Atlantic weather reports

[johnc1]

For those of you that have done an Atlantic crossing what do you reckon is the best way to get weather reports?
I thought I would be able to link into the internet via an Iridium phone & get the NOAA reports but have found out that isn't possible, there is a package to get reports emailed to you that update your PC, but you have to buy the phone & package which is rather expensive for a one off trip.
Navtex only has a range of about 300 miles, which will not give us much advantage over a 5 day report when we leave.

Any advise would be welcomed.

Thanks,
JC

 

[TigaWave]

Has to be weather fax off shortwave radio, we used the Target receiver plugged into a laptop using Meteo fax or mscan software as its known, this is better than the software which comes with the Target receiver.
For an aerial, I just ran coax to the rear of the boat and then used the single thin wire supplied with the target wound up the back stay.
We had excellent weather charts and reports from Uk to Carib and back, near Europe we found the text reports from Germany were very good or Rtty I think they're known as. You can also use the set to tune into local ssb nets that are set up between other boats, they often get input from radio hams ashore like Herb. So theres plenty of free info, so you know whats coming. I'll look up the stations we used or someone else will put them on here I guess.


Neil

 

[Guest]

Post deleted by danfoley

 

[snowleopard]

herb and weather fax on SSB. unless of course you can affford a high speed satellite link.

 

[AndrewB]

As well as weatherfax, I used SSB spoken forecasts a lot. East of 35W, and on the trade wind route out as far as the West Indies, was provided by France International "Meteo Marine" around 11.40am (GMT) daily. In French, but spoken quite slowly with a small vocabulary. The forecast uses conventional sea areas.

The US Coastguard Atlantic Weather Service (CAMSLANT) covered the area west of 35W four times daily, but only reported tropical storms in the area south-east of 32N/60W, which was covered by the French forecast. So it was best used for the return run. The forecast was spoken by a synthesised voice which sometimes made confusing mistakes with the punctuation. Sea areas are not used: instead weather is described in relation to the position of weather systems and frontal boundaries defined by lat-long co-ordinates. A planning chart must be kept to hand while listening to sketch in the details.

I also listened to Herb. Excellent though his forecasts are, I found him too directive to want to ask him for advice: he appeared to get irate if people did not follow his routing directions and even, on occasion, when they reported different weather from what he forecast. Also, one could spend a lot of time waiting for your particular area to come up.

I found Portishead (UK) morse forecasts useful this side of the Azores for the NE Atlantic, using a morse decoder on my PC. But this service has been discontinued.

Forget NAVTEX, the 300 mile range is purely nominal, away from UK/France and the US, 50 miles is good and the forecasts are very local.

 

[snowleopard]

agree with your comments about herb.

the american forecast, aka 'metal mickey' makes a useful addition to fax charts.

when using french forecasts, a very good investment is a tape recorder linked to the radio so you can re-play the bits you missed. they use beaufort for wind but it's worth getting an official definition/translation of their terminology, for exammple what is the specific meaning of 'mer agitee'

 

[Sea Devil]

If you have an SSB then Herb -12359 - is the probably the best - It is a personalised service - Herb uses a NOAA commercial software that predicts your boats position based on course and speed - It is a two way commitment with Herb - he will predict your weather en route and the best weather route for you - far better than you can but you do need to follow his advice (and why shouldn't you in the Atlantic?) or the prep he put into giving you his forecast is wasted. full details on my web site if you want them. I know Carib WX was intending to offer Atlantic weather service - but you would need to ask if that is still the case - I have not listened recently.

As mentioned Radio France International gives excellent forecasts with zones from Biscay to Canaries and across to West Indies - the only world service doing this in detail. Excellent forecasts but of course much more general than Herb. The French is fairly easy to follow.

After that weather maps and reports via BouyWeather or Weatheronline with your Sat phone of any type are excellent and accurate. YOu need to contact them and take out a subscription. It is worth remembering the biggest problem is light winds on that passage and Herb particularly can be wonderful for helping you find the wind.

 

[johnc1]

Thanks for all your advise.
We don't have SSB & I'm not sure whether the Sangean or Sony type radios would be meaty enough, but the Iridium/GRIB sites Brian was looking at were very interesting, they had evaluation copies of the software, drivers for Iridium & mobile phones & very short weather download times.
I've still got a bit of time to mull it over.

Cheers,

JC

 

[AndrewB]

[ QUOTE ]
when using french forecasts, a very good investment is a tape recorder linked to the radio so you can re-play the bits you missed. they use beaufort for wind but it's worth getting an official definition/translation of their terminology, for exammple what is the specific meaning of 'mer agitee'

[/ QUOTE ]Agree about the tape recorder. The terms used correspond very closely to those used by the Met Office, and like the Met Office forecasts, do have precise meanings that can be looked up. The text of the spoken forecast is posted daily on the Internet HERE for anyone who wants to preview what it is like. Click on "Le Découpage des Zones - Atlantique" for a map showing the sea areas used.

 

[TigaWave]

Found the RTTY thing.
The little portable radios like the Sony do work, we met several boats using them (mainly French).
The RTTY broadcast is worth checking as it gives a 2 day forecast broken into 4 hourly segments and covers the channel to the Azores and Canaries. Its in English as well as German.
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/rfax.pdf
This is the full radio fax broadcast schedules/frequencies that you can buy in a chandlery.
And the RTTY link which is weather from DWD the german national weather station. This covers Greenland North atlantic to the canaries.
http://www.dwd.de/de/wir/Geschaeftsfelder/Seeschifffahrt/Sendeplaene/e_telexpln.htm
Aim for a few weather sources, as sometimes you wont get Herb or the ones your expecting due to weather conditions.