Cornell
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Our hulls cut through the translucent waters of the lagoon around Fiji’s largest island, Viti Levu.
As we make our…
Changing routes
The growing interest among cruisers in sailing to more challenging destinations was reflected in the eighth edition (2018), which was expanded to include several high latitude routes.
It was published soon after my own successful transit of the Northwest Passage on Aventura IV, in some ways a trip that became possible due to the consequences of climate change.
My concern for the current state of the ocean environment stems from my own observations during five decades of roaming the seas of the world and noticing the disastrous changes that have occurred over the years.
One of the most noticeable phenomena is the decrease in the regularity and reliability of trade winds, as witnessed by sailors on some of the frequently travelled ocean routes.
However, the most significant change has been the increased intensity and extent of tropical cyclones, both in the duration of the critical seasons and the areas affected.
As this phenomenon has such a major impact on voyage planning, and safety generally, the ninth edition of World Cruising Routes (2022) highlighted relevant information for areas of the world affected.
Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia – site of French nuclear tests between 1966 and 1996.
Photo: Patrick Durand/Sygma/Getty
Photo: Patrick Durand/Sygma/Getty
To find out how today’s sailors view this crucial topic I conducted a survey among long distance sailors, the significant majority of whom had completed a circumnavigation in recent years.
All were acutely aware of this new challenge and stated that they’d either revise or modify their future plans accordingly.
Only a few were prepared to abandon them.
On that note, I wish to reassure all those who are planning a voyage, that sailing on your own boat is still the best and most rewarding way to explore our planet.
Don’t leave it too late.
Jimmy Cornell is the doyen of modern ocean cruising.
He founded the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) transatlantic rally in 1986.
Photo: Jimmy Cornell
He founded the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) transatlantic rally in 1986.
Photo: Jimmy Cornell
In the dark
My most frightening experience during my first world voyage in the 1970s is an example of what it meant to navigate through a critical area in those pre-GPS days.
Having reached the Pacific Ocean via the Panama Canal in late 1976, rather than take the traditional route to French Polynesia via the Galapagos Islands, we decided to get there by a rarely sailed route via Peru, Easter Island, Pitcairn and on to Mangareva, in the Gambier Islands.
We had a wonderful reception there as the only sailing yacht to call in over a year.
When the time came to resume our voyage, we encountered a complication.
France was conducting nuclear tests on the Mururoa and Tangataufa atolls, and we had to obtain permission from the French authorities for the passage to Tahiti.
When the response came, I was alarmed to see that it prescribed a route that had to clear the prohibited area around the nuclear testing sites by 50 miles.
My most frightening experience during my first world voyage in the 1970s is an example of what it meant to navigate through a critical area in those pre-GPS days.
Having reached the Pacific Ocean via the Panama Canal in late 1976, rather than take the traditional route to French Polynesia via the Galapagos Islands, we decided to get there by a rarely sailed route via Peru, Easter Island, Pitcairn and on to Mangareva, in the Gambier Islands.
We had a wonderful reception there as the only sailing yacht to call in over a year.
When the time came to resume our voyage, we encountered a complication.
France was conducting nuclear tests on the Mururoa and Tangataufa atolls, and we had to obtain permission from the French authorities for the passage to Tahiti.
When the response came, I was alarmed to see that it prescribed a route that had to clear the prohibited area around the nuclear testing sites by 50 miles.
High latitudes sailing has increased in popularity, such as this 2024 transit of the Northwest Passage by three Garcia yachts.
Photo: Garcia Yachts
Photo: Garcia Yachts
The suggested route cut across the southern Tuamotus, past the uninhabited atolls of Maria, Tureia and Vanavana, set among a cluster of similar hazards in that notorious area aptly called the Dangerous Archipelago by Captain Cook.
Cornell’s circumnavigation routes in various Aventuras from 1975 to 2021.
Photo: Jimmy Cornell
Photo: Jimmy Cornell
The rules were very strict and did not allow for any deviation from the approved route.
We simply had no choice.
With Maria at a distance of 90 miles from Mangareva, we left late in the day planning to sail during the night in open waters and pass the atoll in daylight.
At daybreak the following morning I was shocked to see Maria’s low-profile peeping over the horizon several miles behind us.
South-east Asia is becoming popular among cruisers looking to extend their voyaging.
Photo: David Bristow
Photo: David Bristow
A quick sun sight showed that in the night we’d gained some 20 miles on our estimated position having been driven by a swift north-west-setting current, and we’d sailed past the unlit Maria in the darkness.
