Weather Accuracy??

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There used to be one or two apps that would collect and report the raw data from the weather buoys.
Over the years, they have "improved" to the point that no longer do you get wave height and period, wind speed, wind direction, water temp and air temp.
The app would report current information, making no predictions.
 
Unfortunately my usual go to source of weather has in my experience deteriorated dramatically. Live buoy reports often have wind data "unavailable" due to long term outages of that data.


I can find close land based data occasionally and usually add what I think is a reasonable adjustment for open water. Unfortunately it can't give wave heights.
 
and sometimes, someone forgets to turn them off when they are removed from the water and planted in a parking lot for maintenance.
 
backinblue said:
Stormy Thurs night but nice weather ahead after that where you are. I'd stay till Saturday if you have the choice.
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My plan was to leave after Labor Day. Though I do have plans to spend a week out in the Montauk, 3 mile, Sag Harbor, Coecles, area.
 
Shrew said:
My plan was to leave after Labor Day. Though I do have plans to spend a week out in the Montauk, 3 mile, Sag Harbor, Coecles, area.
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Good for you. We just did a similar cruise though not as long. From home in Stratford, CT, we stopped in Clinton, then Noank, then Montauk, then Shelter Island, then Mattituck, then Port Jeff, and back home. 10 day trip. Feel free if you have any questions but I assume you know the area well. Montauk was by far the most expensive stop if you stay at a marina, especially the one we were at. Lots of sharks reported in the area right now, be careful swimming!
 
I use windy, Skytracker and PNW current atlas. The latter is local only San Juan / Gulf Islands but very helpful with arrows of different size showing current. Travel with the current, not against it with a Trawler.
I will compare windy wind direction and current atlas to know when they are butting heads it will be rough water.
 
Weather here in New England has been crazy this July. Just postponed my 10 hour trip to Maine today. Gonna wait out the frontal system and leave Sunday. Here's the Northeast Marine Forecast site.

Marine Forecasts GYX
I also use Windy, Predict Wind, and Wind Finder.
Hard to get a consensus. Gusts 25-30 and wave height 4-6 are a no-go for me. I travel solo and the autopilot isn't much help through the lobster pot minefields one encounters from Portland to Down East. It can get very tiring in rough conditions.
 
MacDuff said:
Weather here in New England has been crazy this July. Just postponed my 10 hour trip to Maine today. Gonna wait out the frontal system and leave Sunday. Here's the Northeast Marine Forecast site.

Marine Forecasts GYX
I also use Windy, Predict Wind, and Wind Finder.
Hard to get a consensus. Gusts 25-30 and wave height 4-6 are a no-go for me. I travel solo and the autopilot isn't much help through the lobster pot minefields one encounters from Portland to Down East. It can get very tiring in rough conditions.
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Smart choice. I hate the lobster pots, especially the ones that are just about pulled underwater by currents. Can't see some until you are on top of them. Do you know if anyone has any real experience with line cutters on your shaft? There were a few times last trip that we came dangerously close to some traps because of inadequate floats, and that was in relatively calm conditions.
 
MacDuff said:
I use a zinc/line cutter.
http://http://www.seashieldmarine.c...ode-line-cutter-assembly-patent-pending-zinc/
Snagged a toggle line once, it quickly cut it off. Hate to damage lobster gear, but 1 incident in over 20 trips downeast isn't too bad.
Apology for thread high jack.
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Thanks for the info. I would also hate to damage lobster gear, but if they cared, they would provide ample and bright colored double buoys. I nearly ran over one recently that was a single foam buoy that was dark blue or green colored and was barely above surface because tidal currents were pulling it under. Those are the ones that scare me.
 
I am told, some of the lobsterman have changed over to cables.
 
Soo-Valley said:
I use windy, Skytracker and PNW current atlas. The latter is local only San Juan / Gulf Islands but very helpful with arrows of different size showing current. Travel with the current, not against it with a Trawler.
I will compare windy wind direction and current atlas to know when they are butting heads it will be rough water.
Click to expand...


Excellent point. Wave predictions in the Salish Sea are often useless. Our rough water is almost always related to wind-current conflicts. Since the currents here can be running in vastly different directions depending on where you are, what Soo Valley does is really the only way to go.
 
OldDan1943 said:
I am told, some of the lobsterman have changed over to cables.
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Wouldn't you need a rather large float to hold up say 50' of cable? I haven't seen any of that here. Also, I don't know how well cable would hold up in the salt environment vs. nylon.
 
With their new right whale restrictions on lobstermen (and I couldn't find anything on gear yet" it seems strange the feds would allow cable which seems like it would further endanger the whales to the point of making entanglements harder to fix.


I could see it being used for between traps on the bottom...but not up to the floating buoy.


I just got a text back from a Maine lobsterman buddy of mine and his quote was "the government would never let us use cables on out lobster gear".
 
