Is anyone willing to email me weather info during Atlantic crossing in May / June?

[sebastiannr]

Hi there!

During our East - West crossing two very kind individuals gave us weather updates by email to our Yellowbrick satellite messenger. It was fantastic to have regular updates and it put our minds at ease knowing that we weren't coming into anything nasty.

The time has come to take the boat home (from Antigua via the Azores), and I'm hoping there are some more kind souls out there that could send me an email twice a week whilst I'm out there in the big blue.

The crossing back is obviously more challenging and I'll be doing it by myself. I'm mainly concerned about getting hit by any severe lows that wander south, and possibly getting stuck in the Azores High if it's developed by then.

If anyone has the time to do this I'd be eternally grateful, and will of course bring back a bottle of select Antiguan rum for them (if desired)!

Many thanks,,

Sebastian.

 

[phanakapan]

Hi- we will be doing the same thing (Antigua- Azores- UK) at roughly the same time (leaving antigua before mid -end May), so look out for us on Wanda.
Re weather- we might be able to sort something out; we have a friend who texts the weather to our satphone every 3 days if he can, as a back-up to the gribs we download- but that side of things is my crews job, I'll have to talk to him!

 

[Koeketiene]

Is anyone willing to email me weather info during Atlantic crossing in May / June?

Get in touch with forumite 'lenseman'.

 

[phanakapan]

Lenseman

Get in touch with forumite 'lenseman'.

Indeed, it is 'Lenseman' who very kindly, and extremely efficiently, 'texted' via email to our satphone every 3 days whilst we were at sea, and has done for the whole of our circumnavigation. HUGE debt of gratitude

He does, however, has his own boat to sail and a busy life to lead, so I don't presume necessarily that his fantastic service will be always and universally available- but we might be able to pass on his info if we end up doing the same thing at the same time.

 

[Birdseye]

Are you sure you want to know something nasty might be comoing since in a sail boat you cannot outrun it?

 

[Bajansailor]

Its not just the weather systems that might be faster than you - good weather routing can also stop one from sailing obliviously straight into something and not realising until it is two late.
As happened to us two years ago on a delivery passage from Barbados to England via Horta.
As Phanakapan mentions above, David Lenseman again provided us with excellent weather forecasts and routing, all summarised very concisely in brief texts to the Sat-phone.
When we were about a week out of Barbados, enjoying wonderful sailing with the huge assymetric kite up and averaging 300 miles a day, we received a very terse text from David simply stating 'Stop! Turn right! Now!'
So we did, and he then texted to say that there was a hurricane ahead of us - if we hadn't 'hung a right' we would have sailed straight into it.
And we later found out (after arrival in Horta) that other boats just 80 miles north of us had been pasted by 60 knot winds, and many had sustained damages.

I started a thread on Scuttlebutt about our trip, and David was updating it most days with our position and news - here is a link to page 5, with some photos.
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=316933&page=5

 

[blackdogsailing]

I did the same for a friend of mine last November on the crossing from The Canaries to Barbados. A 160 character txt message is free to send to an iridium sat phone. We came up with a code system beforehand. It's amazing how much info. you can send with 160 characters !! I will gladly do the same again if no one else comes forward.
Chris

 

[sebastiannr]

I did the same for a friend of mine last November on the crossing from The Canaries to Barbados. A 160 character txt message is free to send to an iridium sat phone. We came up with a code system beforehand. It's amazing how much info. you can send with 160 characters !! I will gladly do the same again if no one else comes forward.
Chris

Thank you so much, I'll try and get in touch with lenseman but if that fails I'll let you know.

 

[GHA]

Do you have a ssb receiver and laptop with weatherfax software?
I did it solo (Antigua /uk) with wfax all the way using a degen 1103.

I could send some txts your way as well if you want.

 

[sebastiannr]

Do you have a ssb receiver and laptop with weatherfax software?
I did it solo (Antigua /uk) with wfax all the way using a degen 1103.

I could send some txts your way as well if you want.

That sounds good, did you have to rig a special antenna for the Degen?

 

[GHA]

That sounds good, did you have to rig a special antenna for the Degen?

For receive any old bit of wire should do. I just used the masthead antenna for the car radio, which I now know isn't great but it worked fine.
We'll worth looking into if you can get hold of a radio, the degen has worked fine for me for years now.
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/degen-1103
And jvcomm as software.
Given the choice just between grips and weatherfax for offshore I'd definitely go for wfax, much better way to see the big picture and track the lows and highs. And free

Will you be uploading anything on the way across?
Solo it was nice to have some sort of contact with the outside world, and not much else to do


Some scribbles here if you get bored, my boat was a highly efficient high pressure magnet until near Bermuda..

http://conachair.blogspot.co.uk/sea...dated-max=2011-01-01T00:00:00Z&max-results=50

 

[BruceDanforth]

Here is a thread I started ages ago about weathefax with small radios:

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?227868-Weather-fax-on-netbook-portable-sony-radio

That sounds good, did you have to rig a special antenna for the Degen?