By now my astronavigation had become reasonably accurate – usually to within five miles of our actual location – so throughout the day I kept taking sights and by nightfall I reckoned to have some 100 miles of open water ahead of us.
This gave us a safety margin of about 90 miles after allowing for an estimated 2.5-knot current at a speed of 5 knots.
My main concern was that, pushed by a stronger current, as had happened during the previous night, it was a distance we could easily cover in the 12 hours of darkness.
San Blas islands off Panama, the traditional jump-off point for a Pacific crossing.
Photo: Rick Tomlinson / Oyster World Rally
Photo: Rick Tomlinson / Oyster World Rally
We depended entirely on the classic dead reckoning navigation.
Every hour I wrote down in the logbook the course steered, and the distance covered, the latter based on readings provided by the trailing log.
The counter indicated our speed through the water, which allowed me to calculate our estimated speed and thus the distance.
Hence the term dead reckoning – not exactly rocket science.
Looking forward to adventure at the start of of an ARC+ event.
Photo: Paul Wyeth/WCC
Photo: Paul Wyeth/WCC
During the squally night, the overcast sky made it impossible to take any star sights, so I tried to slow down by reducing sail, but in the 20- to 25-knot wind it didn’t make much difference.
I spent a gut-wrenching night peering blindly ahead into the darkness and listening out for the boom of swell breaking on a windward reef.
Just as dawn started lightening the eastern horizon, I glimpsed straight ahead of us, at less than half a mile distance, the tell-tale white line of breakers.
Tureia! I altered course to port, and steered Aventura at a safe distance off the southern edge of the atoll.
Cornell’s initial research included Captain Cook’s Endeavour log books.
This from 1770 records his first sighting of the previously unknown eastern coast of Australia.
Photo: Heritage Images/Getty
This from 1770 records his first sighting of the previously unknown eastern coast of Australia.
Photo: Heritage Images/Getty
In the half-light the atoll looked much smaller than I’d expected, but thought that might be an optical illusion.
It was only a couple of hours later, when the sun was high enough to take a sight, that I managed to work out our approximate position – and realised with an almighty shock that the atoll we’d just passed had been in fact Vanavana, and that a stronger than expected current had pushed us much further west than I’d allowed for.
We’d passed Tureia in the dark without seeing it, a discrepancy in my estimation of some 40 miles.
Another 10 minutes of darkness and we’d have been wrecked on Vanavana’s windward reef.
A Dangerous Archipelago indeed!
The ARC celebrated its 40th running last year and has seen thousands of sailors make their first ocean voyage.
Photo: Paul Wyeth/WCC
Photo: Paul Wyeth/WCC
Links :
- Cornell sailing
- CruisingWorld Mag : Q&A with Jimmy Cornell on his High Latitude Challenge / Why Most World Voyages Succeed Against the Odds / How to Stay Calm and Survive Onboard Emergencies at Sea / Talking Trade Winds With Jimmy Cornell
- YachtingWorld : Jimmy Cornell : A life at sea / The ultimate cruising adventure? Jimmy Cornell launches new High Latitude Challenge / British sailor Jimmy Cornell reveals his extraordinary new exploration yacht, Aventura IV / How to future proof your sailing – Jimmy Cornell’s top tips / Cruising guru Jimmy Cornell transits the North West Passage in Aventura IV / Electric dreams: Jimmy Cornell reports on life aboard his eco-friendly catamaran
- SailWorld Cruising : Life Afloat: Q&A with Jimmy Cornell / Life Afloat - part 2: Q&A with Jimmy Cornell / Life Afloat - part 3: Q&A with Jimmy Cornell
- Pratical Boat Owner : Jimmy Cornell: How I’ve learned to fix my own problems at sea / Jimmy Cornell shares the 5 things you absolutely need for long-haul cruising / Jimmy Cornell: “How I’ve coped with almost every type of emergency at sea”
- YachtMonthly : First electric boat circumnavigation on hold
- Sail : Jimmy Cornell Eyes Another Circumnav / Jimmy Cornell Abandons Carbon-Zero Circumnav
- GeoGarage blog : Ten years ago : ran aground on a reef and almost completely destroyed / After crash in Volvo Ocean Race, a team shifts its focus and ... / Independent report into the stranding of Vestas Wind / Questions about electronic charts in a twenty-first century ... / Questions asked about Volvo Ocean Race boat grounding /Cornell’s Ocean Atlas / Where are we sailing now? Years of cruising data reveals changing habits /
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