WEATHER WITH YOU

GRIB files and enhanced communications have changed the way that we use weather forecasts to plan and shape a course on a long ocean passage. Yet there are also pitfalls to avoid, as Dick explains

PART ONE A new age

Offshore satellite communications have improved beyond recognition over recent years. Time was when skippers had to rely on HF radio transmissions or weather fax, which were based on the same communication system, to access weather. Most radio operators, for that’s what you needed to be, would agree that the vagaries and complications of managing the equipment and the airwaves was a dark art that only dedicated radio enthusiasts could master. What’s more, most skippers accepted that once they were over three or four days out, they had to rely on their own short term weather forecasting from barometer and hydrometer measurements, combined with an assessment of cloud formation.

While this provided skippers with a heightened sense of awareness,