Short term access to offshore weather forecasts

[stranded]

Our summer cruise plans are getting more ambitious and now involve a couple of stints of 7-10 days at sea - UK > Morocco. I would prefer to do this well offshore but I am a wussy sailor and would like to get an up to date weather forecast midway. I can’t learn how to understand gribs and want access to Windy or some such who will present the info in understandablese. Is there a reliable, affordable way to achieve this? We acquired an iridium satphone with the boat that we have never used. Ditto a SSB radio but that is way too complicated and sketchy for this purpose. Or do I have to skirt the Spanish/Portuguese coast to get cell internet?

 

[KeelsonGraham]

Don’t confuse the file format with the presentation. Windy shows you grib file information. PredictWind does the same thing and makes the process of downloading grib files via Iridium very easy and intuitive. They sell monthly SIM cards for £10 each.

 

[Laser310]

They sell monthly SIM cards for £10 each

it costs a bit more than that for an active iridium plan

and, if you want to use PW, you will also need a PW account at the level that permits downloading via Iridium.

Although PW is simple.., you can save that money by just getting an Iridium plan, and using a free grib service - like Saildocs

 

[KompetentKrew]

I forecast that conditions will allow you to approach the coast within a couple of miles near Finisterre, get a mobile phone signal and download some met charts. If not, maintain sea room.

You might also consider stopping around there for a rest (lots of places to anchor in the Rias, Islas Cies are idyllic), or looking at Garmin InReach.

Swell can render some of the harbours on the Portuguese coast inaccessible. There's a website that shows current status, but I can't immediately find it.

 

[stranded]

I forecast that conditions will allow you to approach the coast within a couple of miles near Finisterre, get a mobile phone signal and download some met charts. If not, maintain sea room.

You might also consider stopping around there for a rest (lots of places to anchor in the Rias, Islas Cies are idyllic), or looking at Garmin InReach.

Swell can render some of the harbours on the Portuguese coast inaccessible. There's a website that shows current status, but I can't immediately find it.

Thanks KK - yes, we’ve done the journey slow time, including a hair raising exit from FdaFoz after a storm had supposedly passed - feel like I can relate to George Clooney as he tried to climb that final wave in perfect storm. We can do that, but would rather not have to worry about the big capes.

 

[Roberto]

I can’t learn how to understand gribs and want access to Windy or some such who will present the info in understandablese.

Given this approach and prerequisites and available material (Iridium), I think the optimal way is a daily, twice daily phone call to someone you trust on land.
Depending on time of the year, that area may not be the most difficult to get a grasp on weather.
Most of other types of information require a little of computer fiddling, using software, radio understanding or weather forecasting basics: if you do not fancy all that then let someone else do it for you

 

[Black Sheep]

Our summer cruise plans are getting more ambitious and now involve a couple of stints of 7-10 days at sea - UK > Morocco. I would prefer to do this well offshore but I am a wussy sailor and would like to get an up to date weather forecast midway. I can’t learn how to understand gribs and want access to Windy or some such who will present the info in understandablese. Is there a reliable, affordable way to achieve this? We acquired an iridium satphone with the boat that we have never used. Ditto a SSB radio but that is way too complicated and sketchy for this purpose. Or do I have to skirt the Spanish/Portuguese coast to get cell internet?

So you'll be too far out for the inshore methods (VHF, mobile phone etc). Most of the offshore methods sound too complex for you. I suspect your best bets might be...
* Navtex - a somewhat unfashionable solution, but you'll probably be in range. Text forecasts.
* Weatherfax - people get good results from a tablet running an app, up against the speaker of a short wave receiver (or the SSB that you have). But it'll give you a synoptic chart which it sounds you might not get on with
* Using the Iridium or a Garmin to get text forecasts (Roberto's idea of using a friend at home makes sense)
* in theory you could rely on barometer and reading the clouds, but it sounds like that might be outside your comfort zone.

I reckon you could do worse than get Navtex as a backup to the sat phone.

 

[Frank Holden]

If you can understand the 'weather map' that they show on TV after the evening news then you can understand a grib or a weather fax analysis or prognosis..

Far better than a text forecast but better still if you combine the three.

How you get them is up to you.

EDIT - and also I wouldn't be getting a forecast midway - I would be getting two a day.

 

[stranded]

Thank you all for your suggestions. So the basic answer is no, I can’t achieve what I want. And that I must try harder!

To that end, and sticking to my preference for a very visual style, I have found Luckgrib, which seems to be a very user friendly grib retrieval and display app. It doesn’t do ECMWF unfortunately, but does regional models like Arome and Icon, which together with GFS for the big picture should be adequate? Particularly like the fact it can retrieve, store and scroll through multiple models/views. Oh and it works with Iridium Go so I’ll have to stump for one of them and some airtime, though the gribs are all free.

