Weather

Weather Symposium Videos

Administrator — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 21:23:39 +0000

Weather Symposium Videos

Administrator Wed, 11/07/2018 - 21:23

Ocean weather and sea state affects every aspect of our sport, from enjoyment and success to safety. To help mariners develop a fundamental understanding of marine weather, sea state, and associated forecasts, the CCA sponsored a one-day symposium in early 2018 at the MITAGS Conference Center in Linthicum Heights, Maryland.

This symposium brought together expert meteorologists and oceanographers, many with extensive offshore sailing experience, to provide a comprehensive introduction to the factors affecting marine weather and sea state and the complexity of the forecasting process.

The session was recorded and the result edited to produce a series of discrete video segments to facilitate viewing and review. They range in length from 45 to 90 minutes. The videos are in our YouTube playlist and include the following segments:

- Welcome (Jim Binch, CCA; Glen Paine, MITAGS)

- Introduction (Frank Bohlen, CCA)

- Marine Weather Fundamentals (Ken McKinley, Locus Weather);

- The 500 mb Surface –Significance and Analysis (Lee Chesneau – Chesneau Marine Weather)

- Ocean currents, waves, and sea state ( Frank Bohlen, University of Connecticut Marine Sciences )

- Ocean Forecasting – The Process and the Products ( Joseph Sienkiewicz – NOAA NWS Ocean Prediction Center)

- Weather Windows and Weather Routing (Ken Campbell - Commanders Weather)

- Communications for Weather (Jim Corenman - SailMail Association)

- The Navigator’s Weather Watch (Ralph Naranjo - Annapolis School of Seamanship)

- Questions from floor - Roundtable Discussion (With all presenters)

Go to the playlist to watch them all in order, or pick from the list above.

Each segment is intended to provide an introduction suitable for viewing by the novice as well as individuals reasonably familiar with the factors affecting weather and waves. It is our hope that these videos at once increase understanding and stimulate curiosity and an interest in further study. Enjoy !

Sources of Weather Information for Safer Sailing

Administrator — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 19:11:06 +0000

Sources of Weather Information for Safer Sailing

John Jourdane

Administrator Wed, 02/22/2017 - 19:11

Weather

Knowing what weather is coming is as important to sailors as how to raise a sail, steer the boat, or how to tack.

Choosing the right weather to sail in can make the difference between a pleasant, safe voyage or race, or an uncomfortable, dangerous situation.
The most important decisions for a successful voyage or race may be prior to your departure time.
Spend a lot of time on the internet learning which weather sites have what you need.
- Know the weather forecast well ahead of time.
- Know what weather products or services you will use at sea.
- The ultimate responsibility for weather forecasts and routing rests with the skipper and his or her properly trained crew.
- Know how you are going to get weather on the boat and practice using it onboard.
- If bad weather is forecast, postpone your departure.
- Even if it is a race, it is the responsibility of the skipper to make the decision not to start the race if weather conditions are a danger to the crew and boat.

Weather Information Sources

Almost all U.S. marine weather comes from NOAA/NWS.

Get to know the NOAA National Weather Service website: www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/home.htm#graphic
For weather faxes and satellite images go to: http://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/fax/ptreyes.shtml
For weather buoy data: www.ndbc.noaa.gov/
For NOA Tides: http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predictions.html
On the boat, in VHF or cell phone range:
- Use VHF weather, and cell phone apps like NOAA/NWS mobile app, SailFlow.com app, PredictWind.com app, BuoyWeather.com app, Windyty.com app, WeatherNet.com app.
- Look for cell phone marine weather apps at www.appcrawler.com
  - iPhone: www.appcrawlr.com/ios-apps/best-apps-marine-weather
  - Android: www.appcrawlr.com/android-apps/best-apps-marine-weather
  - Offshore: USCG High Seas weather (schedule): www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/vhfvoice.htm
  - Grib files – www.saildocs.com , www.predictwind.com , www.weathernet.com

This is a CCA Safety Moment

John Jourdane - SOC Station – October 2016

Crew Overboard Recovery while Chartering

Administrator — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 19:11:06 +0000

Crew Overboard Recovery while Chartering

Dick York

Administrator Wed, 02/22/2017 - 19:11

Weather

Frequently we move some of our safety thinking to the back when on a charter vacation. Life is good, we are laid back, so we are not thinking of safety. But squalls happen, so here are some thoughts about COB recovery.

Prevention:

Clip on; yes, take your harness and tether. In a squall, or a beat to the last stop in a strong breeze you may want it. Remember, many charter boats do not have all the hand-holds we have on our own. TSA regulations currently let you bring an inflatable harness in checked or cabin luggage; print out: https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/prohibited-items and wrap it around your vest. NOTE: many Caribbean islands do not allow you to carry on the gas cylinders – at least two of mine are in islands starting with “Saint”. However, I was told they could be in checked luggage. You still may want to put a note in there if caught on the checked X-ray.
Look around for places to clip on. You may have to be inventive.
Take it easy. Do not push the boat and crew as you would on your boat. Level the boat by bearing off or furling the jib if you have to go forward.
Train your crew. I know they all are on vacation, but if you are overboard, you need the less-experienced folk to be able to get you.
Use all the usual COB prevention tricks you know.