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psneeld said:
With their new right whale restrictions on lobstermen (and I couldn't find anything on gear yet" it seems strange the feds would allow cable which seems like it would further endanger the whales to the point of making entanglements harder to fix.


I could see it being used for between traps on the bottom...but not up to the floating buoy.


I just got a text back from a Maine lobsterman buddy of mine and his quote was "the government would never let us use cables on out lobster gear".
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I stand corrected. :hide:
 
"Let's face it, they tired of losing their pots and the lobsters and their income."

Perhaps with a good GPS the weekend lobster folks could locate their traps and not lay them between inlet channel markers?
 
FF said:
"Let's face it, they tired of losing their pots and the lobsters and their income."

Perhaps with a good GPS the weekend lobster folks could locate their traps and not lay them between inlet channel markers?
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I rarely find them between channel markers, but at the same time, I am rarely traveling only in channels. Too bad there isn't more of a "standard" on the float that they can use. Some are esily seen, some are just about invisible till you run them over.
 
All this talk of multiple apps and multiple models all with divergent forecasts reminds me of the old saying "a man with a watch always knows what time it is. A man with two clocks is never sure."

Windy (and many others) may use various data sources/models to underpin their forecasts. That's fine for short trips. But if you're traveling any distance in open water, your cruising options will greatly expand if you learn to read and understand the full synoptic charts. It's your only shot at understanding why a forecast has changed which allows you to make decisions to reduce a negative effect (much in the way BandB said they did on a recent trek near Europe)

Just depends on what you need based on your itinerary. A friend uses BuoyWeather for day trips. Seems to work as well as anything.

Peter
 
It would be nice to insert the Lat and Long then let the app find the nearest weather buoy, tidal information, wave height and nearest local weather forecast.
Would be great for planning and when verifying while underway.
 
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OldDan1943 said:
It would be nice to insert the Lat and Long then let the app find the nearest weather buoy, tidal information, wave height and nearest local weather forecast.
Would be great for planning and when verifying while underway.
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BuoyWeather allows this function. Touch any part of their chart and it will interpolate a buoy report.
 
backinblue said:
I rarely find them between channel markers, but at the same time, I am rarely traveling only in channels. Too bad there isn't more of a "standard" on the float that they can use. Some are esily seen, some are just about invisible till you run them over.
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I've found plenty between channel markers, in designated anchorages, surrounding fuel docks, and every other place you can imagine. They show no restraint at all, which makes a line cutter a near necessity unless you have a cage protected prop. Even if properly buoyed and not underwater due to tide or current, running on a moonless night you aren't going to see them.
 
As far as weather apps go, Waterway Guide did a good review of them several years ago.

See https://www.waterwayguide.com/latest-news/news/8971/weather-app-shootout-round-one

As fas as painting the “right colors on lobster pots; each permittee has their own specific color combination. When I fished back in the ‘70’s all the good ones were taken. And what ever you do a strong current will suck then down. Believe me, the folks that own the pots are more interested in you not clipping them than you are.
 
DDW said:
I've found plenty between channel markers, in designated anchorages, surrounding fuel docks, and every other place you can imagine. They show no restraint at all, which makes a line cutter a near necessity unless you have a cage protected prop. Even if properly buoyed and not underwater due to tide or current, running on a moonless night you aren't going to see them.
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Thamks. I'm rarely running at night, but it aggravastes me that some are not visible on a calm sunny day!
 
I've used Windy in the BVI and French Polynesia and found them to be reasonable accurate.
 
We prefer predict wind. It will also work with our iridium go so even when there is no service at anchor we have accurate weather.
 
We have done a lot of boating. Over 120,000 nm of it and we've really not been let down by weather forecasting. Had we only followed one forecast, we likely would have. Simply improve your odds with multiples.
 
psneeld said:
Very often wind and waves vary greatly from local phenomena.


As a boater...I often was intrigued while flying the coast low level, how from one small section of coast (say 5-20 miles) would have completely different wave heights, even directions (to a smaller degree). One area would seem fairly calm with the next having significant whitecaps.


Usually the apps I have used (quite a few now) never really show the localized effects I have witnessed. Some are easy to figure out such as wind against tide, shoaling, narrowing of land mass wind acceleration, etc...but some not so easy to explain as they are unseen wind patterns within an area of forecast weather.
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Yep. Local weather variations are weird. I just came down the St Lawrence River and the Gulf of St Lawrence, and even with a big high pressure system making for benign forecasts there were sometimes big sudden changes in wind and waves. Current is obviously a big factor, but I think anywhere where there is mixing of different temperature water the local atmospheric conditions change too. I've seen that in the Gulf Stream as well, but it was really pronounced on this trip. Nothing stayed the same for more than an hour, and it was endlessly fun to watch the changes.
 
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