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Other app- and web-based tools deliver even more in-depth weather and weather-routing information. “The Iridium Go and Garmin inReach provide economical satellite-communications options to offshore sailors, and FastSeas is designed to provide updated route data while working within the device’s technical limitations,” Waters says.
Alternatively, FastSeas can also send simple routing updates via text message containing waypoints and simple forecasts at different waypoints to a Garmin inReach satellite communicator. While FastSeas doesn’t offer an app with a built-in GRIB viewer, anyone with internet access can look at animated weather maps, courtesy of, on the FastSeas webpage.
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The website generates and then sends the boat GPX files, which they can download using some form of long-range communications system such as a satphone, Iridium Go or Sailmail in the case of SSB operators. Users create an online account that includes their vessel’s specifics, including its polars, and they tell the website where they want to go, along with other trip parameters and preferences. “The software uses weather-forecast-model data to find the optimal route for a given passage by evaluating all available routes for that passage,” says Jeremy Waters, who built and actively uses FastSeas, a website-based passage-planning tool that resides on an Amazon Web Services-supported cloud and relies on GFS GRIB files. This means less airtime or consumed data for anyone using satellite communications.
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Cloud and website services, on the other hand, usually have access to a range of weather forecasts and GRIBs, so the crew needs to download only the resulting routing information, which can be as simple as a series of waypoints, rather than the significantly bigger weather files.
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Onboard passagemaking and routing software means that the information and the means to process it are close at hand should outside communications go down, or if users want to run any offline route planning to weigh alternatives. While the net result is often similar, each has its upsides. Once an account has been created and vessel particulars have been added, the FastSeas website uses multiple weather forecasts to lay out the quickest passage. As with all pieces of time-sensitive information, cruisers who can access the internet to either download fresh GRIB files or to run their routing on a service provider’s cloud or website will usually experience better, faster and smoother passages than those relying on old data. Two common sources include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which releases its Global Forecast System four times a day, and the European Union, which produces European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts-considered the global gold standard-twice daily. While third-party weather-routing companies commonly leverage GRIB files with their proprietary algorithms to create weather forecasts and routing advice, the raw data contained in GRIB files usually comes from official government meteorological offices. Some of the tools are even available to boats equipped with old-school single-sideband radios.īut how one gets their weather data is often less important than the quality and timeliness of that information, which usually comes in the form of gridded binary, or GRIB, files. Generally speaking, these navigation aids are designed to be intuitive and user-friendly, and depending on which you choose, will work with communication devices ranging from satellite phones to skinny-bandwidth transponders such as Iridium’s Go or Garmin’s inReach and, of course, full-on FleetBroadband or very small aperture terminal satellite systems.
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While these digital tools typically aren’t free to use-and usually require some form of connectivity and product familiarity to deliver the best results-once downloaded (and mastered), sailors can enjoy better weather, more-comfortable conditions, faster transit times and greater situational awareness of what might lie ahead.
Thankfully, the cruising navigator has a bevy of tools from which to choose, including weather-routing and passagemaking apps, and software and services that have been developed and refined to take advantage of the computing power found in laptops, smart devices and chart plotters.
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muratartĪmong the big challenges when planning a long-distance passage can be knowing when to leave, how to take advantage of the best weather windows along the way, and what waypoints to set to get you there the quickest or with the least exposure to unpleasant points of sail or conditions. By using auto-routing, passagemaking and weather-routing apps, websites and services, the connected captain can make the most of offshore adventures.
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