Keeping a Weather Eye

Knowing how to receive good weather forecasts and weather data while on passage and then meld those forecasts with your own onboard observations of local conditions is a key element of making safe and successful passages. Rallies, like the Salty Dawg Fall Rally to the Caribbean and The Bahamas, provide daily weather forecasts and routing suggestions for their fleets. But even with a professional forecast, it is vital that each skipper and crew understand weather systems and how to read weather maps and interpret weather data. With the Covid pandemic, in-person weather seminars have been put on hold. But, there are good online weather courses for sailors and passagemakers that can give you a solid grounding in all aspects of weather forecasting for sailors. The two that I like are from NauticEd and Starpath Navigation. The NauticEd course is given by Jay Brosius at Clearpoint Weather and provides an overview of what you need to know and is tailored specifically for cruisers. It takes about seven hours to complete and costs $39. You can find the course here.
The Starpath course is a much more in-depth program that will transform you into a meteorologist with a sub-specialty in weather for coastal and offshore passagemaking. It covers everything you need to know about weather, oceanic systems, coastal systems and how to use all of the tools of the trade and all the available data to formulate accurate forecasts. It is run by David Burch at Starpath with three professional instructors. The course takes between 40 and 60 hours to complete so you are making a serious time commitment. It costs $319. You can find the Starpath course here.
If you are not already an expert weather forecaster and you are planning to make offshore passages, I highly recommend these two courses.