SSCA Weather Talk

Topic: Preparing your boat for blue water sailing

• My definition of blue water sailing: sailing beyond the bounds of the departure weather forecast
• Bluewater sailing requires you to be able to get updated weather forecasts while at sea, away from easy internet access
• Which data? Will vary. For the East Coast of the US, for example:
• Charts
• Current surface Analysis
• 24, 48, & 72 hr Forecasts
• NWS Offshore Waters Text Forecast, including 'Discussion'
• West-central North Atlantic FZNT22
• New England FZNT21
• Chris Parker’s  FL/Bahamas and US E Coast & W Atlantic Emails
• GRIB Data for at least:
• Wind strength and direction
• Pressure
• Wave height
• Wave direction
• 500 mb
• Gulf Stream location and speed
• Voice broadcasts
• NWS
• Chris Parker
• Redundant if you have above.
• Local barometric pressure (onboard barometer)
• How to get it?
• Key Tips:
• Subscribe to as much data as possible
• SailDocs - charts, text forecasts, most GRIB data
• Chris Parker emails
• Use LuckGrib app - updates by email for models not covered by Saildocs
• User StarPath Marine Barometer app on phone and calibrate before departure
• SSB
• Capture radio faxes directly with computer or tablet app
• Get Text and GRIB data by email (WinLink, SailMail)
• Satellite (sat phone, Iridium Go, etc.)
• All by email
• Starpath Marine Barometer app
• How to interpret it?
• David Burch “Modern Marine Weather"
• Chris Parker « Coastal & Offshore Weather « 
• Comparing SSB vs Sat Phone
• Three costs:
• In dollars (equipment and on-going costs)
• In electricity
• In human energy
• SSB 
• Dollars: higher in equipment cost, essentially free thereafter
• Significant drain on the battery when fetching email (on our boat - not a problem if you have lots of electricity)
• Significant drain on human energy — it takes real work to get the data!
• Sat Phone 
• Dollars: lower equipment cost, pricy ongoing costs 
• Negligible battery drain
• Negligiblehuman energy drain
• My experience
• SSB 
• Radio fax charts fairly easy to get, but lower quality than email
• GRIB data and text forecasts by email
• Battery drain was serious on our boat, may not be an issue if you have lots of power available
• Frustrating and tiring to use - perhaps because I tried to use SailMail on a Mac. Might be better on Windows laptop
• Iridium Go
• Easy to use
• Reliable once I found the right location for the antenna
• We have mainly data plan, so have plenty of data for the year
• Bottom line: Iridium started out as ‘backup’ to SSB, but the roles soon swapped. The last trip, we used Iridium exclusively.

Try It Yourself

Send the following in a plain text email to query@saildocs.com:

sub http://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/fax/QDTM85.TIF time=06:00 days=2
sub http://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/fax/PYAA02.TIF time=06:00 days=2
sub http://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/fax/PPAE00.TIF time=06:00 days=2
sub http://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/fax/PWAM99.TIF time=06:00 days=2
sub FZNT21.KWBC time=06:00 days=2
sub FZNT22.KWBC time=06:00 days=2
sub gfs:25N,44N,70W,80W|0.5,0.5|0,6,...,36,48,...,96|Wind,PRESS,WAVES time=06:00 days=2

Doing so will subscribe you to weather charts, text forecasts, and GRIB data for 2 days. For an actual offshore passage, you could extend the subscription for duration of the passage.

For Gulf Stream data, send the following in a plain text email to request@offshore.luckgrib.com

grib: 1200fwnizI5ryxy8395LO9pinXXSRuSjmISjv4pYqnPSPpbn4RSPMgg4Ivp
DnAQSWxthKphQnlAvm4IfMj4fBvjXmuujBfR4jImMPM4fImRR4ptQnMXmPmm4mpQQ
nPAKRUfMMp8n4gXg4zXRMzX2yXT7O1pwryxnXuprDnhsxb0pOn48X4M8v44rmMIMP
ImI4IO1XuL1LPR8XXPp=

Next Up:  What to do about fog?