“Weather Windows” and Coastal Cruising

Jul 27, 2011
4,989
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
A quote from James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Pilot. An old salt coxswain is talking to a new, but competent, captain about leaving an unsafe anchorage before pending bad weather arrives. Referring first to basic seaman’s skills, the coxswain says:
“These be things that a man is soon expart in, but it takes the time of his nat’ral life to larn to know the weather. There be streaked wind-galls in the offing that speak as plainly, to all that see them, and know God’s language in the clouds, as ever you spoke through a trumpet, to shorten sail....”

So now, we can “larn” a bit faster. It’s fun.
 
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Jun 21, 2004
2,532
Beneteau 343 Slidell, LA
Jim,
Just curious why you choose to go outside instead of sailing the inside route in the sound all the way to Dauphin Island.
Seems that the Gulf would still be a bit sloppy after TS Barry.
 
Feb 14, 2014
7,399
Hunter 430 Waveland, MS
Feb 14, 2014
7,399
Hunter 430 Waveland, MS
Just curious why you choose to go outside instead of sailing the inside route in the sound all the way to Dauphin Island.
Here is @BigEasy suggested route which would have less wave action.
BERoute 2.jpeg

But we can always dash back into the inside route.:pimp:
Jim...
 
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Jun 21, 2004
2,532
Beneteau 343 Slidell, LA
Enjoy the ride.
Clouds & light rain here today; wind has substantially decreased. Going to check on boat now; water level was up about 3 ft yesterday. All is well here.
 
Mar 20, 2011
623
Hunter 31_83-87 New Orleans
Enjoy the trip. Mississippi sound or outside the barrier islands are both some of the best sailing areas around.
 
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Jan 19, 2010
12,362
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
Your best forecast is only about 5 days. Long term stretching it, 10 days.

You can do it all using Windy.com
Real time Example....
The Admiral and I just got tired of waiting on Slow moving Hurricane Barry and decided to head out Sunday Morning to Day Cruise to Panama City, FL. After I saw a break in the weather.
Sunday 14th showing route and distances.
View attachment 167167
We have a good 14 knot steady winds from the South, no tacking, we will average 6 knts/hr.
Anchor off the Island at Point 5.

Monday 15th...
View attachment 167168
Up at dawn , still steady 14 knots, we make it to Pensacola #7 or beyond a bit . Clear weather.

Tuesday 16th...
View attachment 167169
Winds are falling off, but steady from South, a bit slower but we make it to Destin early, transient berth and go shopping. Have a great seafood meal. Back to AC'd boat, top of diesel for generator.:snooze::snooze:

Wednesday 17th.
View attachment 167170
Arrive at Panama City and enjoy a few days there.
____
Now the return trip, will be planned last the Forecasts are updated...
___
I changed Windy's ECMWF and added Rain and Thunder Storms as the display.
The Wind speed were the Forecast on those pin/flags in this real example

Tahhh Dahhhh...;)
Jim...
I also like windy.... another site I enjoy is Passageweather.com

I mostly coastal cruise and plan to be on the hook each night so KG's query does not apply much to my type of cruising.
 
Dec 26, 2019
21
Oyster 62 & Oyster 53 Caribbean, Greece
We look three days in advance and trust only two days, but re-check twice daily. Having tried all the weather apps including PredictWind, Pocketgribs, Windfinder, Windy, etc, we've found Weather4D using the European model to be the most accurate and reliable. Offshore we use an IridiumGo! to download Weather4D grib files daily via satellite.
 
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