A quick note about great cruising and weather sites chocked full of great information…and they feature stories by real cruisers who are out there doing exactly what they write about. More than just the stories, this means there’s real experiences getting documented in real-time that you can go read about. With both the HelmsMistress and I steeped in tenants like risk management, lessons learned, chock talks, check lists and after-action…many existing websites preserve these lessons so you don’t have to make the same mistakes and you can learn lessons ahead of time…reefing early and often!
Often, weather dominates a cruisers sleeping and waking thoughts (hopefully not nightmares). That’s why there’s so many sites represented below that allow me different views on existing and future weather. I’m able to hit Predict Wind by satellite from my Iridium Go, but for the rest of the sites on here I have to use cell or internet to access.
Check these sites out, they’re resources I use on a regular basis:
PredictWind: As I said above, I can hit this site from my Iridium Go, my phone or my computer. Before we get underway and while we’re underway, this is where the majority of our weather and routing comes from…making it one of our most important resources.
Windy: I get Windy from my phone or computer and use it all the time just for a quick look at weather or to see what’s forming around us. I’ve also used Windy as an easy platform to teach myself more about weather when I compare what I’m reading in my books about weather and what’s actually out there on Windy.
NHC/NOAA: National Hurricane Center/NOAA is one of sources for eebmike, PredictWind and Windy. I use it to look at all sorts of weather before we take off on passages or to look over big picture weather. Now that we’re on the Caribbean side, I’m using it more and more.
eebmike: From the west coast of Mexico to Panama, I LOVE eebmike. This website takes the info from NOAA and other sites and gives you all the important stuff in a couple of easy to find screen shots as well as regular updates.
noonsite: I love noonsite for their country updates and cruiser profiles. When they did our cruiser profile, we had the single best day this website has ever had…..with over 500 views. Noonsite is also where we go for a concise view of check-in procedures and most current vaccination and paperwork requirements.
Panama Posse 22-23: If you are a Cruiser from Mexico to Panama then back up to Florida and the East Coast, this easy rally will make up for it’s sign up costs easily with all the marina and partner discounts….but they have so much more than that. The weekly calls and email has good info and weather is discussed, as well as lots of country and cultural information.
Sailing Totem: Sailing Totem has a website packed with real factual information about the long distance cruising we all dreamed about before we started and the lessons learned from actually getting out there and doing it. It’s much different than in the magazines and most romantic notions fall away rather quickly.
These are sites we use on a regular basis and I hope they will add value to whatever cruising or traveling you do.
LF2SF is a website run by active cruisers to inspire future cruisers and become a resource for current cruisers. We live on our cruising sailboat (currently) in Panama, actively working on updating our exhaust system.
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*Tulum-5 is currently for sale and you can check her out on YachtWorld at this link: Aleutian-51 Ketch For Sale.
