Weather - where do you go to check

F

FootballFan

Well-Known Member
Jun 20, 2012
3,586
Florida
Boat Info
Marquis 59
Engines
MTU Series 60
All,

About to start the most significant journey of my boating career, NC to S FL.

Have the option of the ICW, but would rather be outside when possible.

Gathering up my weather resources. Have buoy's listed in the favorites section on my buoy data app for easy access. Will certainly be checking weather broadcasts on radio.

What are the online sources you would check each morning?

Want to know general conditions, enough to decide out or in.

Anyone use Passagemaker weather? Have been watching it quite a bit.

Any input appreciated,

thanks

Mark
 
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I use the HEMS tool (google it) as well as passage weather.com
 
I use Weather Underground and NOAA's high def radar, both are on the IPad and will locate you as you travel.
 
I use accuweather.com to see radar images of the coming weather.

I just create a bookmark to the radar page on my android page so that all I have to do is tap the icon and the browser opens up showing the radar image. To see what direction / speed the weather may be moving, I just tap the "play" button to see the animated radar image.
 
Mark, When I am getting ready to make an off shore trip I activate my XM Weather Master Mariner plan. This eliminates most of the guess work as you can see real time weather, marine activity. I will not cross gulf stream or go off shore for any extended trips with out it. Did that in 2005 and went from a little sloppy to bad to real bad very quickly. All the forecast were wayyy off. Learned my lesson the hard way. Hope you and your family are enjoying the new 470. I was looking at it again the other nite and the wife said a bunch of times how much she really liked that layout and boat. JC
 
JC, you will be on it soon, once we both get to FL at the same time.

We are headed to NC in the morning. Couple of days of prep, then starting south Saturday.
 
JC3 said:
Mark, When I am getting ready to make an off shore trip I activate my XM Weather Master Mariner plan. This eliminates most of the guess work as you can see real time weather, marine activity. ...
Click to expand...

Same here. If the weather is questionable I would use it in AM to check different buoys and regions conditions for real-time data. This is a great tool to have at the helm for long range cruising. When storms are around, it helps to make necessary plan/course adjustments to stay safe.
 
Still working on routing - and final float plan. First couple of days not going to be further out than 20 NM (and that's for a relative short period).

Starting to the remainder plan.
 
You can also use the surf reports as they are very detailed on wind direction, surge direction and sea state. surfline.com also has webcams at least in S FL area they do. Windfinder, good source for wind direction and sea states. As far as XM weather it is great as long as you are comms with a satellite. The past 2 years my buddy has had the service and there is one large area on the bank in the Bahamas that there is no satellite comms. Not sure why I am guessing they don't have satellite coverage but this year it sucked as we were right in the middle of a large storm and were trying to find a way around. XM would not work so we relied on my Garmin 72mile radar and it worked flawlessly. Obviously you should not have that problem but I will assume a 47 sedan will have a good radar system, use it, give instantaneous picture of weather directly around you and that is what is needed sometimes. Xm is great for farther off weather tracking but IMO, on board radar is better for close in navigation.
 
FootballFan said:
Still working on routing - and final float plan. First couple of days not going to be further out than 20 NM (and that's for a relative short period).

Starting to the remainder plan.
Click to expand...

If you can post your forecasted vs actual conditions. Would be interested in how the trip goes.
 
So not sure of your departure date, but there will be a couple of us CSR's at BaldHead island. If you only run a little bit on your departure day, it is a great place to stop and then run outside on your departure from there. Enjoy the new boat


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
will look up Bald Head island. leaving out of wrightsville beach, will be there a couple days doing provisioning and some prep.
 
Planning heading out cape fear Saturday. When are you at bald head?
 
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I like Weatherspark. Lots of interactive graphing including wind speed, direction, norms for that day, pressure, etc
Also you can choose three weather forecasters: Met.no, NOAA, and WWO, using the menus. Use "Graphs" menu upper right for your choices..

http://weatherspark.com/#
 
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