[thevdeub]

I read somewhere but cannot find the reference anymore, about a technique to follow the trades by following barometric pressure lines.
I guess, it goes down, you go up, it goes up, you go down. In the context of following a the Pacific High , from the West coast to Hawaii.
Does that work , in practice ? Is there more documentation about this online somewhere ?

 

[killarney_sailor]

I guess in theory it should work since the isobars are pretty much east-west. You also get diurnal changes in the barometer so you would have to allow for that. I can't imagine it would be very accurate.

 

[svHyLyte]

I read somewhere but cannot find the reference anymore, about a technique to follow the trades by following barometric pressure lines.
I guess, it goes down, you go up, it goes up, you go down. In the context of following a the Pacific High , from the West coast to Hawaii.
Does that work , in practice ? Is there more documentation about this online somewhere ?

For the sake of the exercise, click over to passageweather.com, click on the sector map for the North Atlantic or overall Pacific, then scroll down to the Surface Pressure analysis rendering and click through the forecasts noting the rate at which the isobars move. Then judge how well that theory might be applied.

FWIW...

 

[MarkofSeaLife]

It would want to be accurate because here in the Caribbean, for example, its 1013 for 3 months twice per year and 1014 for the in between 3 months....

Today

Partly Cloudy 31 °c
Partly Cloudy
Wind:8 mph from the ESE
Humidity:59%
Pressure: 1014

See? Its October.

 

[foamy]

My former family doctor (now deceased) did twenty some Transpacs from the mid 40s onward. He was the navigator on many prominent yachts of the day, and while mentoring me from the age of 11 or so on sailing and navigating up to my first Transpac, he mentioned the methodologies of the pre electronic and weather routing aids to navigating.

One of which was to stay below a particular isobar as not to get sucked into the Pacific High and benefit from the most available trade winds in that area. So yes, this methodology was utilized for many such races and ocean crossing long before the current electronic and computer based applications of today.

 

[MarkofSeaLife]

Foamy, its sure do-able on that route from the Canaries to Caribbean.

Heres the current Passage Weather... If you hit 1016 turn south for a few days. Looks like following 1015 would be perfect.