Navtex - sea areas & other weather resources advice please

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Wandering Star

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Hi Folks, have been looking at Frank Singletons website but am still somewhat confused so looking for advice! Next week I'm sailing my boat from Algarve home to the Solent. I can't identify the correct Navtex settings for my Navtex including the Metarea (I think it's Metarea 2) and sea areas for the Iberian part of the passage (I hope to be sailing about 15 miles offshore if wind direction allows). can anyone enlighten me please?

Also, what are your favourite weather websites for 5 day forecasts for this part of the planet?

Cheers, Brian.
 
I'm a long way from my Atlantic pilots so can't give you the letters, but it is fairly straightforward. Use the primary (518khz) signals if you want standard transmission in English, and program in the letter for every transmitter that you expect to pass within, say, 300NM. I have had mixed results outside the UK area but others report better success, a second source of weather information would therefore be prudent.
 
Wandering Star said:
Hi Folks, have been looking at Frank Singletons website but am still somewhat confused so looking for advice! Next week I'm sailing my boat from Algarve home to the Solent. I can't identify the correct Navtex settings for my Navtex including the Metarea (I think it's Metarea 2) and sea areas for the Iberian part of the passage (I hope to be sailing about 15 miles offshore if wind direction allows). can anyone enlighten me please?

Also, what are your favourite weather websites for 5 day forecasts for this part of the planet?

Cheers, Brian.
Click to expand...
Do you have an almanac as info all there .
Have a pleasant trip
 
One is spoiled with navtex bulletins in that area, which is Metarea II (slight variation in Spanish sub-area "gran sol" rather than official Metarea II name "Sole")

Bulletins from Meteo France are issued by Cross with letters A (518) and E (490)
Bulletins from Aemet (spanish met office) are from Coruna, letter D and W
Niton has different areas: Fitzroy, Trafalgar and Biscay are bigger and include various pieces of MetareaII areas, letter E. Niton issues an extended outlook which may be interesting.
So you have the luxury of three forecasts of different origin.
Monsanto (portugal only issues Nav Warnings, which can include port closures), letter R (to be confirmed)


Navtex being a 24h forecast with 48outlook, it pays to receive Spain and France on 490 (local languages), as the translated bulletin comes out several hours later, which in a 24h forecast burns out almost the whole first day. Language is standard, concise and very easy to understand.

Also, if you plan to remain near the coast, Spain vhf stations issue a lot of bulletins, some in English too, the antenna are quite high they can be heard tens of miles away.
 
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