Sailor's Weather Window Obsession Reaches Clinical Levels as He Checks Forecast Every Seven Minutes

Recreational sailor Dennis Halyard has been checking the weather forecast an average of 87 times per day for the past four months despite not having taken his boat out of its slip since October, a pattern his therapist has diagnosed as 'anticipatory weather fixation disorder.' 'The perfect window is coming,' Halyard said, refreshing his Windy app for the third time during a five-minute conversation. 'I need 10 to 15 knots from the southwest, less than 2-foot seas, no precipitation, and a stable barometric trend. It almost happened on January 14th, but the gusts were forecast at 18 and I don't like gusts above 15.' Halyard's phone contains seven weather applications, three tide calculators, two barometric pressure widgets, and a custom spreadsheet that aggregates forecasts from five different models and highlights windows of opportunity in green. 'He has a color-coded system,' confirmed his wife, Rachel. 'Green means perfect conditions. Yellow means marginal. Red means stay home. In four months, every single day has been either yellow or red. We have never seen green.' Halyard disputed this characterization. 'March 2nd was light green for about forty minutes in the early morning forecast. By the time I woke up, it had shifted to yellow. The window closed while I was sleeping. These things happen.' His therapist, Dr. Laura Isobar, has attempted to address the behavior through exposure therapy, suggesting that Halyard simply go sailing in imperfect conditions. 'She suggested I sail in 18-knot gusts,' Halyard said, visibly shaken. 'That's a yellow window at best. I don't sail in yellow. You wouldn't drive your car in yellow, would you?' 'People drive in yellow all the time,' Dr. Isobar responded. 'Those people capsize,' Halyard replied, despite owning a keelboat that cannot capsize. His boat, which is fully provisioned and ready for departure at all times, has accumulated four months of dock algae. Halyard has scheduled a hull cleaning, 'weather permitting.'