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What resources are available to assist as skipper in deciding on routes taking into account currents and normal weather patterns.
I'm not looking for a daily or weekly weather forecast. I'm looking for rules of thumb all put together in easily accessible form.
For example stay away from Bermuda from xx to xx months.
Most cruisers go from port xx to port xx in months xx,xx,xx as the trades and currents are typically favorable.
This stuff seems to e well known as every cruising log mentions this sort of thing.
Now with the internet there must be places where it can be easily found as opposed to just word-of-mouth.
I had thought that noonsite would be the place but it seems not.
Pilot charts much easier to use in old fashioned paper version, then you can flip back and forth and look at the wind/current changes. Nice item to have on your boat when making your passage plan. Also as others have mentioned passage planning requires several sources of information. Looks like you'll be on your way with those listed above.
This years Pilot Charts and Pub 136 Ocean passages for the World...
Would be the main data I would use for long distance passage planning.
Also I would include local weather reports.
Do not want to get underway as a T'storm bearing down on us.
Both are available from Internet, but offshore weatherfax can be accessed via SSB > Modem > laptop and GRIB files can be accessed via email either SSB or Sat Phone. GRIB readers run the whole gamut of cost from free (UGRIB) to expensive (Expedition)
I use the MaxSea weather routing application. Grib files, polars of your boat, what the projected weather are are all used to produce a sailing route. The Gribs can be downloaded from their website enroute to update the routing underway. It has worked very well for me in passages to and from the Caribbean in the last 7 years. It is an expensive program, unfortunately, but works. It is also part of the Furuno Nav-net system.
Can someone explain how the Grib files are produced? I understand the files are all computer generated but what is the input? Do they use a satelite to get the input information? And what is the input information? If it is say Barometric pressure, how does a satelite measure barometric pressure?
Regards
All above are perfectly appropriate direction to get your answers - I can only add buoyweather.com (sign up for a trial) is a great single source for forecasting that combines information from the usual multitude of weather prediction and ocean activity sources and puts them together allowing you to get lat/long specific forecasts for any given location.
I use a software tool named Visual Passage Planner. VPP has the current pilot chart data by month. If you punch in the polars for your boat it will give quite reliable predicted passage duration estimates.
Jimmy Cornell has just announced a global package of updated pilot charts. See Noonsite for links.
I sense that that they are more usual offshore as they do not seem to factor in land and sea breezes especially well. I also like the weatherfax, but will use all tools available to me before heading out into bluewater.
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