 

[sebastiannr]

Its not just the weather systems that might be faster than you - good weather routing can also stop one from sailing obliviously straight into something and not realising until it is two late.
As happened to us two years ago on a delivery passage from Barbados to England via Horta.
As Phanakapan mentions above, David Lenseman again provided us with excellent weather forecasts and routing, all summarised very concisely in brief texts to the Sat-phone.
When we were about a week out of Barbados, enjoying wonderful sailing with the huge assymetric kite up and averaging 300 miles a day, we received a very terse text from David simply stating 'Stop! Turn right! Now!'
So we did, and he then texted to say that there was a hurricane ahead of us - if we hadn't 'hung a right' we would have sailed straight into it.
And we later found out (after arrival in Horta) that other boats just 80 miles north of us had been pasted by 60 knot winds, and many had sustained damages.

I started a thread on Scuttlebutt about our trip, and David was updating it most days with our position and news - here is a link to page 5, with some photos.
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=316933&page=5

Thanks for the info! 300 miles a day!!!

 

[sebastiannr]

I did the same for a friend of mine last November on the crossing from The Canaries to Barbados. A 160 character txt message is free to send to an iridium sat phone. We came up with a code system beforehand. It's amazing how much info. you can send with 160 characters !! I will gladly do the same again if no one else comes forward.
Chris

Thank you so much for the offer, I've contacted Lenseman and he's kindly agreed to do it.

 

[phanakapan]

Lenseman - good chap. Seb- see you out there!

 

[sebastiannr]

For receive any old bit of wire should do. I just used the masthead antenna for the car radio, which I now know isn't great but it worked fine.
We'll worth looking into if you can get hold of a radio, the degen has worked fine for me for years now.
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/degen-1103
And jvcomm as software.
Given the choice just between grips and weatherfax for offshore I'd definitely go for wfax, much better way to see the big picture and track the lows and highs. And free

Will you be uploading anything on the way across?
Solo it was nice to have some sort of contact with the outside world, and not much else to do


Some scribbles here if you get bored, my boat was a highly efficient high pressure magnet until near Bermuda..

http://conachair.blogspot.co.uk/sea...dated-max=2011-01-01T00:00:00Z&max-results=50

Thanks for the info, I've got a Degen now, it'll be amazing to get weatherfax whilst I'm out there, thank you!

I have the Yellowbrick web page which gives updates on my position and I can receive and send short emails on:

http://my.yb.tl/beckyandsebsail

And I have a narcissistic tendency to make awful videos whist solo sailing:

https://www.youtube.com/user/sebinasia

So there will be some contact.

Thanks again for the input!

 

[sebastiannr]

Here is a thread I started ages ago about weathefax with small radios:

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?227868-Weather-fax-on-netbook-portable-sony-radio

Thanks for the link, it's great info.

I'm probably being stupid here, but when looking at the frequencies of the weatherfax broadcasts, it gives times as 24 hours, or 1400-0000 for example. Does this mean that there is no particular start time of the broadcasts and you just tune in an start decoding, or have I missed some info and there are infact specific times that you have to tune in?

Thanks!

 

[GHA]

Thanks for the link, it's great info.

I'm probably being stupid here, but when looking at the frequencies of the weatherfax broadcasts, it gives times as 24 hours, or 1400-0000 for example. Does this mean that there is no particular start time of the broadcasts and you just tune in an start decoding, or have I missed some info and there are infact specific times that you have to tune in?

Thanks!

Are you looking at the rfax . Pdf?

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&s...MRhQ2GNcpA1BD8v2w&sig2=E31lCU02f-16Os7FC_eCGg

It gives you which frequencies are transmitting when, usually at least a couple of frequencies transmitting constantly , then what is being transmitted when below, usually repeated 12h apart. The lower frequencies work better after sunset.

Eg, from Northwood ..
0900/2100 SURFACE ANALYSIS 120/576 06/18

At 9 in the morning and the evening there's surface analysis of the forecast issued at 6 in the morning or evening. Though in practice they may be a minute or two late.

I used New Orleans, then Boston and finally northwood/hamburg coming back.

 

[franksingleton]

If you have the URLs of forecasts such as
http://weather.gmdss.org/navimail/GMDSS_METAREA2_INMARSAT and http://weather.gmdss.org/navimail/GMDSS_METAREA4_INMARSAT, then you can send an email to query@saildocs.com with text =

"send (whatever URL you want)".

Within a minute you will get an email reply with the text of whatever page or pages you asked for.

 

[franksingleton]

I would not put much faith in weather routing. Given the limitations of weather prediction, the speed of a normal causing yacht, weather routing is really only useful if you do a daily update.

Decide you best route using climatology. Wait for a three of four day slot to get clear of land then go. Watch the forecasts to ensure that if bad weather is on its way, then you are prepared.

If you have a routing package and are getting daily GRIBs by email, then see what course you should sail to be on track in 7 days time. Update this every day.

If a big storm has your name on it you will be lucky if you can take avoiding action. Round the world fast yachts might do but not the ordinary cruiser doing between 5 and 10 knots.

Even if a clever (or licky) router gets you around the first storm, he will not know about the next. Like crossing shipping lanes, it is not the ones that you can see that are the problem; it is those that you cannot see.