Cruising World - November - December 2016

T

he fi rst and second

times that I tasted cof-

fee happened in much

quicker succession than any-

one would have liked, thanks

to my fi rst dance with mal de

mer. The year was 1987, I was

10 years old, and earlier that

afternoon, my mother had

heeded my unswerving pleas

to help deliver Windancer, the

family’s C&C 37, from Bar

Harbor, Maine, to Long Island

Sound. I can still remember

how excited I was to stand

next to my dad at the helm

and wave goodbye to my mom

ashore, and how I struggled —

not 12 hours later — to hold

my seasick head perpendicular

to my shoulders as lightning

fl ashed staccato fi ngers across

the inky sky and Windancer’s

bow slammed into the Gulf of

Maine’s confused seas. While

I didn’t exactly pass my fi rst

of shore test with high marks,

I gained early insight into the

real-world importance of accu-

rate of shore weather forecasts.

Modern-day mariners enjoy

far better weather informa-

tion than the scratchy VHF

broadcasts that we listened

to on that stormy night on

the Gulf of Maine. Thanks to

advances in communications

and signifi cantly more sophis-

ticated weather-prediction

capabilities, today’s weather

forecasting and weather-

routing products give sailors

impressive tools to avoid rough

weather and take advantage of

conditions to reduce passage

times. Here’s a look at dif erent

options, the technology behind

them, and ways you can best

leverage all this information

while underway.

Marine-weather tools

can be broken into two

categories: computer-based
weather- routing software,
and satellite- or Internet-
based forecasting, which
is integrated with a boat’s
navigation-instrument dis-
plays. While the technologies
are dif erent, all of it depends
on connectivity, whether it’s
by Wi-Fi, cellular hotspot, sat-
ellite or single-sideband radio.
Once devices are connected,
data can be downloaded from
a number of sources, includ-
ing government agencies, like
the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration,
and private sources, such as
Ocens and SailGrib.
Satellite-based weather ser-
vices such as SiriusXM Marine
deliver reception far outside
of Wi-Fi or cellular coverage,
but they require a dedicated,
networked receiver that ties
MARK PILLSBURY into your navigation system,

BOATS & GEAR

WHAT’S Going On OUT THERE?

Satellite and online weather services, available on your chart plotter, and the latest weather-routing software will help you plan

better routes for your next offshore voyage.

BY DAVID SCHMIDT

Manufacturer Contacts

Adrena: adrena-software.com,

+33-0-975-45-40-48

Expedition: expeditionmarine

.com, info@expeditionmarine

.com

Ocens: ocens.com,

206-878-8270

PredictWind: predictwind

.com, 866-800-2089

Raymarine: raymarine.com,

603-324-7900

SailGrib: sailgrib.com,

[email protected]

SiriusXM: siriusxm.com,

866-635-5027

Theyr: theyr.com,

+44-0-207-396-1006

TimeZero: nobeltec.com,

503-579-1414

november/december 2016

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