Yet knowledge of weather patterns and records of tidal variations permit cruise operators to predict where ships with a high degree of safety. enable virtually all the world's oceans and seas to be traversed and all coastal ports to be visited.
Weather patterns are complex. They are influenced by many factors including: the Sun's rays, the Earth's rotational axis, which tilts 23.5 degrees from the perpendicular, thus creating seasonal variations(i.e. the four seasons), the land masses and oceans, currents and the moon's gravitational pull The northern and southern hemispheres experience seasons at opposite times of the year, reflecting the position of the Earth as it orbits the Sun.