GRIB Files

[Waterman1968]

Hi
Can someone here tell me the place I need to go to download GRIB files for OpenCPN on the Western Australian coast

 

[GHA]

Use the built in grib plugins. Various options in there and it will download them for you.

 

[Waterman1968]

That's a great help mate, thankyou. Only a new boat for me so still getting set up

 

[lustyd]

The first question is what connectivity do you have on board?
GHA is correct if you have normal internet but SSB or satellite services might change that.

 

[Waterman1968]

I am still getting set up but I intend to use starlink

 

[GHA]

That's a great help mate, thankyou. Only a new boat for me so still getting set up

On the Opencpn website istr there are links to some very good YouTube tutorials as well, fantastic program, extremely powerful and constantly getting updated and even better.
If you are thinking of heading off cruising satellite images as charts can be very useful, which Opencpn can display.

 

[Waterman1968]

That’s great, thanks. It’s amazing that it’s open source and free. I’ll have c-map with AIS in the cockpit and OpenCPN with AIS and weather at the nav table.

 

[GHA]

O charts cover a lot of the oceans now as well, the days of hunting through piles of faded ancient paper charts in the corner of some far flung copy shop are a distant memory now.
Opencpn ais display must be as good as it gets. If you want to dig deeper into weather the weatherfax plug lets you overlay synoptics or sat weather images on top of gribs which can be quite interesting. Also not needed (don't think anyway) with starlink but the grib plugins will create the text to email saildocs to get a grib emailed back. Handy for getting gribs over ham radio.

 

[lustyd]

I am still getting set up but I intend to use starlink

Then GHAs answer is definitely the way.