Reading the Glass: A Captain's View of Weather, Water, and Life on Ships

A sea captain’s beautifully written tour of our planet, our oceans, and our ever-changing atmosphere

What’s in a cloud? Did you know that water vapor is invisible, and actually lighter than dry air? What separates a tropical storm from a winter blizzard? And what exactly is El Niño? Elliot Rappaport, a professional captain of traditional sailing ships, has spent three decades at sea, where understanding weather is crucial to survival. In Reading the Glass, he offers a sailor’s-eye-view of the moving parts of our atmosphere, and unveils the larger patterns it holds: global winds, storms, air masses, jet streams, and the longer arc of our climate.
 
Set aboard a tall sailing ship, Rappaport’s narrative takes readers from the icy sea near Greenland and out into the North Atlantic, where one can experience all four seasons in an hour. He pushes through the turbulent waters of the Strait of Gibraltar, en route to storied port cities of the Mediterranean. In the Pacific, he crosses the equator, where relentless heat, moisture, and fast winds churn out powerful squalls, and lays anchor isolated ports of call. He explores a wide swath of sea to explain how the trade winds have blown ships westward for centuries, and how ancient Polynesian explorers pushed back, observing waves and weather as they groped for far-flung islands.
 
Written in stunning prose, brimming with wisdom, curiosity, and humor, Reading the Glass brilliantly blends science and memoir to reveal how weather has shaped our oceans, our history, and ourselves.
 
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