Sheets and halyards you must mind;
When wind comes before the rain,
Hoist your topsails up again.
Evening red and morning gray
Are sure signs of a fine day;
But evening gray and morning red,
Makes a sailor shake his head.
Amateurs while on a cruise should frequently look at the barometer and take notes of its height and enter them in the log.
The action of the aneroid barometer depends on the effect produced by the pressure of the atmosphere on a circular metallic chamber partially exhausted of air and hermetically sealed. This kind of barometer is liable to changes on account of its mechanism getting out of order, and it should be often compared with a mercurial barometer, which from its cumbersomeness cannot be conveniently carried in a small craft. Aneroid barometers of excellent quality, and of about the size of an ordinary watch, are offered for sale at a reasonable price, and a cruise should not be undertaken without one.
A phosphorescent sea is a certain sign of continuance of fine weather.