HEY, don't know about you, but I'm English, so let's talk about the weather.

After all, it's supposed to be our national obsession, the one thing a repressed people can talk about to utter strangers. And why not? After all, the only thing about our climate that's predictable is that it's unpredictable.

Up a few degrees, and it's a heatwave. Down a bit, introduce a bit of rain, and misery ensues. And as for snow, well, a mere smattering reduces our transport system to a shuddering halt. But, on the whole, we have a pretty mild climate, which makes our fascination with it a little ironic. It also means we completely underestimate how devastating the weather can be.

This week, we were reminded in spectacular fashion when we heard the stories of Mark Stubbs and his rowing team, their bid to beat the Atlantic crossing record scuppered in the most dramatic of ways.

Fortunately, I've never been on a boat that looked remotely like meeting a wave that could snap it in half, but I was reminded of my own small experience of how the weather - and particularly its effect on the sea - can overcome our supposedly invincible technology. It happened when I took one of those "Christmas shopping special" day trips to the Channel Islands a few years ago. It was more than a little choppy on the catamaran going over, and the weather worsened during the day. When it came time to leave, we were told that the bad weather meant it was unsafe to make the journey back. Now, there are worse places to be marooned than Guernsey in late December, but there was still an air of disbelief.

I mean, it's the weather, for heaven's sake! It might delay your train, or ruin your barbecue, but leave you stuck on the wrong side of the Channel?

A few people with more cash than good sense asked to be put on a plane instead, only to be told that all flights were grounded too. See, it's the modern mentality that technology can overcome all obstacles. The idea that the awesome power of civilisation can't be stopped by something as simple and primeval as the weather.

What we all learned that day was that we are not really the masters of the world after all; we're just as subject to its whims as any other creature.

It's a lesson that an increasingly mechanised society learned when the "unsinkable" Titanic was sent to the sea bed by a simple lump of ice.

And it's one that I'm sure our brave rowers - like most seafarers - already knew, but will certainly never forget.

I'm hosting a barbecue tomorrow (this is not an invitation!) and I'm just hoping that the rain will stay away.

But at least I can be confident that it won't be destroyed by a tornado or tidal wave.

Here's hoping, anyway...