Weather and
where to get it;
Many yachts with HF radio have a modem attached so that they can receive
short emails and weather at sea. Unfortunately we could not purchase a modem
anywhere without weeks of waiting so we relied on weather info gathered whilst
in port or in few cases relied on our mate Rick in Oz who we contacted via
satellite phone to give us a weather report.
Naturally the best is to have the modem pack with the HF radio and order
your weather through Sailmail. However, many yachties know that even if you
have the information at hand when you are out there, there is not much you can
do about the weather if it turns bad. I know that when we were crossing the
Columbian Basin and needed weather information to make a quick decision on a
change of course I would not have been able to get that through the HF radio
system as you have to order your weather report and that would not arrive until
the next morning. I phoned Rick and got it within the hour and we were able to
cut 50 nms off the passage.
One of the better ways is to get the weather that is broadcasted on the
HF radio by a regular network or by another yacht that is remaining in a port
whilst you are on passage and they keep a radio sched with you and give you the
weather.
The other way is go outside and look at the sky regularly, learn the
signs.
There are some good long forecasting sites on the internet for the
Pacific one of the best is Metvuw from NZ. They have a good website and have 3
and 7 day surface charts.
Another good website if you have someone in a port that can obtain the
information for you is buoyweather, this site one can select the customize
button find the Lat/Long of the yacht and it will give the weather at that
position for the next 24 hours, it gives wind speed and direction, wave height
and direction and time intervals of the waves.
If you are waiting somewhere for the cyclone season to finish and you
are trying to work out if there is anything happening there are two good sites.
One is the Cyclone and Storm tracking and the other is the Madden Julian
Oscillation Index.
I learnt more about the MJO waiting for this cyclone season to finish
and the mongrel caught me out, we thought it was over it reached its eighth
phase and was not measurable. We thought that’s it, but the mongrel got going
again after we set sail and that is part of what we copped between Tonga Fiji Vanuatu Fiji Tonga
What is the MJO you may ask, the Madden Julian Oscillation is the low
pressure systems that start off of South Africa and move eastwards across the
top of Australia and through the Pacific to Southern America. It has eight
phases. Phase 3 is just NW of Western Australia, Phase 6 is NE of Australia
near New Caledonia these low pressure systems create the rain and cyclones in
that part of the world.
There are many helpful websites and probably a lot more than I have
found, the following is a list of what I have found or been given, they will
help you plan you passages. Wait for the best weather window before setting off
with careful planning the passage can be pleasant. But unfortunately sometimes
the planning falls down because Mother Nature gets a little smarter than the
weather forecasters and we get squalls and storms develop after leaving, but
that does not happen all the time.
The list of websites for weather information;
Other weather information can
be received on HF Radio on the following frequencies:
Frequencies: 13550.5 Weather Pacific
Wellington
16340 Weather Pacific (Analysis 1000 & 2200 UTC)
5100 Weather Pacific/QLD Charliville (0015, 1215 UTC 2 parts)
11030 Weather Pacific/QLD Charliville (0015,
1215 UTC 2 parts)
13920 Weather Pacific/QLD Charliville (0015, 1215 UTC 2
parts)
20469 Weather Pacific/QLD Charliville (0015,
1215 UTC 2 parts)
14315 Weather Pacific Tony’s Net 2100 UTC (Change to
14302.5)
14302.5 Weather Pacific at 2130 UTC John
VK9JA Norfolk
8107 Pacific weather Panama
12365 Pacific Weather Marquesas- Coconut Breakfast
Cruiser Net
6115 Weather Russell Radio 1900
UTC
13137 Weather Ritchie 2000-2100,
0400-0445 UTC
4445 Weather Des 1930-2000,
0700-0800 NZ Time
14313 Weather Fred KH6UY 0400 UTC
2201 Weather Townsville 0003,
1203 UTC Qld waters
0603,2003
UTC
4426 Weather As
above Townsville
6507 Weather As
above Townsville
8176 Weather As
above Townsville
12365 Weather As
above Townsville
8173 Weather Jim, Rag of the
air Fiji
4030 Weather Curly, Fiji
When in any port there is
often a local cruisers network on VHF radio, this can be on any channel so ask
around when you arrive. They are usually run around 0800 to 0830 hours local
time and they usually have a weather section along with other information. Many
places will give you some warning that the net is about to start on CH16 and
allocate the frequency that it will be held. The only port we have not heard a
net was Rarotonga and I think that is because
we were the only yacht in the harbour. We were the second yacht to visit for
the season.
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