Chesapeake to Bahamas

[Tin Kicker]

Thought of this thread when this video came out. He paired a Garmin Inreach Mini with his phone for $16/month. He can leave bird crumbs for his family to follow, do short messages, and get extremely basic offshore weather. This part starts at 2:55.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpY4yJIq7u0

Kevin Boothby was some type of trader in energy before he quit and has been around the world in that engine-less boat. There's discussion of his current pre-trip planning in this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUv2xEO9R3k

 

[Christian Williams]

It would be a shame not to have Grib files available. They depict wind strength and direction, and other data such as wave height and cloud cover, for the current location and the region ahead and behind. They're are quite accurate up to 48 hours, and can extend 10 days into the future (less accurate). A laptop is required for useful display.

Easy to get used to on a home computer. There are half a dozen free apps available to download. I use the PredictWind app at the moment. https://www.predictwind.com/apps/

Useful to daydream (sorry, let's call it diligent preparation) the route, observing wind patterns and entering the psychological endurance zone.

Sometimes when the wind and sea out there goes wet I get up and close the window in my home office.

 

[Tin Kicker]

Understand and appreciate your thoughts. As a life time pilot, we couldn't have dreamt in the 1960/70s about the weather resources we now take for granted.

Boothby has lived on that boat for something like 17 years and has posted a number of videos that go into some depth with online weather sources, both official and commercial. Some of that is in the second video I posted. He knows his stuff. I just thought it interesting how his most recent video answers the very questions we just discussed regarding the Inreach Mini.