Green Flashes over Nevis and Guadeloupe!!

Blogger: John

Every sailor will know what they are but very few non sailors have heard of them. Under the right conditions, generally clear, cloudless evenings with a big red sun there is a flash of green just as the sun sets over the horizon. We looked for them crossing the Atlantic but the waves obscured the horizon as the sun set there. Now, in each westward facing anchorage we sit in the cockpit with a rum and coke waiting for this unusual phenomenon. Until Pinney’s Beach on Nevis it was too cloudy or too wavy or just the wrong conditions but over the past few weeks we have seen them three or four times. It’s not a flash though (unless we still haven’t seen one!). As the last bit of sun disappears down below the horizon and you are just thinking “Oh, no flash today”, in that second before you look away until tomorrow, there it is. The very last little slivver of sun turns green almost like a pulse of green rather than a proper flash. It extends about twice the width or that tiny bit of disappearing sun. You just have time to say “There it is” and give a little cheer, and then it’s gone for another day.

No pictures yet of the Green Flashes I’m afraid.