The sun withered, leathery wrinkles of the old man turn upwards as he lets out a laugh, pointing his finger towards the horizon before slapping his knee.
“Ha! Did you see it? Did you see the flash? It only happens occasionally.” He says smiling in the sunset hues of twilight. “Very rare the green flash.”
“I’ve only seen it once.” I say.
“Well, good! That means you’ll never go wrong in matters of the heart again. That’s a good thing. But do you know how it’s created?” He relaxes back against the cockpit coaming, crossing his legs, his hands cradling his head as he looks out towards the Pacific Ocean.
“Something to do with the refraction of the light coming through the Earth’s atmosphere right?”
“What?! No!” He careens forward, his hands bracing against the cushion underneath him. “Well, maybe, but no, no,” he shakes his head, fumbling for his words. “that’s, no, that’s not what I mean. I mean do you know why it only happens sometimes? Why, uh, or how, how it gets refracted?”
“No?” I shrug my shoulders unsure of what he’s asking.
“It only happens when a sailor, underway, catches the sun just perfectly positioned in their winch socket as it’s setting. The sun has to compress and squeeze tightly down through the socket which refracts the light and it splits the green out into the sky separately; creating the green flash for everyone within 5,000 miles to see.”
“Oh, yeah?” I question, cocking my right eyebrow in his direction.
“Yeah.” He smiles as he leans back again, this time folding his hands in his lap.
I laugh, shaking my head and furrowing my brow at him, unable to tell whether he actually believes what he just said.
“Is that what you tell all the kids?” I ask.
“Only the smart ones. Only the ones who’ll catch the sun just perfectly themselves one day and create a green flash all around them.”
“Okay, I’ll take that; I like that plan.” I smile at the old man who still loves to sit on his boat every chance he gets.
“Good, that’s why I told you the real secret, the secret only true sailors know. Cause you’re going to become a true sailor.” Said the Old Salt with a twinkle in his eye.
My eyes turn towards the horizon, thinking somehow he just might be right…
Now, is this picture a good representation of a compressed sun in a winch socket? I don’t really think so… But maybe if you saw a green flash on 7/1/25 within 5,000 miles of Southwest Harbor Me, then it could have been? 😉
The scientific version is that the Earth’s atmosphere acts as a prism and bends the path of light rays; refracting them. Different colors of light have different wavelengths, and the shorter wavelengths are refracted more than the longer wavelengths. This bending of the light, known as dispersion, separates the colors. As the sun rises or sets, the light travels through a greater depth of the atmosphere on the horizon. This enhances the refraction and dispersion which can cause the green light to be momentarily isolated and visible as the green flash.
Love it!!