I grew up close to Glasgow on the River Clyde, and from our kitchen window you could predict the weather with astonishing accuracy. If you could see the peak of Ben Lomond it was going to rain, if you couldn’t see Ben Lomond, it was raining. Pretty simple stuff.

After seven years globetrotting as a merchant navy officer, I changed careers, studying ship design and until recently, ran a successful ship design office in Australia. 

Our early car ferry designs in the mid 1970’s had a start point of the Mean Sea Level — MSL –and the shore concrete ramp toe point...