| Author | Message | ||
     Ted Lavino Senior Member Username: Tlavino Post Number: 398 Registered: 01-2004 |
Greetings folks, one of the roles of Navigator is to keep the skipper up to date regarding weather information. Since I'm both Skipper and Navigator on this voyage I need to keep myself in the loop  . For those interested here's my basic plan as well as some resources for those interested: Weather prediction is not a snapshot type thing-rather its looking at short and long term trends, so one needs to start monitoring a week or so in advance of one's expected departure date to get a feel for what's happening and to make sure you have a suitable weather window in which to leave. What I do is start monitoring at least Surface Analyses, 500mb charts, satellite photos and bouy reports starting a week or so before the voyage for the area in which the cruise will take place, comparing them with the marine forecasts for the same period. I also keep an eye on weather systems "upstream" from us, to give us a peek as to what to expect. I try to get a feel for what's building and how fast the systems are moving, i.e. how long the weather upstream takes to manifest itself here. I will also download and print information for the areas discussed above, keeping them as a reference to build a sense of what's happening. You can find a good start for this info in the links titled Radio Facsimile Charts, Satellite Imagery and Bouy Reports in the weather resources post I did to the General Sailing section of the board (All Aspects of Sailing » Weather). You will want the Surface charts and 500mb (Upper Air) facimile charts and the entire suite of satellite photos (there are only 3 per round) and bouy reports for the bouys in our cruising area as well as the California bouy. Tagged Image Format (TIF) usually works best. If you're interested yet unfamiliar with synoptic charts give a holler and we can go over them together. A basic reference to terms and the NOAA Radiofacimile service in general would be the solitary link in the weather resources section regarding the Radio Facimile User's Guide. Another great reference for understanding what these charts and photos are telling you is "Weather Predicting Simplified" by Michael Carr, of which I have a copy if anyone would like to borrow. If you are not familiar with NOAA's Weather Radio service, I would suggest following the link with that name in the Weather Resources post. You should also download and print for your reference the Marine Weather Services chart for this area, for which a link is also provided (I would suggest Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format). You use these tools to provide updates to our weather picture at regular intervals throughout your cruise. The night before the cruise I will download and print the text version of the Marine Forecast for the area pertinent to our cruise as well as all relevant bouy reports. Links are in the weather resources post mentioned above. |