COB Recovery:

You would most likely use the Quick Stop with a Lifesling method to recover someone. But there may not be a LifeSling on the charter vessel.

Try this: tie a long line to a cockpit cushion and to the boat before setting out. Don’t have a long line? Think about bringing 100 feet of a spectra line or floating poly line; it doesn’t take much of your luggage space. This helps you establish a connection to the boat without hitting the COB
You may be towing a dinghy. Try getting the COB connected to the dink, by pulling her/him to there with the line above. You could even try bending a long line to the dinghy painter and using that as the “Lifesling”. The COB can flop into the dink and re-board from there. In extremis, s/he holds onto the dink, you pull it alongside, and someone gets into the dinghy to help him/her back aboard.
PRACTICE Remember, you are not in your boat. If you are in a catamaran, it will behave much differently than your monohull. Throw a fender over and practice retuning. Remember you will most likely use the engine to assist on a charter boat. So all aboard should practice turning on the engine and powering around. (Do not wrap the prop).

Dick York 12/3/2016

Lessons Learned a Winter Delivery: Weather and Tools

Administrator — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 19:11:06 +0000

Lessons Learned a Winter Delivery: Weather and Tools

Chuck Hawley

Administrator Wed, 02/22/2017 - 19:11

Weather

Despite my better judgment, I was coerced into delivering a 40’ cruising sloop up the coast from Oceanside to Moss Landing in early December, a distance of 350 nautical miles. While December weather can be relatively flat and beautiful, it can also deliver mid-latitude low after mid-latitude low for weeks and virtually eliminate any chance of making a safe or comfortable passage.

In addition to lots of insulating garments, I brought an Apple iPad Mini along, on the assumption that it might be at least entertaining, and possibly much more than that. This model had the built-in cellular modem so I could receive updated information and download apps as we sailed north.

My first job was to create the voyage plan, and I used Boating from Navionics (http://www.navionics.com/en/mobile-pc-app-1 ). This very easy-to-use program allowed me to download charts of the entire coast of California in a minute or so, and to create a route that would take us, via Santa Barbara, to Monterey Bay. Of particular interest was the ability to place waypoints to avoid the ubiquitous shipping channels outside the Port of Los Angeles and the Santa Barbara channel that are clearly marked on the charts. Total cost: about $20 for charts of the U.S. and some small additional downloads.

After talking to Stan Honey, we knew that are best weather window was going to be very narrow on Wednesday afternoon. Several of my friends had suggested that we use a website called WindyTV (windytv.com ). This site and its accompanying app allow you to see the windspeed and direction in a very logical manner, without having to possess weather map interpretive skills. You can advance the time hour by hour so you can see when the winds are likely to die when rounding Pt. Arguello and Pt. Sur, for example. As it turned out, we’d be sailing into a decreasing northerly that would be replaced by a rousing southerly as we passed Pt. Sur. It turned out to be incredibly accurate, and as a result, we left a few hours later than planned and had either light winds, or following winds, the entire trip.

The owner had recently installed a large Garmin plotter at the wheel, but my preferred cockpit location was cowering under the dodger. He recommended that I download Garmin Helm, (https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/152837) which would allow me to see whatever was shown on the Garmin plotter. What neither of us realized is that it also allows you to operate the plotter from anywhere on the boat: zoom in and out, change from plotter to radar, look up AIS targets; all of this was simple to do from the iPad. Cost for the app: free. This allows anyone with an iPad and one of several modern plotters to effectively have a second or third station for free.

To verify that our AIS was both transmitting and receiving, we used the app FindShip (http://www.findship.co/ ) to plot vessels equipped with AIS. Once again, here’s a free app (although it does have some innocuous ads) that allows you to see ships in your area, or anywhere in the world. While it does require a cellular connection, it’s an excellent way to experience the wealth of information that AIS provides without paying for additional hardware.

Finally, and this seems also like a historical footnote after the other apps, we were able to view the weather maps from the Ocean Prediction Center (http://www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov/Pac_tab.shtml ) for the Eastern Pacific, in color, on the excellent National Weather Service website. We can all remember the long process of waiting for a weather map to print out from some screeching weatherfax while sailing to Hawaii, and of course we were able to get the charts because we were within cellular coverage, but it’s so much nicer to simply go to a web page and select from the dozen or so surface analysis and forecasts that are shown there.

An iPad may not replace all of the electronics on a coastal cruising boat, but it certainly augments and enhances those that you have. You’ll still need a VHF and a depthsounder and an EPIRB, along with paper charts, a compass, and plotting tools, but for virtually no money other than the cost of the tablet, you can have a world of navigational tools at your disposal.