I’ll also buy some airtime for the Satphone so I can call groundcrew for an oral weather briefing if I need to.

Does this sound like a plan? And has anyone any knowledge of Luckgrib?

 

[Laser310]

Thank you all for your suggestions. So the basic answer is no, I can’t achieve what I want. And that I must try harder!

To that end, and sticking to my preference for a very visual style, I have found Luckgrib, which seems to be a very user friendly grib retrieval and display app. It doesn’t do ECMWF unfortunately, but does regional models like Arome and Icon, which together with GFS for the big picture should be adequate? Particularly like the fact it can retrieve, store and scroll through multiple models/views. Oh and it works with Iridium Go so I’ll have to stump for one of them and some airtime, though the gribs are all free.

I’ll also buy some airtime for the Satphone so I can call groundcrew for an oral weather briefing if I need to.

Does this sound like a plan? And has anyone any knowledge of Luckgrib?

Luckgrib is a great gribviewer - i don't use it my self, because it's for Mac's.., but i have been in communication with the developer about optimal routing and a few other things. He knows what he is doing...

GFS and Arome is probably adequate. I pretty much always also view the surface analyses and surface forecasts every day. They are typically not as easy to get over sat phone.., but it is possible - depending on which you want. The NOAA Ocean Prediction Center human-made analyses and forecasts are easy to get. Those by UK Met are a bit more difficult to get.

i am pretty sure that if you wanted ECMWF, you could download it in the PW offshore app, and view it in Luckgrib. I say "pretty sure" because, not being a luckgrib user, i haven't tried it. I would be very surprised if it didn't work.

I basically do the same thing with Expedition - i get the EC in Predict wind and use it in Expedition.

 

[stranded]

Thanks Laser. I tried a few times to get gribs - any gribs- on PW and PW Offshore via internet and just get error messages, which is why I was so relieved to find Luckgrib - pretty much as easy to use as eg Windy and with more and growing functionality.

 

[Laser310]

Thanks Laser. I tried a few times to get gribs - any gribs- on PW and PW Offshore via internet and just get error messages, which is why I was so relieved to find Luckgrib - pretty much as easy to use as eg Windy and with more and growing functionality.

just make sure you learn how to do the Iridium downloading before you leave - learn how to configure the connection.., what size files you can download.., and so on.

I typically limit myself to about 40kb per download - often less and occasionally more on Iridium.

the Iridium handset is a bit more difficult to configure for data download than the Go. Using one of the various wifi devices that connect to the handset- like the redport - makes it easier.

 

[Iliade]

Garmin InReach offer an 'inexpensive' marine weather forecast for the technically challenged:

inReach SE+ / inReach Explorer+ - Requesting a Weather Forecast

 

[stranded]

Garmin InReach offer an 'inexpensive' marine weather forecast for the technically challenged:

inReach SE+ / inReach Explorer+ - Requesting a Weather Forecast

Thanks - that looks interesting - and more affordable. I’m slightly more attracted to the Luckgrib solution as it seems to offer a clearer view of the wider picture, and is not too complex. Haven’t added it all up yet though, and Laser has helpfully warned that the setup, particularly through a satphone, is not straightforward. Currently exploring whether the phone with a redport optimiser would work, but can see me having to spend hundreds on pre-trip airtime trying to work it all out. Whichever I choose, all the advice here has been extremely helpful.

 

[Buck Turgidson]

the in reach weather service is a spot weather for a fixed location. It's not that useful for offshore sailing.
For the OP, I sailed the outside route Falmouth to the MED four years ago. I used an iPad and a small HF(SSB) receiver to get synoptic charts. It worked fine.

 

[rickp]

i am pretty sure that if you wanted ECMWF, you could download it in the PW offshore app, and view it in Luckgrib. I say "pretty sure" because, not being a luckgrib user, i haven't tried it. I would be very surprised if it didn't work.

Be surprised. It used to work, but the Predict Wind ECMWF GRIB files seem to be obfuscated/encrypted now (have been for a couple of years). Its annoying as I used to grab the ECMWF gribs from predict wind and use them in qvtlm for the better weather routing, but alas that's not worked for a while.

 

[Laser310]

Be surprised. It used to work, but the Predict Wind ECMWF GRIB files seem to be obfuscated/encrypted now (have been for a couple of years). Its annoying as I used to grab the ECMWF gribs from predict wind and use them in qvtlm for the better weather routing, but alas that's not worked for a while.

yes.., they were encrypted - but no longer.

I have used the PW ECMWF files in other programs very recently

 

[rickp]

yes.., they were encrypted - but no longer.

I have used the PW ECMWF files in other programs very recently

Indeed, I was about to post - I downloaded LuckGrib and tried - and it does seem to work now. Also works with qtvlm - which is great news!