Mike: What you say is factual but I was talking about the mid eighties. We relied on the SSB weather and on the Ham news. Today there are special weather services which are expensive and from my view a bit more reliable and used by sailors who have not taken the time to learn weather by themselves. I believe this is dangerous as the info coming from the "expert" is taken as gospel and the sailor has not got the intelligence to digest the detail and make his own decisions. The pilot charts are history but "history repeats itself" and knowledge of them is invaluable in making weather decisions along with other given info. In our case most of our entries in the logs were departure and arrivals with fixes and observations in between. In fact our close friends on shore who followed us through were astounded that we had no horror stories to tell. Regards. Leonard Stern, Indifference.

At 09:13 PM 12/15/04 -0500, you wrote: >Mike: What you say is factual but I was talking about the mid eighties. We >relied on the SSB weather and on the Ham news. Today there are special >weather services which are expensive and from my view a bit more reliable >and used by sailors who have not taken the time to learn weather by >themselves. I believe this is dangerous as I agree with you about the danger of not understanding the underlying issues. I don't think anyone needs to know a lot about the mechanics of GPS, but weather is another issue altogether. I have some people trained to look over weather charts using high speed access and give me an analysis of what they see. But, I don't expect to use their interpretation. Only their ability to describe the charts based upon my specific questions. I have never used the paid commercial weather routers. For coastal work, I can do better. Partly because I am on scene and have my own instincts about things, but also because I have my own system of what is important for a particular leg, generally the next one. Unless I am prepared to teach some commercial forecaster about my specific requirements, which just costs money and adds to the cost of a trip, it is just simpler for me to control all the aspects of the wx forecast that I can. In the open, in the recent past I have relied upon the WX Fax transmitted charts from the USCG. Today, I would use an Iridium Sat phone for getting short messages and for conversation. I have the Sat phone set up to download text versions of any wx forecasts or observations. The fallback would be to SSB and the fallback to that is my on board barometer... you get the idea. The other unspoken issue has to do with divining the implications of weather close by, as to what is happening and what will happen within say 20 miles. You know the saying that what you see is what you get! Well, what you get, is what you see. That's not a conundrum. In the sense that if you are alert enough there is very little that can come your way without your getting some inkling. I frequently make it up the US West Coast pushing my way through short patches of rough water, simply based on a reading of the wave conditions observed nearby. There are frequently patches of 10-30 miles of moderately rough water that can be worked through without real danger or discomfort to reach calm water on the other side. The wind conditions may argue for not making the attempt, but where the fetch is evidently short as demonstrated by the lack of significant wave action, it argues for continuing. I have myriad stories about encountering folks who turned back, even as they passed me, while I continued on. It is one thing to turn back because conditions are deteriorating and the distance to calmer conditions is lengthy. It is another to turn back, where conditions are improving, even where it is not obvious and the distance to be negotiated is relatively short. I have often gotten around some small nasty spots by tacking off at an angle, zigzagging over the crests, moving towards the beach where there is often(not always) some buffering effect from being near the land. Such tactics are proven to work, but are really only practical where the patch of rough water is limited and you have some serious notion about that size. I get some information about the size, from an examination of the nearby land, the nearest headland to hide behind and from listening to the buoy and land observation reports. I have completed the testing of a cell phone system for getting those reports while close to the coast and do so even if out of range of cell phone service, using the Sat phone. In effect I have about as much chance of taking advantage of the topography and the existing wind patterns as I could ever hope to. I have had SSB sets on many boats for many years but I never really got the hang of using one until I bought a unit and set it up by the bed at night and listened to the broadcasts with headphones. This process took an entire winter to achieve some level of competence. I only mention this to point out that all of these tricks/tips take time to learn. You can't run until you learn to walk. Having the equipment does not make you proficient with that equipment. This is a process that takes time. You want to set aside time, uninterrupted, to study every piece of equipment that you intend to use. Set it up where you can see it operate. Take out the manual and read every feature and try every one of them, until you know that equipment inside and out. Every time we plan to use some new "trick" I try to test it out before we use it. Clients are amazed to see how fast I can solve a problem that looks intractable simply because I know all the equipment. Your equipment is just inventory, unless you are proficient with it's use. There is little that any of you can not learn if you set your mind to it. Scott Bulger talks about how he is formulating the GRAND plan for the plan. In other words how to design the process to become proficient at all the tasks that long range passage making requires. I can only tell you that my progress has been in tiny steps taken over many years and they are coming faster and faster as I get the hang of "making something happen". I have made a point of testing each new technique and making sure that I knew how to make the parts of the process work to my satisfaction before "I began to rely on that technique". That in a nutshell is my secret tactic. In some ways it is as simple as can be and amazingly obvious. You just have to stick to the prrrooooogram! So what does a short list of things to learn look like. All the electronics, radar, gps, SSB, vhf, making the engine run, bleeding fuel lines, tracing down electrical problems. learning to get weather info and how to interpret it, knowing your fuel system from tank(s) to engine(s), how to syphon fuel. This should keep anybody busy. I'm still learning. Regards, Mike Capt. Mike Maurice Tualatin(Portland), Oregon