We only do it for the sunsets- Vanneaux to Decize

A red sky at night they say is a sailor’s delight, while the same in the morning constitutes a sailor’s warning.

I can’t say whether the morning warning thing works as advertised or not, because the morning sky appears well before we have under normal circumstances, detached ourselves from our bed, so we just look up the weather forecast on the internet.

The internet today had one of those little info-graphic things with dark clouds, a sun sitting happily on them, and a note warning that from time to time we could expect a tenth of a millimetre of rain each hour for the time we wanted to be moving.  Oh, and by the way, for good measure the temperature may well not make it into double figures until late afternoon.  

It didn't have a puffy face anywhere to be seen so we were therefore unaware that wind gusts would appear of many more kilometres per hour than one needs for comfort when one is trying to keep a relatively light, flat bottomed boat away from solid objects with sharp bits sticking out.    Would a red sky this morning have done that?

The odd thing about the wind when it comes off those dark grey clouds is that it can change speed and direction in an instant, and this only happens when there is little room to manoeuvre, such as when entering or leaving a lock, passing under a particularly narrow bridge or when one is attempting to moor quietly in a very tight spot while others are watching.

An even odder thing is that once all the swear-words have been mumbled, the sweat mopped from the brow, the clenched teeth unclenched and pulse rate returned to normal, the breeze simply disappears and like magic the sun comes out bringing with it all manner of glorious reflections and shadows.  One is left dizzy and confused, wondering if any of the drama (to overstate things just a bit) had happened at all.

Sunsets are natures way of making one look forward to tomorrow!

But what does a grey sky at night mean?