THE SHIPPING FORECAST

We here in the states are stuck with the semi droning artificial voices for the NOAA VHF radio marine forecasts. Over in England humans still read the weather forecasts for shipping interests and boaters around the island nation. It also attracts it share of landlubbers also. Books have been written about The Shipping Forecast like Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast (Radio 4 Book of the Week) or And Now the Shipping Forecast: A Tide of History Around Our Shores. Another is a book of paintings of locations and areas mentioned in The Shipping Forecast called Rain Later, Good: Painting the Shipping Forecast
  National Public Radio had an interesting report about the allure of the Shipping Forecast that can be found here.  It is interesting to hear how all of the English waters are covered in one broadcast while here in the states forecasts are more localized. Click here to listen to the latest Shipping Forecast on BBC4.

Working the weather with Wxworks

 Capt. Brucato is a Tugmaster who is based out of New York. He spends a lot of his time pushing or pulling barges and other BIG stuff on the waters from Maine to Florida. Since he is professional mariner when he speaks I tend to listen. He seems pretty happy with a new addition in the wheel house. It is a service using the XM satellite network called WXWORKS. While the the $30 to $50 monthly fee is a little pricey to justify for my mostly coastal cruising needs. If I were heading further off shore I might consider it. In the mean time I'm looking forward to using the free weather site put together by Allen Edwards at L-36.com  during the upcoming season as an alternative.

JUST THINKING ABOUT THE WEATHER

As Bob Dylan said so well: "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." Lately I became a little more suspect about what I hear from NOAA on the VHF and it's forecasts having been surprised one two many times in my travels. Since they digitized the voice of the forecasters one can never really tell who is making the forecast if anyone. I use to know the trusted forecasters by their voice. Not anymore.  The digital Mr. NOAA aka Perfect Paul sounds the same all the time. Reading the forecasts online does not help much either especially when you read more and more things like "because the computer models diverge forecast is tricky" seems like they are relying more on the computers than knowledge and experience. So I use the NOAA forecast like we used the paper routines/scripts when I worked in live television. Somewhere on the page were these words of warning "This is merely a guide" Meaning things can change. So I have more and more started to become my own weather forecaster. Thanks to the Internet we sailors who can connect to it can now get a lot of the same data the NOAA folks do. I've been using the NOAA site to collect some data but, a fellow named Allen Edwards has put together a really great free weather site at L-36.com for sailors that has all the weather info you could want in just a few clicks. Watch his video demo and  then try it:



One page and you've got the wind speeds, forecasts, weather maps and radar and what I find most important nearby buoy data. Plus you can edit it to your needs too.  Allen has done a great job of compiling all the info a sailor might need at L-36.com  and so he gets a Capt. Mike tip of the hat!