• Sailing is all about the Weather.

    Big into the exploration of Atlantic Hurricanes since Katrina came uninvited into his world, James (Jim) Gurley (JamesG161) has followed every Tropical Storm birthed in Atlantic, Gulf and Caribbean waters since. Being a boater, he knows that we often need more time to prepare than we get from the TV weather folk. Jim relies on the science of storm development to share early warning info with friends and fellow boaters.

    Early in 2018, Jim and John Shepard, (JSSailem) started to chat about the weather data available. John asked Jim to help forecast Pacific NW storms, and this morphed into discussions on weather forecasting.

    For John, sailing in the PNW is sometimes hit and miss. One day is ugly, then a string of beautiful days but no wind, followed by a series of blue-sky days and 12 knot breezes. Being ready for those great sailing days means you need to look to the Pacific Ocean and what is brewing. John has been into Pacific NW Weather since the 1970’s when his first PNW November storm hit bringing more than 40 days and 40 nights of continual rain.

    Together we want to share information, new APPs, safety, and thoughts about letting the weather help you. Identify some of the resources for sailors and help prepare you for your next sailboat outing.

    It is far better to go out on the water knowing what to expect in weather terms, than to be out on the water and see dark ominous clouds suddenly appear, unprepared.

Dial-a-buoy about to be killed off.

captain69

captain69

.
Feb 12, 2024
21
grampian 34 santa xruz
Effective Sunday, March 17, 2024, the National Weather Service National Data Buoy Center will discontinue its Dial-A-Buoy Interactive Voice Response system. For more information, see Service Change Notice 24-06 (PDF).

I guess this is what the kids call “progress“.

In case you want to hear what an amazing resource we are losing, just to save a few hundred dollars a year out of the USA’s multi trillion dollar budge

(888) 701-8992

Choose 1, and

enter station id: 44034 for
Eastern Maine Shelf buoy: 44°06’22" N 68°06’34" W

Another interesting one:

enter station id: 42001 for
Mid-Gulf buoy, 180 NM South of Southwest Pass, LA, 25°53’48" N 89°40’06" W

Not everyone has a st(l)ink. Sometimes a telephone call is all you have.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Likes: jssailem and JamesG161
P

Project_Mayhem

.
Sep 24, 2018
2,635
O'Day 25 Chicago
You can also text a bouy by sending the ID to 866-218-9973. I do understand what you're saying regarding this progression
 
BarryL

BarryL

.
May 21, 2004
1,013
Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 409 Mt. Sinai, NY
Hey,

Here is what is on the NDBC Site:
This service is being discontinued due to the low volume of users and the cost to retain the service. NDBC encourages any user of this service to use the redesigned NDBC website with mobile compatibility at National Data Buoy Center

IMHO it's time to discontinue this service.

Years ago we went through the same thing with LORAN. Everyone had GPS so the decision was made to turn off the LORAN radios. Doom and gloom was predicted but once LORAN was turned off no one actually cared.

You will still be able to access the buoy data, just via text or internet instead.

Barry
 
  • Like
Likes: Davidasailor26
JamesG161

JamesG161

.
Feb 14, 2014
7,456
Hunter 430 Waveland, MS
BarryL said:
You will still be able to access the buoy data, just via text or internet instead.
Click to expand
Even SeaTow has a Cell Phone APP that locates you and allows you to pay them too.

Hope fully everyone has Wifi or Starlink to do it !

As we approach Hurricane Season 2024 we will keep informing the Group on new Info.

Jim...

PS: @jssailem and I are working on the Summary of Hurricane Season 2023 now. :cool:
 
  • Helpful
  • Like
Likes: ggrizzard and jssailem
Davidasailor26

Davidasailor26

.
May 17, 2004
5,095
Beneteau Oceanis 37 Havre de Grace
The cost to retain the service is probably more than you’d expect. I'll speculate that there's probably some manageable cost for the phone service integration, but it's probably all running on some old hardware and software approaching or past end of life. NOAA probably needs to decide whether to replace and update it all, possibly including rewriting software and going through whatever security testing and approvals they need to follow as a government agency. Costs of all these things add up, and when they have a finite budget it might be a decision between maintaining a system with very infrequent use versus maintaining one or more buoy platforms themselves.

It's not like the service would work without cell reception in the first place. The number of places where a phone call is possible but cell data is completely unavailable is less than it used to be I'm sure. And if the text message based service continues to work that's even better - SMS text often works even where voice doesn't.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Top Bottom