Atlantic Circuit: Cheapest way to get weather at sea?

[Ohlin Karcher]

Too true. If there's a tropical storm around, you REALLY need to know where it is.

Around 25 years ago we came across Mike Richie in Jester, becalmed about 500 miles out from the Azores. We'd heard a warning from Herb (remember him?) of a tropical storm following us, which we passed on. We headed south, and the worst we had was a few very wet hours of F8. But Mike Richie told us he didn't pay too much heed to forecasts, and carried on. He later wrote it up (YM, Nov '97) as an 'awesome' storm.

I certainly do pay lots of heed to forecasts! I remember MR's pieces in YM..which always seemed very expert..

I wonder if there is a 'son of Herb' who fills his boots these days?

[Pye_End]

You can be sure I will be logging the pressure that's a given..I was coming rapidly to the same conclusion about InReach, for my purposes, ie NBG.

Depends on what you consider cheap and simple. It may well be that (after the barometer and DIY), getting someone on shore who knows what they are doing, and relaying relevant facts via InReach texts is the cheapest and simplest.

[capnsensible]

Not as many as do with good forecasting.. coming back dodging 50Nm south with a low coming in can make a huge difference.

Yeah, being slightly serious, gadgets are good. Vital for racing, very handy for delivery skippers and good to have for safety for the rest.

I've used Iridium feeding a laptop on a programme I can't remember (!) a few times. Excellent, I bet you will know it. Atlantic and Pacific. Dogs doodahs.

Garmin in reach I used in a January crossing this year. Was very useful as Mrs. S did the weather routing for me. Four translates herself and great knowledge of weather, that helps!

But four crossings on our own boat, well, barometer as above plus observation.

Realistically, once you clear the Canaries, going south and a bit west til you get the trades works for lots of months and stay under the cloud trains! Wind dies, edge south....

Coming back at the usual time, April to June, you are gonna get two storms almost guaranteed and probably not dodge able. Wind will be aft, shorten sail and enjoy the ride! Halo round the sun.....tells it all.

Anyway OP, if you happen to call into Lanzarote, Gizza shout! And have a good circuit.

[mbroom]

I confess that I tried the small SSB receiver and iPad weatherfax several times....but I never got it to work!

[Ohlin Karcher]

I confess that I tried the small SSB receiver and iPad weatherfax several times....but I never got it to work!

I've tried in in harbour with the exact same results, but being used to Navtex reception often being shaky in port, I thought it might not be a fair test.

[GHA]

Coming back at the usual time, April to June, you are gonna get two storms almost guaranteed and probably not dodge able. Wind will be aft, shorten sail and enjoy the ride! Halo round the sun.....tells it all.

Or for the cost of a night out you can have all the synoptics for free, head south a bit or north a bit to make life a little or a lot better. Why wouldn't you? It's pennies in boat terms. And you get a decent hf radio to listen to the religious crazies or china international.

Just seems just completely daft not to have such a huge amount of info on what the entire north atlantic weather is doing.

[GHA]

I've tried in in harbour with the exact same results, but being used to Navtex reception often being shaky in port, I thought it might not be a fair test.

Big difference out to sea. I did Carib - UK with a degen 1103 plugged into the car radio FM aerial, didn't know anything about radio then New orleans then boston then dwd. Not always or even often a perfect image but easily enough to see what was going on.

[Ohlin Karcher]

Yeah, being slightly serious, gadgets are good. Vital for racing, very handy for delivery skippers and good to have for safety for the rest.

I've used Iridium feeding a laptop on a programme I can't remember (!) a few times. Excellent, I bet you will know it. Atlantic and Pacific. Dogs doodahs.

Garmin in reach I used in a January crossing this year. Was very useful as Mrs. S did the weather routing for me. Four translates herself and great knowledge of weather, that helps!

But four crossings on our own boat, well, barometer as above plus observation.

Realistically, once you clear the Canaries, going south and a bit west til you get the trades works for lots of months and stay under the cloud trains! Wind dies, edge south....

Coming back at the usual time, April to June, you are gonna get two storms almost guaranteed and probably not dodge able. Wind will be aft, shorten sail and enjoy the ride! Halo round the sun.....tells it all.

Anyway OP, if you happen to call into Lanzarote, Gizza shout! And have a good circuit.

Thanks yes my boat was fitted out in Bermuda and got a horrible pasting bringing her back to Sussex in 1960, so she has previous experience..just as you say, on that bit of the circuit it seems unavoidable, posters on here and many over the centuries have found storms on the W to E voyage.

[GHA]

I've tried in in harbour with the exact same results, but being used to Navtex reception often being shaky in port, I thought it might not be a fair test.

and you can have a play with web receivers, try this tuned to 7878.3khz -
http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

[Bobc]

Just rent (or buy secondhand) an Iridium satphone.

Pay per use for the data and download gribs.

You also then have a phone for emergency situations (pre-program Falmouth coastguard into it).

It's worth the money.